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Thunderbird Club

#23,961
bylar13 said:
Ha! I have been accused of being backwards more than once... I thought most moved the button to the heel to minimize potential neck dive. I was thinking that moving it to the horn would orient the bass further back, thus moving the nut a bit toward me, if that makes sense.
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You're thinking like it's a 7ender, lol. The horn is longer (actually, its existent) on a fender, so that is actually closer to the nut.
Picture the strap hanging straight down to the button, or better yet, imagine attaching your strap on your jazz to parallel with the 17th fret.
 
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#23,962
Dadagoboi said:
Originals are set neck, not neck through.
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Yes, of course, silly me it's a set neck.

Anyone know if the new embassy is set neck or bolt on?

Since the above question is a bit off topic, I'll end on topic:

Saw a used bird at a shop recently, made me smile and think of TB Tbird club for some reason:


IMG_0152.JPG
 
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#23,964
Haji said:
Instead of strap locks on the TBird (I use the Schallers in my 88 Charvel) I tried those twist on, pick-shaped dealies that I think come from D'Addario. Getting them on: easy. Getting them off: easy once I destroyed them. Now I use beer washers like those found in Grolsch bottles. Easy on, easy off, and secure.

My strap is a nylon Planet Waves slightly padded, 3" wide one I got from Sam Ash. I've been pretty happy with it, except that I need it to be a little longer. I am among the tallest in the club at 6'6".
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Everyone keeps mentioning Grolsch, but I don't think I've ever even seen that kind of beer around here.

bylar13 said:
Hi all. "New to me" T-Bird owner here. It is a 2006, I picked up on this forum. It has a Babicz bridge and Lollar pick ups. I love the sound and the feel of the neck.

My question is on the strap button placement. I have been playing a 1973 Jazz bass for the last 22 years and the T-bird neck feels a bit longer. I was wondering if I moved the strap button from the neck heel to the top of the body (strap locks of course) say where a vintage t-bird would have one, would the bass hang differently and thus sit further back? Might this make the feel closer to a jazz bass dimension?
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No. That will actually move the neck further out, in terms of how it feels, and will make the instrument more susceptible to neck dive.

The birds I've tried that neck dived all had the strap button on the top of the body where the horn would be. The ones that don't neck dive have it on the back of the heel. This does necessitate a strap that's a few inches longer, but I find that the balance with this strap button location is really nice.
 
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#23,965
Korladis said:
Everyone keeps mentioning Grolsch, but I don't think I've ever even seen that kind of beer around here.
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Decent beer and it's got kind of a flip top cork like thing. If you're drinking the beer, you get a free strap lock, lol

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But you can actually buy the rubber washers at Home Depot for like a quarter or less each in the hardware department where they have the spindle things with all the little drawers.
 
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#23,966
DerekW said:
Decent beer and it's got kind of a flip top cork like thing. If you're drinking the beer, you get a free strap lock, lol

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But you can actually buy the rubber washers at Home Depot for like a quarter or less each in the hardware department where they have the spindle things with all the little drawers.
Click to expand...

Grolsch locks only work if the leather on the strap ends is relatively thin.
 
#23,967
bylar13 said:
Hi all. "New to me" T-Bird owner here. It is a 2006, I picked up on this forum. It has a Babicz bridge and Lollar pick ups. I love the sound and the feel of the neck.

My question is on the strap button placement. I have been playing a 1973 Jazz bass for the last 22 years and the T-bird neck feels a bit longer. I was wondering if I moved the strap button from the neck heel to the top of the body (strap locks of course) say where a vintage t-bird would have one, would the bass hang differently and thus sit further back? Might this make the feel closer to a jazz bass dimension?
Click to expand...
Try flipping the strap over the front of the body at the bridge, that will help move the body back on your body a little. Personally I'd just leave it and get used to it, it will happen very quickly
 
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#23,969
Gaolee said:
I like baseball bat necks for the most part, and Thunderbirds have noodles by my standards. But, they have round backs, which makes up for it. They are tapered evenly, unlike a Ric. I couldn't tell you exactly how the neck is, because I hardly feel the edge of the neck when playing and I don't have an Epi Classic. The fret ends on a Gibson are fairly abrupt. I wouldn't call them sharp, but they aren't polished and smooth like they would be if you have a luthier smooth and polish them.
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I tend to favor wide necks as well, as I have larger than average hands. The action on my Gibson is very smooth, so not as big of an issue with the thinner neck than I was worried about


wolfkeller said:
Got my schecter Sixx yesterday. First impressions...Pretty damb neck heavy which I don't get. Body is definitely maple (drilled for flush mount straploks). I expected zero dive having the headstock it has. It's a fairly heavy bass similar to my Spector. The neck is fairly wide and thick but not as much as a Dillion. It feels slot like a Spector euro neck, definitely not like a Thunderbird. Construction is very good and solid, has that snappy maple sound, very loud acoustic. Bridge and tuners are excellent, tuners are Grover no idea on bridge. The pickups...Emgx. not sure yet, won't know til on stage but compared to my other basses they don't seem to sound very good. I like regular emgs these don't sound as good. I play at home thru a GK 800rb/genz Benz 2x15. With my other passive basses I get that GK grind, not so much at all with this. I may end up tossing the pups for passives in time. I hate that emg quick connects can't be reversed so my knobs work in reverse wich I loathe. I could swap for not quick connect pots and cut off the connectors to fix that.
It is a good bass but if I wasn't In a crue tribute I wouldn't have it. Maybe it needs time but usually I either like it or don't and that's that. Overall a nice quantity bass that came ready to play in E cept I play on D so string change and tweek the saddles. Didn't have to touch the truss rod being I use heavy strings that compensate for lower tuning tension. It is a neckthru btw. I changed the knobs, added straploks and the obligatory option grab lol. View attachment 1035283
I have a bone to pick with Sweetwater and their 25 pt inspection. Several "little" issues I had to fix. 1) pot was loose and spun with knob. 2) loose connection inside caused the kill switch to not kill. 3) very loose rear tuner screws, tuners moved around. Lastly no case. $1000 bass and no case??? Real bs there.
I had to lower the pickups as they overloaded my input and we're louder than other basses, can't have that and I never use input pads.
So there were are a Sixx reviewed by Silks.
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Geez, not even a gig bag?
 
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#23,973
Completely off topic. I'm decompressing from playing drums at a bar this evening. It was the standard bar gig with three bands. We were on first, which makes me happy because I can go home earlier, but I stuck around for the second band. The bass player had a Burns Bison. I have never seen one in person before, let alone seen one in the wild. It looked like a standard issue for the most part. The pickguard was decorated with some kind of pattern, and there was an f-hole looking slot in the headstock. Not a 'Bird. Oh, well. That bass player just hadn't been chosen.
 
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#23,975
DerekW said:
Definitely. If your strap has a double layer of leather, depending on the button, it can be a difficult, or no go, fit.
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I also tried some elliptical strap buttons (Planet Waves) which seemed secure ... until one end of the strap popped off one day and they were consigned to the parts tin. Shoulda just bought the Schallers to begin with, although I enjoyed the beer...
 
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#23,976
Gaolee said:
Completely off topic. I'm decompressing from playing drums at a bar this evening. It was the standard bar gig with three bands. We were on first, which makes me happy because I can go home earlier, but I stuck around for the second band. The bass player had a Burns Bison. I have never seen one in person before, let alone seen one in the wild. It looked like a standard issue for the most part. The pickguard was decorated with some kind of pattern, and there was an f-hole looking slot in the headstock. Not a 'Bird. Oh, well. That bass player just hadn't been chosen.
Click to expand...

I have had a passing interest in 'quirky', 'retro' and non-standard basses for years - Burns, Gretsch, Dano, Hagström yadda yadda. While I'm still interested to look them over, there's no GAS there for them any longer.
 
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#23,978
kat888 said:
I have had a passing interest in 'quirky', 'retro' and non-standard basses for years - Burns, Gretsch, Dano, Hagström yadda yadda. While I'm still interested to look them over, there's no GAS there for them any longer.
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I prefer the interesting/quirky/retro. I guess that is why I have no 7ender and likely will never have one. I tried an Eastwood surfcaster. It is a cool look and had a good sound, but it wasn't the sound I was looking for at the time. There could be a Beatle bass in my future too; it would be fun to lay metal on one. Don't feel a need for another bass right now, but I'm sure if the right one comes along, I will give it a home.
 
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