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Thunderbird Club

#224,641
PaleAngel_90 said:
Who mauled that poor bird?
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tug of war between Philip Kubicki and Leo Fender with styling from Ray Dietrich and love (and vision) from Geo Kitta….
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#224,643
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#224,644
JIO said:
Thanks man! It was my first custom design/build back in the late '90s. At that point I owned two basses, my '64 II and and a black '86 Kubicki Ex-Factor. I bought an early '90s FCS fretless Ex-Factor (also black) for a good price that someone replaced the pu's/electronics and used the bridge-tuner for the Factorbird. I had the fb planed/leveled and sold the fretless neck, made a plug for the cavity to support a standard bridge, and mounted a maple w/blk-blocked Fender Jazz neck turning it into what I called the J-Factor. You can see it and the Factorbird, both on The Kubicki Factor fb page. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.550185941738870&type=3

At the time Phil sold his tuner-bridge for $500. I already had the lined fretless neck that I bought new from Phil in '94. My friend who is a journeyman carpenter helped me cut out the 3-piece old growth Koa in the exact manor as my '64 with V joints connecting the tapered wings. Koa is a very dense wood - similar to ebony but not as brittle. It's also heavy. Cutting the bridge-tuner pocket was very tricky, but we did it. My goal was shaping it ergonomically to fit how I played my T-bird, which is to ride the body higher to access first-position more comfortably. And yes, G&L L2000 MFD pu's and 9v pre.

moquette for the 'plug' I made for the J-Factor
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lower horn scallop for access to the upper register
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the upper horn is scalloped to rest against my body - I have a permanent sore spot on my rib from years of playing my II
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upper side profile shows the upper & lower bevels - it's the same thickness as my '64 II
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Very cool! I will probably thin out the “wings” on my Explorer. There is no need for the whole body to be full thickness.
 
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#224,645
Chucky Stiletti said:
tug of war between Philip Kubicki and Leo Fender with styling from Ray Dietrich and love (and vision) from Geo Kitta….
View attachment 4840573
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Young Phil Kubicki worked for Fender in the early CBS years under Roger Rossmeisl, who worked for Rickenbacker in the early '60s. Phil made the all-rosewood Tele that George Harrison is seen playing in the recent doc on the Beatles. He also made an all-rosewood Strat for Jimi Hendrix that went missing and as far as I know is still at large. He quit after Roger was let go and made many Fender clone guitars, basses and necks with his hs decal. They still come up for sale regularly on eBay & Reverb. Basically luthier-made one-offs. In the early '80s he began work on his Ex-Factor bass - the earliest ones from around '85, the same period when Fender employees bought Fender back from CBS. He had a brief ('90-'91) arrangement with Fender to produce the Ex-Factor through the Fender Custom Shop but went back making them on his own. His integrated drop-D capo'd neck (the "Ex"/extension in Ex-Factor) is still the only design that offers dropping to D w/o changing note position on the fb. He passed away in 2013 at 69. I spoke with him a number of times on the phone - he was always friendly and open to sharing his insights. Long live Phil Kubicki.

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#224,646
Engle said:
Very cool! I will probably thin out the “wings” on my Explorer. There is no need for the whole body to be full thickness.
Click to expand...

It's tricky to create a big bevel unless you have access to shop machines. I saw a vid of a Fender factory worker cutting the elbow bevel with an industrial band-saw propped on a jig for the correct angle. Zip - done! I had access to a large circular-sander which helped but you still need to keep it from removing too much.

upload_2022-10-11_12-46-2.jpeg
 
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#224,647
JIO said:
It's tricky to create a big bevel unless you have access to shop machines. I saw a vid of a Fender factory worker cutting the elbow bevel with an industrial band-saw propped on a jig for the correct angle. Zip - done! I had access to a large circular-sander which helped but you still need to keep it from removing too much.

View attachment 4840626
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Similar to my Lull T4 :thumbsup:
 
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#224,653
Nocturnal said:
I can't recall if I have seen it done to a reverse-body Thunderbird, but someone added one to this Epi NR years ago. I bet it would be a great project to use T-40 pickups in a Bird.
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excellent pu's - I would have replaced the P-pu with a second one.
 
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#224,655
dagrev said:
One tell-tale sign is lipstick on the teeth, cheeks (uppers--if lowers, there are other issues), and in the nose.
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It was not that bad. Bad enough. Too much rouge and kinda crudely applied. She looked like a cross between an awkward middle school kid who got into her mother's makeup and a floozy. It was unfortunate, but Oh, well. She likes getting all made up, so it's her normal thing to wear too much paint, but she's usually better at it. Oh, well.
 
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