Thunderbird Club

[GBassNorth]

Thanks for posting that Ken.
It's one of those things that is obvious once someone points it out: the largest point of string deflection moves as you shorten the string length by fretting. Even more of a mind bender when you think about setting the relief on a multiscale bass!

I usually end up somewhere between 2/64” and 4/64” clearance at the 12th fret on a good neck.

 

[RedVee]

Bought mine in the late 70's from Regent Music in Adelaide..my son has it at the moment. A JBIV Fretless Pro with the front cannon plug for direct desk studio recording. Yes its a set neck..beautifully sculptured..ebony fingerboard, Dimarzio PJ pups, Badass II bridge, sassafrass body etc (as RedVee described). Probably the best made bass guitar I have ever owned. Sounds very "upright bass" when played. Its a work of art.
View attachment 5035367

Glad they are as good as I thought they were Griff.
Coincidentally the guy I bought my Gibby from said he had a Maton Fretless that he would sell me. No money at the time and I’m a bit scared of fretless.

edit: I think this is one of the videos I watched a few years ago. But a MGB4 in passive mode, P pickup only. I like!

 

[Engle]

First read was “screw loose.” Maybe decelexia brings you closer to the truth.

Dyslexics untie!

 

[Engle]

Woody pickups!

 

[GonePlaid]

Like I would tell my teachers, "I don't care how many apples dumb Earl dropped or how long it took him to drop them. Earl shouldn't be so stupid is the real lesson here." I always hated those word problems. Half way through the problem I didn't care who did what or how long it took. No doubt some kind of disability on on my part. One that wouldn't argue against it lingering to this day. I did fine in Algebra but hated it because I didn't care what "x" was. No one had ever asked me or anyone I knew, so I didn't think I'd ever need to know. In college I had a math class with a guy who had a PhD in it and had been a Load Master in the Air Force. He gave us practical problems that we worked through and said, this is algebra in real life. That was cool because in HS there was no endgame. No reason we were told how this applied to anything, at least for some people anyway. He was a great prof. Somehow made math interesting. Which to my poor mind is on the level of a real miracle!

Yeah. I had a similar situation in a navigation class in jr. college. Now "x" and "y" had a meaning. I, too, didn't GAF about X or Y otherwise.

 

[JJR58]

"How many Thunderbirds does each of us need?"

Yes!, someone got it!!!

 

[JJR58]

How the action is on a bass (related to the flatness or amount of bow) is the most subjective part of playing and everyone has their own preference. From what I've read, James Jamerson - who also played upright, had his strings a mile off the fb.

That man had hands of steel.

 

[RedVee]

I couldn’t hear any difference through the phone. I’ll try again later with ear phones/buds

@Stealth57

Ok, I listened again. I think I prefer the Classic Pro, that’s the white one?

 

[dagrev]

I found this very interesting about neck relief.

Early on I thought necks had to have some relief. Then I got bass that had none and played just fine. Since then I prefer none, but if there is a little I don't generally try to work it out.

 

[GonePlaid]

That man had hands of steel.

And "THE CLAW!".

 

[dagrev]

Yeah, most math curricula are horrid. While I got on great with math, algebra, and geometry (where I usually saw the value of at least half the problems), I really struggled with calculus in college because there were zero real world that I cared about examples. I didn't care about how the shape of the lens in the lighthouse affected the area of light on a conical hillside. Give me some relevant engineering problems, for hope that it mattered. It didn't even have to be EE. ME, AE, etc. would have been fine. But no, we got lighthouse light patterns and such.

I had neither geometry or calculus, but thought they might be more interesting because there was something to "see" as opposed to an unrelated (to me) number or set of numbers. I'm more a visual person. Or just not that bright! The second part has real and varying degrees to truth to it!

 

[dagrev]

Give them some!

I don't run a turkey bawdy house here, so they are on their own.

 

[dagrev]

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! THUNDERBIRD-ADJACENT CONTENT! (arms flail about wildly, nearly decapitating a visitor.)

After all the hype, I'm appalled at ChatGPT. I tested it WRT software I use at work, and it just flat told me tales. It doesn't know what it doesn't know, but seems to think it does (or pretends so), so it happily gave me some wrong answers. Of course, it then went on to hedge its bets by suggesting the docs or customer support (apparently a favorite ChatGPT go to) would provide more info if I needed it.

It also does the latter in these cases with its answers to questions about tone caps in two very different sounding mighty Thunderbirds. The verbiage is identical apart from the model names, and per ChatGPT, each of these diverse birds has multiple (two, presumably) tone control knobs and caps, in each case providing a "darker, more mellow tone". While the phrasing is technically correct, referring to a "darker, more mellow tone" on a Vintage Pro is pretty silly. Had they said the tone controls (sic) drape blankets around the angry piano, I'd be on board.

---
What size tone capacitor comes in an Epiphone Thunderbird Classic Pro?
The Epiphone Thunderbird Classic-IV Pro bass guitar is typically equipped with a pair of 0.047uF (microfarad) tone capacitors, one for each pickup. These capacitors are used in conjunction with the tone control knobs to filter the high frequencies from the bass signal, creating a darker, more mellow tone.

It's worth noting that some models of the Thunderbird Classic-IV Pro may use different capacitor values, depending on the specific year of production or any modifications that may have been made to the guitar. If you're unsure about the specific capacitor values in your Thunderbird Classic-IV Pro, you may be able to find more information by consulting the owner's manual or by contacting Epiphone customer support.
...
What size tone capacitor comes in an Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage Pro?
The Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage Pro bass guitar is typically equipped with a pair of 0.047uF (microfarad) tone capacitors, one for each pickup. These capacitors are used in conjunction with the tone control knobs to filter the high frequencies from the bass signal, creating a darker, more mellow tone.

It's worth noting that some models of the Thunderbird Vintage Pro may use different capacitor values, depending on the specific year of production or any modifications that may have been made to the guitar. If you're unsure about the specific capacitor values in your Thunderbird Vintage Pro, you may be able to find more information by consulting the owner's manual or by contacting Epiphone customer support.

This sums up the human problem as well: It doesn't know what it doesn't know, but seems to think it does (or pretends so)...

 

[JIO]

I had the hots for a Fender Rascal when they came out. Not sure why I didn’t pull the trigger. Then I got the ‘15 Thunderbird and never looked back.

They are retro-cool, but hearing it's heavy is a deal-breaker. Both versions are short-scale.

 

[Ringhammer]

Is the Schaller M4 180 (attached file) a direct replacement for the tuners on the ‘90’s - 2000’s Gibson Thunderbirds?

 

[JIO]

Just a bit works for me. I'm very unscientific with my approach. I adjust to the point where I can just tap the string against a fret in the middle of the board when I'm holding it down at each end. I have never used a gauge to measure relief, even though I have feeler gauges handy.

I'm lucky to live in the Bay Area CA so needing to adjust my tr is just something I never have to do. So once it's initially set-up, I don't touch it. A slight bow is sufficient as I prefer medium action. I don't use gauges either - my easy trick for determining nut-groove depth is pressing the 3rd fret and getting the string to barely touch the 1st fret. While pressing the 3rd fret, I slip a note-pad leaf under the string over the 1st fret and when it barely tugs - it's there. As long as you are patient and file a little at a time until you get t there - it never fails.

 

[TBird1958]

This was a while ago.............

 

[BklynKen]

This is interesting. EY is making drop-in replacement pickups for bolt-on Epiphone Thunderbirds with Gibson internals.

Thunderbird Bass for Original Epiphone,With Gibson Thunderbi

 

[dagrev]

LOL - I hear ya! I completely confused everyone I knew in high school - I was pretty much a stoner and mainly hung with the heads (a term used at the time to define those kids that were more into drugs than anything else, kinda like the term Jocks was used for the kids that were into sports). At the same time I was also in the math club and represented my school in state wide math championships in the advanced algebra category. I took 22nd place in the state of California my first year in the club and 9th place the following year (thousands of entrants each year). I probably could have done better had I not fried half my brain cells at the time. So basically, I’ve always liked math and specifically geometry, and find it useful in nearly everything I do, which is more than I can say for my English lit classes.

Understanding that not everyone is keen on cyphering, the answer to the first question of the two part problem doesn’t have to be as mathematically oriented as many would think. In fact it would be more accurate to apply logic.

In which case…
Question one - How many pages must Bobby read to catch up to the current post?
The answer is - All of them, unless he wants to skip some.

That answer is more accurate than a specific number of pages. As users of this TB forum we all know the rate of posts per hour is not a constant and therefore is only usually predictable in a directional sense and not an absolute sense.

PS - I got a huge laugh at the Queens post about begging her brain to solve the problem so she can get back to killing it with alcohol. It nailed my high school years LOL. Insightful as always @TBird1958 even in humor.

PPS - a year after High School I got smart and cleaned up my act. I haven’t touched an illegal, illicit or non prescription drug since 1978 and intend to keep it that way.

I well remember "Head" Shops. May have been in one a time or two, but I'm not saying....

I think maybe my biggest problem was that teachers may not have communicated well, or at all about why we needed certain things or how they could be helpful. It was all about know this to pass my test. All Shop teachers were all great in my experience and would show why things were important, not just that you needed to know a certain thing because you needed to know it.

 

[dagrev]

MAD Magazine is serious. It's philosophy. It's social commentary. Don't go denigrating the greatest source of philosophy and thought in the last several centuries.

I've read a lot of philosophy and still do at times. You are more correct than you may realize.