Another F***ing Firefly.....

[Jack C]

I took the pickguard off my black one because I thought it looked better. Everything has been great with it until this week. The input Jack stripped during soundcheck Thursday night and we had to do emergency triage to get it running. After that, I took it to a tech to replace the switch and the jack to try to make it bulletproof. I love the guitar.

[hamerhead]

I'm really tempted to get another.....

They have a wood-grain one now.

[Jim85IROC]

So my newest firefly came yesterday too!

 

[velorush]

15 hours ago, Jim85IROC said:

So my newest firefly came yesterday too!

 

That's insane! Full report, please!

"Xanadu" is a must.

[Jim85IROC]

4 hours ago, velorush said:

That's insane! Full report, please!

"Xanadu" is a must.

I didn't go over the cosmetics with a fine tooth comb, but the only thing I noticed was a small bump on one neck which I assume was a drop of paint. Setup was pretty good. Low action out of the box on both necks, especially on the 12. Neck relief was good. Intonation seems good, but I didn't check it with a tuner yet. Tuners feel super smooth. Fret ends are the typical great feeling ball end variety. The guitar weighs just under 13lbs, which I think is pretty reasonable, all things considered.

As for negatives, the 12 string nut is poorly cut, especially the low D. It's almost impossible to tune it. It'll stall, then ping a mile sharp. I broke the high G tuning it. I don't like how the pickups sound. They're ceramic and ice-pickish. Frets are gritty. The fretboard is dry and kind of rough.

My plans are to give it a full setup, polish frets & fretboards, raise the action on the 12 a bit, either replace the pickup magnets with alnico or replace the pickups entirely, and rewire it to a stereo output jack so I can send the 2 necks through separate signal paths. I also want to make a new pickguard for the upper half that mimics the Gibson doubleneck pickguard.  I ordered some A5 magnets for the 12 string pickups and some A2s for the 6 string pickups.  I'll swap the covered to the 12 string side and uncovered to the 6 string side to match Felder's guitar.  I've got to see if I still have any black pickugard material, otherwise I'll order some to make the new middle pickguard.  I'll probably make a new 6 string pickguard too, since this one isn't the same shape as on the real one.

 

There will be no Xanadu, but there will be a lot of very poorly played Hotel California riffs.

Edited December 10, 2025 by Jim85IROC

[hamerhead]

2 hours ago, Jim85IROC said:

...The guitar weighs just under 13lbs,....

Just shy of a Norlin-era Les Paul Custom!

[geoff_hartwell]

That is a super cool project! Keep us updated!