a pic of my soon to be done thunderbird

[Mon Rominee]

Yup. this one, BEAD.

Mahogany body
Wenge Neck / ebony fretboard
Hipshot Bridge
Bart Passive Thunderbird pup

[spudmaster34]

nice

[Scott French]

Looks dope. What are we seeing between the bridge and pickguard?

[James Hart]

Originally Posted by Scott French

Looks dope. What are we seeing between the bridge and pickguard?

looks like an old Jazz ground.

[Mon Rominee]

Yup, it's an old jazz style ground, I always kinda liked that...so I did it on this one. I took some silver pinstripe to the edges to "schnazz" it up a tad. The color is 78 Oldsmobile silver-green...my buddy Dan (who restores classic cars) shot the finish...nice and thin. I want it to get ratty on the quick... my inspiration for this one was Mike Watt's old main bass, bluey.

This body was the last thing I did before I left EAW...a nice parting gift, eh? v:O)

I have a MaserCam .mill file of it, if anyone is interested, I just gotta find it.

I shifted the neck pocket forward (towards bridge position) about one and a half inches, so 1st position would feel a tad more "natural" (read P-like) when strapped. To be honest, first time I strapped it, it still hung a bit forward, I figured it would, but not half as bad as my first tbird. Warmoth made the neck...real nice one, abalone dots...medium tall frets.

I was going for a pronounced low-mids, grindy tone with this one, I may put a brass nut on it. thoughts?

[Greenman]

Nice, clean and neat. Like the ground thing happening.

[The Golden Boy]

Where'd you get the measurements for the pickup placement?

[James Hart]

Originally Posted by Mon Rominee

I may put a brass nut on it. thoughts?

I have them put in all my basses since the 80s, both my 51s have one.

When I saw the pict, Watt came to mind... it's looking killer

[Mon Rominee]

Thnx a ton guys! It's settled. Brass nut it is. I was thinking, does anyone still sell the Warwick just-a-nut? That may be a neat thing, but I'd have to mod the nut slot....

And Goldenboy, to be honest, I had the pup shift from original placement towards the bridge, in a more p-like positioon. Why?

I miss my original G&L 1000 with that fat, humbucker tone in that same spot.

The "design" on this bass was easy. I researched online for good res pics of this classic bass (watt's pic on his page was a template too) and then I imported them into a drafting program as a bitmap, and simply splined the outline and pickguard, and basic positions of controls and such...then I pulled the pics away, smoothed out the geometry, and really got into accurate scaling and such.

Then I imported the splinework and stuff into MasterCam, toolpathed it up, and refined the program over a few dummy blanks made out of proto foamboard. Easy Cheesy...the way I like it.

I really like how the Neutrik input looks onnit too...I was skeptical at first.

Oh yeah: I bought the long-shaft pots from Stew Mac, and have Gibson Speedknobs also from Stew, and I was told they would fit on the shafts....as of now, they simply don't. Do I have to sorta bend the knurled portion on the pots in a bit to get the knobs to work, or should I slightly drill out the knobs leaving only a hint of knurl to grab? OR, should I just push like hell until the knobs popon? I really don't want the silver knobs on it...kinda drab.

Thanks again!
Mon