Thunderbird Club

[Chucky Stiletti]

Looks like I’ve missed a bit here.
But in L.A. now getting ready to drive up to Mariposa. I’ll try and catch up at some point.

nice! the Bootjack (town 3 or 4 miles away) market makes the best fried chicken….no joke..it’ll be nice and cold when you get here! lol ..

 

[WillyW]

Sometimes I feel I'm the only one here who uses the bridge pickup too. The neck pickup sounds great soloed but the both pickups on is one of the best dual pickup sounds of any basses in my opinion. Especially if the pickups are in the 60ish positions.

If I had a fretless T-Bird I'd probably use the bridge pickup soloed too.

I wish they sold them separately too. I have a Jazz body waiting for a fretless neck to float by and why not use T-bird pickups.

On the other hand the EY pickups chinabuckers haven't been bad even 'though the bridge pickup in my Telebird needs the wax.

I was a strictly neck pickup player.

until I got into Rickenbacker basses, and for the first time I found a useful blend and balance with those pickups, both the single coils and humbuckers.

that lead me to experiment more with the 7ender jazz pickups (which I disliked previously) and again I discovered they worked well if I didn’t focus on just the neck pickup.

still not convinced the bridge pickup is useful on a bird, and I don’t care enough about 60’s placement to fiddle with that on a single or dual pickup.

the bridge pickup on my burgundy NR went to a good home…

I may or may not remove any other bridge pickups…


Depends on if I want to build another 7ranken base.

NR bridge pickup


my favorite jazz, but not to fond of the EMG pickups


love the 70’s 7ender passives, not sure about the body shape..

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

If anything they tend to go higher end on the replacement preamps. Your pre could even be an EMG module of some type, but they tend to have identifying model info somewhere.

thx, I’ll post them on there and see what they say…wondering what the stock one (if this on isn’t) would have looked like…..little surprised with that group in that as fervent as i heard they are, there’s only two or three posts after mine while there are pages (literally) over here in the TBird club….

 

[Stealth57]

I was a strictly neck pickup player.

until I got into Rickenbacker basses, and for the first time I found a useful blend and balance with those pickups, both the single coils and humbuckers.

that lead me to experiment more with the 7ender jazz pickups (which I disliked previously) and again I discovered they worked well if I didn’t focus on just the neck pickup.

still not convinced the bridge pickup is useful on a bird, and I don’t care enough about 60’s placement to fiddle with that on a single or dual pickup.

the bridge pickup on my burgundy NR went to a good home…

I may or may not remove any other bridge pickups…


Depends on if I want to build another 7ranken base.

NR bridge pickup


my favorite jazz, but not to fond of the EMG pickups


love the 70’s 7ender passives, not sure about the body shape..

Wife take you off bunny slipper restrictions?

 

[Engle]

Here’s an old thread about them. As always, ask Chucky.
Eden 300T why so cheap used?

@Chucky Stiletti ever seen/heard one of these?

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

@Chucky Stiletti ever seen/heard one of these?

is that 550 Canadian? I would so snag that…. don’t have any experience with that particular model but really like Eden ss stuff. only thing i can think of is reliability issues but these days there are so many blogs that if you’re handy (as you are Irv) they can probably be addressed…..the other thing could be the lack of “vintage” status as found in SVTs, Sunns and others but if that’s the case, who cares at that price?…

 

[GonePlaid]

Back home from today's 9 AM to 12 outdoor[roofed]gig. Really too effing hot to be playing the TBird, but I did anyway. Don't really wanna do that gig any more. Way too much PITA. Oh, well. It's $96 I didn't have when I got up.

 

[BklynKen]

Sometimes I feel I'm the only one here who uses the bridge pickup too. The neck pickup sounds great soloed but the both pickups on is one of the best dual pickup sounds of any basses in my opinion. Especially if the pickups are in the 60ish positions.

If I had a fretless T-Bird I'd probably use the bridge pickup soloed too.

Definitely not. My set-it-and-forget-it setting is tone and neck volumes on full and bridge a little rolled off. That's a popular setup around here.

 

[Engle]

is that 550 Canadian? I would so snag that…. don’t have any experience with that particular model but really like Eden ss stuff. only thing i can think of is reliability issues but these days there are so many blogs that if you’re handy (as you are Irv) they can probably be addressed…..the other thing could be the lack of “vintage” status as found in SVTs, Sunns and others but if that’s the case, who cares at that price?…

I don’t like rat fur, but that could be fixed

 

[dagrev]

I'm with ya on that. I had this in natural ash. Liked the bass didn't like the finish too much.

View attachment 4731141

Now it is this. Much better to my eyes.

View attachment 4731147

I didn't paint the original body. Still have the original on a shelf. This is one I made so I could do binding and paint it how I wanted.

I had one in the brown tobacco burst. My first "real" bass. It was beautiful, very versatile and weighted 26lbs (maybe some exaggeration). Had things that were actually ahead of it's time.

 

[dagrev]

A few more pictures. I got the controls sorted and removed the bridge pickup spacer. A quick set up. quarter turn on the truss rod, lower the bridge, little filling on the nut, check intonation View attachment 4731161 View attachment 4731162 View attachment 4731163 and it plays great!

Going to move the neck pickup like you did on the first one? Thinking of doing that myself at some point.

 

[dagrev]

Next best option other than stripping is using an abrasive fiber pad to dull the gloss and/or neutralize stickiness. You can find them at hardware and paint stores. I use it on all my gloss bass necks. Once it gets buffed back to a gloss from playing, just dull it again. It doesn't remove material - more that it dulls gloss and give a very nice feeling satin/matte finish. I even did it on my '64 T-bird. Feels great!

View attachment 4731172

Thanks JIO, I was hoping you might have some thoughts on it. The rest of my necks are just fine, but this one seems to attract a little grime and stickiness.

 

[dagrev]

Somehow I have acquired three or four 760s awaiting suitable projects!

Interested in that "somehow" since they seem unobtainable for us common folk!

 

[dagrev]

Anybody know about these? Interesting that they made it so easy to bias:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

I don't think I ever saw one before, but love how it looks. Seems a great buy at that price. Can't imagine it sounding bad.

 

[godofthunder59]

Interested in that "somehow" since they seem unobtainable for us common folk!

Two from our Queen and two from ebay

 

[godofthunder59]

Going to move the neck pickup like you did on the first one? Thinking of doing that myself at some point.

I'll probably leave this one alone, but ya never know

 

[Nocturnal]

thx, I’ll post them on there and see what they say…wondering what the stock one (if this on isn’t) would have looked like…..little surprised with that group in that as fervent as i heard they are, there’s only two or three posts after mine while there are pages (literally) over here in the TBird club….

I had to quit following their thread because it moved as fast a this one and I could only keep up with one. Maybe its just a slow weekend over there. They always seemed responsive to questions.

 

[bobyoung53]

Sometimes I feel I'm the only one here who uses the bridge pickup too. The neck pickup sounds great soloed but the both pickups on is one of the best dual pickup sounds of any basses in my opinion. Especially if the pickups are in the 60ish positions.

If I had a fretless T-Bird I'd probably use the bridge pickup soloed too.

I almost always use a blend of both with any double pickup bass, will usually favor the neck pickup though but not always, depends on the room.

 

[GonePlaid]

I almost always use a blend of both with any double pickup bass, will usually favor the neck pickup though but not always, depends on the room.

Mentioned b4, but for as long as I can recall, the bridge pup is much weaker than the neck. Turning it on with the neck pup, lowers the volume, doesn't improve the tone. Both pots are original IIRC, it's possible the bridge pot is shot. Since I'm perfectly happy with the neck pup's sound, IDGAS. Someday, maybe*, I'll have it looked at.

* prolly not
Late Edit: Since I don't use it, I've lowered it outta the way.

 

[Gaolee]

A few months ago I got an Epiphone Thunderbird from @Gaolee for a song. Today, I took it to the studio for the first time!

I dipped my toes in the TC here and got some great tips and pointers, and then headed back to my lurking mode. But, since then, I've been playing the T-bird in a new project I'm in. I'm also exclusively using a pick, for the first time in my playing. It's all coming together and it's been a great deal of fun.

I am loving how clear the T-bird sounds. It really sings with a pick and a touch of overdrive from a pedal. This is pretty much how I had it setup today at Robert Lang Studios in Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle).

We got a free day in the studio as RLS does teaching as well. Today's session was a student-led recording, with a teaching engineer on hand for support. We "paid" them by playing a couple songs, which we would do anyway. Why not, right?

Anyway, long story short, the T-Bird performed wonderfully. We did 2 songs, which I planned on playing the T-bird on both, but ended up switching one to my G&L L-1000 as I wanted to hit a low D at the end of the tune. No detuner on the T-bird meant it had to sit that song out.
View attachment 4731450 View attachment 4731451

Good to hear from you and I am glad it works for you. I was wondering how you were liking it as time went on.