Make a note that Firebird pickups are slightly wider than Gibson mini-Humbucker pickups. This is quite important to understand as the bridge was initially purchased for a mini humbucker but fortunately the builder informed me that this issue had happened previously and that builders had had to file up the bridge to accept a Firebird pup.
These Mountain Queens pickups are sold as mini humbuckers.
As the body had been chewed up over the years I had no qualms at opening up the neck route slightly wider. It was either gonna be a neck pup or I was gonna fit an Esquire guard.
Right then, guard fitted and both pups in place. next on the agenda is to wire up the pups to a three way and stick in some 500 pots. It's old school shielding wiring on these pups so slightly more of a pain when wiring them up as the earthing is part of the initial single wire.
The correct ferrules arrived yesterday and were fitted in the rear as the originals were fitted to another project. If you look closely at the photograph you may notice that where the neck is fitted the wood is also slightly wasted... This body has really gone through hell previously...
So, a few more details that are important to keep in mind as I wait for the neck to arrive. As the body has been thinned/shaved at some point, I'll have to source some slightly shorter neck screws.
Something else I noticed last night whilst shaving the neck route to make way. This body is by all accounts is a very dark wood...I would say mahogany. I'll have to do more research on this.... Like I have written previously, the history on this body goes back apparently to the early 70s... As I've written previously, I'm not convinced, but regardless, it's a dark old wood that sounds really great.
The guard was purchased as being slightly mint green. Doesn't look bad at all. I've still to work on some of the finer details on the fit as you can see a lot had to be modified at the base.
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