Thunderbird Club

[PillO]

My Dad had a receding hair line in his 20s. I had my mother's hairline. Operative word, had.

From memory along time ago:
Baldness travels on the X chromosome. As men always get the Y chromosome from the father, baldness passes along the maternal line.

 

[Count Bassie]

screen grab from this video:



check out the killer tone, chops and vocals. Crazy about this band!

Yeah that was pretty good!

 

[JJR58]

Was wondering the same thing. Can’t say I’ve ever seen that type of bridge before, has some interesting design features, would like to hear more about it from @PhR75

Same here!
That bridge has got my interest.

 

[69'Vette]

What is the bridge on the NR Thunderbird?

Looks like a Schaller 460. I sold one a while back (460C). Had it for 15 years and never had a project that needed it so I figured I should pass it along. I'm pretty sure they stopped making them.

 

[dagrev]

Geddy doesn't buy himself else he would be charged the "rock star" premium. He uses an agent.

In this situation I believe he visited Craig's shop. I get regular email's from Craig and they often show off who was there and what they bought. It's been a few years, but I'm pretty sure there was a few pics of Geddy with Craig and a few basses, one being that blue Thunderbird.

 

[dagrev]

So is there any benefit in loosening strings on a bass that may it be played for a while? Or best to leave it in proper tune tension?

IMO, leave it tuned. Instruments are made to have that tension. I can't help but wonder if some damage to the neck could happen by not having that load on it as intended. No way to prove it, or disprove it. All I know is manufactures don't recommend it. At least none I've ever run across.

 

[dagrev]

From memory along time ago:
Baldness travels on the X chromosome. As men always get the Y chromosome from the father, baldness passes along the maternal line.

Your memory is correct.

 

[dagrev]

Clearly not mine. Same guy that Geddy got a few basses and at least one Thunderbird from.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

With all that neon, it had to be the 80's and those getups are so bad it looks like parody or at least I hope it is.

Most of the 80s was unintentional parody, often of itself.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

From that clip I'm not sure. She still has the neck kind of angled away from her instead of being more close for ease of playing. The way she's playing "seems" like it could be easily achieved by just shortening the strap, so I'm not sure what's going on or way. I would ignore it. Unless you have some oddity in mobility, it would seem what she did will cause more problems than it solves. If she likes it, that's all that matters, but I see no reason to try to emulate it.

It does let her pull the bass in a bit to reach the lowest frets more easily.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I think it's pretty safe to assume that this group knows all the well known bass players who have played Thunderbirds.

And quite a few of the sorta knowns.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

That guy sucks!

Hey, buddy. Don't be dissin' Ken.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Playing it live here........

Becker looks like he grew up studying Jefferson Airplane videos. Cool version of this song!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

No way I'm believing that. I promise you I suck worse. But I sound great doing it!

And you watch it too, bud.

 

[PhR75]

What is the bridge on the NR Thunderbird?

Schaller 460. The back plate is bolted to the body.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

...
George did a little math:
Measurement from 12th fret to the Centerline of each pickup
1990 Greco IV 10-7/8” and 14-1/8” (note 33.5” scale)
Gibson 2013 Tbird 10-1/4” and 14-5/8”
BaCH II 10-5/8”
1977 Greco II 11” (note 33.5” scale)
Epiphone VP 11” and 14-7/8”
Epiphone Goth 10-3/4” and 14-5/8”
Gibson 1964 Tbird 10-7/8” and 14-3/8”
Gibson 2015 Tbird 10-1/4” and 14-1/2”
Spector Rex5 Pro 12-3/8” and 15-3/8” (note 35” scale)
2019 Epiphone CP 10-1/4” and 14-1/2"
1988 Greco TB-70 10-7/8” and 14-3/8”
1960’s Gibson NR 10-11/16" and 14-3/16"

I measured mine several times to be certain, using a soft tape measure so I could get the zero line at exactly the center of the 12th fret. Here are mine to the closest 16ths:

• 2012 Epi IV: 10 11/16, 14 1/2
• 2019 Epi CP: 10 3/16, 14 7/16
• 2019 Epi VP: 10 15/16, 14 13/16

The VP and CP are essentially the same as those you listed.

 

[KaraQ]

A Thunderbird, for a Thunderbird Thursday......

.....yes, it's early. It's already Thursday on the other coast!

 

[PhR75]

Been a Thursday here for almost nine hours.
Too early to show her the T-bird (because of her age and teeth...) but instead I decided to amuse her with my Grace Slick impressions. The dog is clearly impressed.

"One more of that kind and the T-Bird gets it!"

 

[PhR75]

Took a break from trying to make the dog laugh (the rest of the family is already a lost game...) and played around with the custom-made NR with that Schaller bridge. I haven't used it that much for live work but it records very well. The pickups are custom made too in 2010ish. I had the NOS Bicentennial covers lying around and a friend built me the pickups with whatever information we could gather from any source (The Last Bass Outpost was a big help). The pickups are apparently a bit taller than the regular 60's T-Bird pickups since the Bicentennial covers are taller too. There's also not a metal plate at the bottom (I've been thinking about adding those just to see if it makes any difference).
I recorded something with it with my home setup, first it's both pickups on w/fingers, then it cunningly crossfades into a picked 'n' overdriven (Bad Monkey) neck pickup dash around the neck.

 

[Bent77]

@GBassNorth has been peer pressuring me to post, even though they’re not Thunderbirds. I finished 2 basses for the winter build off in the luthiers corner


WBO 2022 ReReRebuilt little mule

Winter Build off 2022 - ThunderJag