Thunderbird Club

[Bassmike62]

Coat #2 done.

Got these for working around the frets. Takes more time of course, but no smudging. Shoulda thunked this out before the 1st coat... I'll clean the frets when I'm done with the dye, but I gave myself a bit more work.

Should be dried out in a couple of hours, will probably put a 3rd coat to make things more even. It's not quite as black as I'd like, but it's much better than the original color.

 

[TBird1958]

I was wondering how bad it was for you folks. The smoke has been nasty here and we are also happy the rainy season has returned.

Really bad here this past week.

Link Removed

 

[Bassmike62]

I usually know more about the products than the L&M staff do. They are always pleasant though!

Indeed.
Hanging around here in the various forums is pretty good education, IMO.

 

[dagrev]

Tuesday and Wednesday reminded me of being a kid in the backseat while two adults smoked with the windows rolled up.

How far away are you from the source?

We have had fires in the region before and experienced a little here. We were in FL once and it was bad. Made you think everything was on fire. No fun smelling the smoke.

 

[JIO]

How does this one sound?

Jim Burns is considered to be the "English Leo Fender", but was his opposite in many ways. He was a visionary/idea-man and local gadfly. Conversely, Leo was 'meat & potatoes' sporting a pocket-protector filled with pens & pencils. (eccentric in different ways) Jim Ormston Burns' instruments were more quirky for the early '60s. Burns produced the 1st 9v active guitar in '62, and this '63 Vista Sonic (and their guitars of that time) had a rotary knob with a "Wild Dog" setting. It was wired as a phase-shifter, which is used on guitars but not on a bass. (sounded more like a sick dog) I reversed the wires and now it sounds like a nice Jazz bass. Interestingly, Burns morphed the Vista Sonic into the Burns "Jazz Bass" in '64 - mostly the same with a slightly different body-shape. The company has been bought & sold many times over the decades.

Their guitars/basses had a very unique truss-rod adjuster buried in the heal that Gretsch later used after buying Burns in the late '60s. It was accessed using a special wrench under the neck-plate. Mine was missing the engravers material cover but the son of the guy who made them in the '60s still makes them on the same machine! I found the serial # in the neck pocket.

So sound-wise (following settings);

WILD DOG - middle & bridge pu's - now sounds like a jazz bass... my go to setting

TREBLE - bridge pu - ok but lacking bass - can be worked with using the tone pot (next to the rotary knob)

BASS - neck and middle pu's - good for more bass with less mids

CONTRA BASS - neck pu - big boomy bass - probably the most popular for players in the '60s

I have flats on it and used it once at a Bond Girl rehearsal (sounded good in the mix) but haven't yet played it live or recorded using it. Post WWII surplus electronics abound - someone added a mini-toggle 'kill-switch' (turquoise cube). I replaced the UK style jack, (same as the original) available through Stew-Mac. Considering how it looks - it all works as it should.

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 1 | Vintage Guitar® magazine

 

[Gaolee]

??? How do you log ex's?

With an ex ax. So I hear. Never had an ex to log.

 

[dagrev]

Really bad here this past week.

Link Removed

The pic looked awful. How far are you from the fires?

 

[JIO]

With an ex ax. So I hear. Never had an ex to log.

go ex yer' mother/father

 

[PaleAngel_90]

Jim Burns is considered to be the "English Leo Fender", but was his opposite in many ways. He was a visionary/idea-man and local gadfly. Conversely, Leo was 'meat & potatoes' sporting a pocket-protector filled with pens & pencils. (eccentric in different ways) Jim Ormston Burns' instruments were more quirky for the early '60s. Burns produced the 1st 9v active guitar in '62, and this '63 Vista Sonic (and their guitars of that time) had a rotary knob with a "Wild Dog" setting. It was wired as a phase-shifter, which is used on guitars but not on a bass. (sounded more like a sick dog) I reversed the wires and now it sounds like a nice Jazz bass. Interestingly, Burns morphed the Vista Sonic into the Burns "Jazz Bass" in '64 - mostly the same with a slightly different body-shape. The company has been bought & sold many times over the decades.

Their guitars/basses had a very unique truss-rod adjuster buried in the heal that Gretsch later used after buying Burns in the late '60s. It was accessed using a special wrench under the neck-plate. Mine was missing the engravers material cover but the son of the guy who made them in the '60s still makes them on the same machine! I found the serial # in the neck pocket.

View attachment 4849956 View attachment 4849957View attachment 4849958 View attachment 4849959

So sound-wise (following settings);

WILD DOG - middle & bridge pu's - now sounds like a jazz bass... my go to setting

TREBLE - bridge pu - ok but lacking bass - can be worked with using the tone pot (next to the rotary knob)

BASS - neck and middle pu's - good for more bass with less mids

CONTRA BASS - neck pu - big boomy bass - probably the most popular for players in the '60s

I have flats on it and used it once at a Bond Girl rehearsal (sounded good in the mix) but haven't yet played it live or recorded using it. Post WWII surplus electronics abound - someone added a mini-toggle 'kill-switch' (turquoise cube). I replaced the UK style jack, (same as the original) available through Stew-Mac. Considering how it looks - it all works as it should.

View attachment 4849942

Beat Portraits: Burns Volume 1 | Vintage Guitar® magazine

What model is it? I'd like to look it up in youtube...

 

[Gaolee]

"Bobby" When I first got married 20 years ago, my wife told me that they name dogs 'Bobby' out here and immediately called me Robert which still does to this day. She bought her first Chihuahua about ten years and guess what she named it? Kills fleas and parasites.

The dog's name is Antipulgas?

 

[JIO]

careful with that ex Eugene...

 

[JIO]

What model is it? I'd like to look it up in youtube...

Vista Sonic -

here's the Jazz Bass - only difference is the body shape and name

 

[Gaolee]

I need advice on this one, shop is in Belgium: Epiphone Thunderbird IV Vintage Sunburst 4 String Bass – 2016 – Very Good Condition | Reverb

Seems legit, adjunting additional 2 pictures:

View attachment 4849616

View attachment 4849617

Based on the neck plate, that's a later one, made in China. It will have a narrower, more Gibson-like neck.

 

[Gaolee]

Yup, got it back today early morning, I'm 30€ short though... Would've to wait till next week to buy if it still was up for sale, though with such good offer who knows how long it'll be available...

maybe you can negotiate with the shop.

 

[Gaolee]

who says CA can’t be like WA?…
View attachment 4849653
​

It is finally, finally raining here. The smoke is getting washed out of the air and we can breathe again. I like rain.

 

[Engle]

Coat #2 done.

Got these for working around the frets. Takes more time of course, but no smudging. Shoulda thunked this out before the 1st coat... I'll clean the frets when I'm done with the dye, but I gave myself a bit more work.

Should be dried out in a couple of hours, will probably put a 3rd coat to make things more even. It's not quite as black as I'd like, but it's much better than the original color.


View attachment 4849954 View attachment 4849955

When it’s dry, you could mask the wood and clean up the frets with some 0000 steel wool.

 

[KaraQ]

........

I took one year of wood shop in the 7th grade (1972).

The conversation you guys have been having reminds me just how old some of you are

I was born a year-ish before you took wood-shop

The first semester was mostly drafting so we could learn how to read drawings in order to make things. It was fun but I really liked the drafting semester best.

So in the 8th through the 12th grades I took drafting, mechanical design and graphic arts classes. When it came time to go to college I focused my degree in mechanical design and drafting. Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems had just come out but were very few and far between because of the cost (main frame based) so the university didn’t have any. I Landed a job in 1978 at GE in San Jose in the drafting department where 90% of the drawings were still being done by hand. CAD stations were run 24/7 with 5 shifts of designers because they were too expensive to let sit idle after an 8 hour workday and on weekends.

......

I took three? years of drafting in high school; we had one pc? with CAD, but I never got to work with it.

Did take a stand alone CAD class while in college (the first time.....), it helped with my classes in machine tool/manufacturing/robotics - the latter parts of which made extensive use of cad/cam software for the robots & CNC training.

Love my IV but my CP is just that much better.

I like my bolt-on IV & CP more or less the same, for different reasons.
Mostly due to the neck.

The CP's nice thin neck is lovely to play, but for some things can be a bit cramped for me on the low end. Mine also doesn't particularly like high-tension strings.

The IV's wider, chunkier? neck is more comfortable for me, for some things. It's also more stable/stronger, it had Roto 77s on when I got it, and it was rock-solid & always in tune for the 2+ years they were on there.

They do sound different natively, but a bit of EQ fiddling (especially with the pretty awesome-ish EQ on my old Peavey) clears that right up


I like both better than my VP, which is an awesome instrument, and is the lightest of the T-birds I've had, but something's got to be in the 3rd spot, right?

I never saw cell phones being adult pacifiers.... Not everyone, obviously. But some people just can't seem to put it down when not work related.

I use mine extensively at work, and outside of work, has taken over about 90-ish percent of what I used to use a PC for.

.....
And do you see anything here?

War Machine?

There is a good side to ex-wives?

As I understand it, usually the best thing about them is the "ex"

 

[Gaolee]

I haven't accepted the offer.

Make a couneroffer for what you can spend.

 

[Bassmike62]

When it’s dry, you could mask the wood and clean up the frets with some 0000 steel wool.

Very good idea, thx !
Also found some Gibson low abrasion metal cleaner.

 

[Engle]

Very good idea, thx !
Also found some Gibson low abrasion metal cleaner.

I did not know that Gibson sells a low abrasion metal. I have been using Brasso for decades.