Thunderbird Club

[JIO]

Would you all like to do the 12 days of Thunderbirds this year? Just post your shots and greetings, take some new ones, use your old ones, whatever works starting on December 14.

 

[ThaCoast]

Well i pulled out my tigerbird, got the heel shaped out & traced onto the body. While holding it as mock up i realized the neck was really far out & there was a lot of space behind the bridge. After looking at nikkis hamers & spectors i decided to move the bridge backwards reducing the overall length from 48" to around 46". & now itll fit in the coffin case & itll be much easier to space the pickups. This picture was taken before i cut the heel down some more (since i had intended to have 21 frets but i wont be using anything beyond 15 really). Itll be 20 frets with the heel angled towards the bass side like victory basses. Ièm pretty satisfied & it looks damn good! Dont mind the precision cavity fill, that was because the pickup was badly spaced so the e string wouldve been off.

 

[Stevis]

Got Seymour Duncan quarter pounders in mine, along with the Hipshot bridge it sounds huge, way better than the complete poo fender send them out with

I do fancy making a through neck jazz with humbuckers in, that would sound good

That is a handsome J-bass, @ColinLP. Is that MIM or MIA? I put a hipshot brass bridge on an MIM P-bass, along with some new pups and it is a great bass. I think it is similar to what I see folks posting here about Epiphone birds. The MIMs are nice instruments at about 1/2 the price of their MIA lines.

I have some of the discontinued Super55 split coils and a Babicz bridge to slap on the new J.

@Kat, I do not have measures on differences between necks of P's and J's vs. my bird. Anecdotally, the neck on my 2015 bird "feels" a bit slimmer to me. But I like them all.

 

[JIO]

Well i pulled out my tigerbird, got the heel shaped out & traced onto the body. While holding it as mock up i realized the neck was really far out & there was a lot of space behind the bridge. After looking at nikkis hamers & spectors i decided to move the bridge backwards reducing the overall length from 48" to around 46". & now itll fit in the coffin case & itll be much easier to space the pickups check out my instagram post. Hopefully it works.

At issue will be the higher register which will be buried in the body (T-birds are already bad in this respect)- unless of course you cut a deep channel on the lower 'horn' for access, if that matters to you...

 

[ThaCoast]

At issue will be the higher register which will be buried in the body (T-birds are already bad in this respect)- unless of course you cut a deep channel on the lower 'horn' for access, if that matters to you...

Ive just edited my post in regards of this matter, i rarely go beyond the 12th fret at most 15. & i might be cutting a little bit into the whole top portion of the body but i might just leave it as is.

 

[JIO]

Ive just edited my post in regards of this matter, i rarely go beyond the 12th fret at most 15. & i might be cutting a little bit into the whole top portion of the body but i might just leave it as is.

The lower register is as they say, the "cash register" for bass!

 

[hillerup]

Anyone use their Birds on Christmas Carols?
I'm thinking I will, on the 15th. So a Goth at a Hostel for Christmas... Good look?

I would say a gold 50th Anniversary, a Metallic Red/Cardinal Red or Alpine White/Classic White bird would be more appropriate for Christmas festivities.

 

[hillerup]

Would you all like to do the 12 days of Thunderbirds this year? Just post your shots and greetings, take some new ones, use your old ones, whatever works starting on December 14.

Great idea!

 

[hillerup]

Well i pulled out my tigerbird, got the heel shaped out & traced onto the body. While holding it as mock up i realized the neck was really far out & there was a lot of space behind the bridge. After looking at nikkis hamers & spectors i decided to move the bridge backwards reducing the overall length from 48" to around 46". & now itll fit in the coffin case & itll be much easier to space the pickups. This picture was taken before i cut the heel down some more (since i had intended to have 21 frets but i wont be using anything beyond 15 really). Itll be 20 frets with the heel angled towards the bass side like victory basses. Ièm pretty satisfied & it looks damn good! Dont mind the precision cavity fill, that was because the pickup was badly spaced so the e string wouldve been off.
View attachment 1001186

Seems to me like the cut-away on the lower bout of your zebrabird could be somewhat deeper, compared to your goth...

 

[GBassNorth]

My goodness, those Cali sharks have big teeth!

Fins to the left and fins to the right!

Yes, I used to live in Cincinnati. No, I'm not a parrot head, more of a Dead Head, probably left over from when I grew up in the San Fransico Bay Area in the '70's.

 

[veebass]

@Stevis @ColinLP

All you need to get those Js sounding as nice as they look is some nice big humbuckers.

Custom Shop 60s pickups and a series parallel mod and we are starting to talk!

 

[veebass]

Been a long time since I was hands on with a Jazz (even longer with a Precision) and the question of the day concerns neck profiles...

Jazz and Bird necks are the same width at the nut. Are they otherwise similar in thickness etc? I could/can hunt down some Bumpers to try out but I have a thing about not trying out stuff I'm never going to buy on the basis that it wastes people's time and energy.

Not all TBirds are the same.
Some measurements:
My 08 Gibson TBird- width at nut- 38mm, width at 12th- 54mm
My 77 Greco TBird- width at nut- 43mm, width at 12th- 53mm

My Jazzes vary a bit too
Genuine 75 Jazz- width at nut- 40mm, width at 12th- 56mm (70s Jazzes are blocked and bound and deeper through than other Jazz necks- they feel chunkier)
MIM 06 Jazz - width at nut- 38mm, width at 12th- 58mm
FSR Antigua Jazz- width at nut- 38mm, width at 12th- 56mm

G&L ASAT- width at nut- 38mm, width at 12th- 55mm (this is their Jazz width neck- not sure what they call it)

My Greco feels like a P Bass to play, except my P Basses are around 58 mm at the 12th and so the Greco is a little more parallel sided. It also has a flatter fret board than most Fenders. Certainly it feels bigger than a Jazz neck.
The Gibson TBird is slimmer than even a Jazz neck and you can feel it IMO, particularly in the genuine 75 Jazz which is bound and is a little deeper front to back than my other Jazzes, which feels almost like a 70s PBass B width beck to play. The Gibson fretboard is flatter as well.

The closest to a my Gibson TBird's neck is the neck on my ASAT IMO

 

[kat888]

Not all TBirds are the same.
Some measurements:
My 08 Gibson TBird- width at nut- 38mm, width at 12th- 54mm
My 77 Greco TBird- width at nut- 43mm, width at 12th- 53mm

My Jazzes vary a bit too
Genuine 75 Jazz- width at nut- 40mm, width at 12th- 56mm (70s Jazzes are blocked and bound and deeper through than other Jazz necks- they feel chunkier)
MIM 06 Jazz - width at nut- 38mm, width at 12th- 58mm
FSR Antigua Jazz- width at nut- 38mm, width at 12th- 56mm

G&L ASAT- width at nut- 38mm, width at 12th- 55mm (this is their Jazz width neck- not sure what they call it)

My Greco feels like a P Bass to play, except my P Basses are around 58 mm at the 12th and so the Greco is a little more parallel sided. It also has a flatter fret board than most Fenders. Certainly it feels bigger than a Jazz neck.
The Gibson TBird is slimmer than even a Jazz neck and you can feel it IMO, particularly in the genuine 75 Jazz which is bound and is a little deeper front to back than my other Jazzes, which feels almost like a 70s PBass B width beck to play. The Gibson fretboard is flatter as well.

The closest to a my Gibson TBird's neck is the neck on my ASAT IMO

Thanks for all of that. I was thinking of 38mm nuts for the Bird and Jazz. My Italia has a 43mm nut and 58mm 12th fret but the neck is quite shallow and the fretboard is pretty flat and doesn't seem chunky at all. Really need to get some calipers to be able to measure these sorts of things.

 

[Christine]

That is a handsome J-bass, @ColinLP. Is that MIM or MIA? I put a hipshot brass bridge on an MIM P-bass, along with some new pups and it is a great bass. I think it is similar to what I see folks posting here about Epiphone birds. The MIMs are nice instruments at about 1/2 the price of their MIA lines.

I have some of the discontinued Super55 split coils and a Babicz bridge to slap on the new J.

@Kat, I do not have measures on differences between necks of P's and J's vs. my bird. Anecdotally, the neck on my 2015 bird "feels" a bit slimmer to me. But I like them all.

Thanks, it's a Mexican and very nice it is too despite all the protests from the bumper boys to the contrary about the qualities of MIM vs MIA. I've had two MIAs, the first, a 75 or 76 and my first real bass was very nice, the second was not so nice but this MIM is a peach, I can't fault it. I'm particularly fond of it because it was the first bass I had after deciding I wanted to start playing again after cutting the end of my finger off. I was particularly pleased with the improvement the Hipshot bridge made over the bent bit of tin fender shipped out, years more sustain and a deeper darker sound that when combined with the quarter pounders sounds like the devil himself is having a one sided argument with God.

Yes you're 100% right about the similarities with the Epiphone birds, most of it is pure prejudice based on snobbery and the rest is the good old sheep like behaviour. It seems that most of them probably don't have the ability to tell the difference or lack of it between them anyway, why should we care? Just keeps the prices down for those of us

 

[Christine]

Would you all like to do the 12 days of Thunderbirds this year? Just post your shots and greetings, take some new ones, use your old ones, whatever works starting on December 14.

When does this start then?

 

[Count Bassie]

+1 L-2000 (system) - all pro - no cons. Wasn't that what Gibson was doing with their more recent exposed-poles pu's in the T-bird?

That is a cool bass. I would do one of these.

 

[kat888]

We need a yule log to burn...

 

[Count Bassie]

We need a yule log to burn...

Ohhh... This bodes wicked... P or J? Lol

 

[RedVee]

I would say a gold 50th Anniversary, a Metallic Red/Cardinal Red or Alpine White/Classic White bird would be more appropriate for Christmas festivities.

Would if I could. Those Goldies look the biz I reckon.

But rest assured we have been issued with Santa hats to wear
( but Vinnie De P blue rather than red )

That should balance out the Goth

 

[tyohars]

I'm not a T-Bird user, but I'm very intriguing what's the different between T-Bird Classic Pro and T-Bird Elitist? From what I see both are neck thru and have Gibson PU. What's the differences (if any)? Which one's better?