Neck-through headless Exploro-Bird

[Charles Faulstich]

Here is my latest, a neck-through, headless (sort of) cross between a Gibson Explorer and a Firebird. I call it an Exploro-Bird. Lots of different woods on this one, I used cut offs and recycled furniture woods – walnut, mahogany, curly maple, plain maple, zebra wood, ebony, Indian rosewood, bloodwood, and canarywood. The Mahogany came from a bed my neighbor was discarding, and some of the walnut came from some old family furniture piece I had been saving for years. Most of the ebony and all the ivory came from an old piano my great-grandfather helped make and was given in 1905 as a retirement gift from his employer, Vose Pianos. I know, you are not supposed to use ivory. But the elephant gave it up many years ago and I wanted a connection to my German immigrant-musician-woodworker ancestor. Here are the specs: 22 stainless steel frets, 7 piece maple and walnut neck, Steinberger gearless tuners, ebony/ivory nut, switch tip, string hold down and knobs, P90 and HB I wound using Stew Mac kits, three way switching with HB coil cut switch, color coded pickup covers, switch plate and V &T knobs, Golden Age roller bridge, Z-poxy grain filler, Target EM000 and EM6000 finish. Because the headstock is 1” thick, I cut a recess at the end of the body so I could mount a clip on tuner in a location close to the tuning knobs.

[Bob Francis]

Nice work!

[Matthew Lau]

Looks great!