Epiphone thunderbird 4 string mods question

[Thunderbird90DB]

Ive just got a few quesitons about the T'bird coz im planning to sort it out in the summer hols...

1. wheres the best place to install a new strap nut so i can counteract/stop completely that awful neck dive?

2. is medium gauge strings ok to use in order to tune down to BEAD? am i going to have to file the nut and if so how do i do that? (never done it before)

3. the truss rod is under that plate that has epiphone on it right? im going to have to unscrew that to get to it to set it up arent i?

4. do passive pickups or pickups in general "die" or dimish in power and tone and whatnot as they get older? i dont want my thunderbird to die lol!

and thats about it! thanks for the help, greatly appreciated

 

[portaflexer]

I'm assuming you found this thread, but I think I can answer these.

1. Everyone seems to relocate them to the front of the neck pocket (90 degrees from the neck plate)
2. I'd go heavier if you're gonna tune down and if you're not comfortable with filing the nut yourself, take it to a local luthier
3. Yes, you have to loosen all the strings and actually slide the E and G out of the nut to remove the TRC
4. Some do, but this is not a huge worry in general

 

[CharlyG]

Or get a strap that doesn't move.

 

[JIO]

I loop the lower section of my strap over the body - it holds the bass against your body and helps stabilize it from neck diving. Positioning the strap-peg at the neck plate also helps.