196 – 051218 Z-Bird – Zachary Handcrafted Guitars | Bass| Pedals | Strings

Inspiration

I started with a heavy but thin piece of genuine Mahogany. It was thin but one piece. What do I make from it? So this piece of wood gave me the inspiration. It was perfect for a Firebird body. This is the Genuine Mahogany and not the African Sapele type of soft light variety (not actually Mahogany).

As you can see, I give my Z-birds a lot of contouring to make it much more ergonomic than the Gibson Firebird. Deep forearm and tummy cuts make it very comfortable to play. Additionally, I set the neck further into the body, eliminating that neck heavy characteristic of the Gibson Firebird.
I give all my Z-Birds 26 frets to increase the neck joint area. For aesthetic reasons I also contoured the lower horn on this Z-Bird to echo the forearm contour at the opposite end of the body. This results is a very comfortable guitar, despite its odd shape.

I also wanted to give the Z-Bird a superb tremolo, as I do on my Strat-style guitars. The hand-wound pickups, which I wind myself, have the capability of being switched to single coil mode. The two inside coils convincingly mimic that coveted Strat (quack) single coil tone. The tone pot also serves as a coil split push-pull switch.

The neck is solid one piece Rosewood and the fingerboard is Ebony wood, with 26 dual-size frets. This is one solid guitar and makes a serious impression on the player.

What you have here is a very versatile guitar, which can go from pristine clean (acoustic-like tones) to an all out shred machine.

Never any plastic paint, only a red cherry stain and an oil finish. Ergonomic and Organic.