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Thunderbird Club

#264,468
TGIF!

We’ve been in Newport for the week. Sadly, I had to work. But my daughter flew in From Boston so we had a nice visit.
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But I got some playing time on my new Breedlove 5 string acoustic bass. Another purchase from our good friend George. It certainly is different. And my first fiver. It’s mint. And beautiful. As is the case. It currently has Bronze strings on it. I’m going to put tapes on it. The Fishman pickup is unforgiving with my fumbling technique on it. Tapes will tame it.

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#264,471
Feels good to finally be returning to the Thunderbird club! I've owned several Thunderbirds over the years and always admired their species. Some years ago though, I decided it was time for me to stick with shortscale basses. I believe my modified Epiphone Thunderbird Classic IV Pro was one of the last longscales to leave me. I loved the tone and style of the bass, but it the ergonomics made the bass a little uncomfortable for me to play in comparison to my go-to shortscales. So my thinking was to let it go and keep an eye out for one of the Gibson limited edition shortscale Thunderbirds. Unfortunately, they hardly ever come up for sale and when they do the asking price has often become double of what they sold for new. They always sell, so I can't fault the sellers, but I decided to hold out with hopes of finding one at a more reasonable price point.

Unfortunately that never really panned out, so I shifted my goals a bit to creating my own shortscale Thunderbird. A few weeks ago I came across a stockpile of homemade bodies that somebody was trying to sell cheap. One of the bodies was a funky Thunderbird with a bolt-on neck pocket. I snagged it up and then started to look for a neck that would fit. A little research revealed that the Ibanez TMB-30 neck heel was just right and there happened to be a good deal on a used one locally. The shorter scale required the original bridge position to scoot forward a bit, leaving the original screwholes exposed, so I added the tailpiece. That also allows me to use a wider selection of strings on this bass, so it was a win/win.

The body already had P/J pickup routes, which is a configuration I've typically not been a big fan of. Love a good P bass, but the jazz bridge pickup does very little for me. I tried a few different pickup combinations that fit the cavities and started to feel temptation to route it out for a proper T-bird bridge pickup, but then remembered I still had a Lace Sensor "Red" model pickup, that previously sounded pretty great in a Bronco bass. Figured, might as well give it a try. Turns out it's a bomb combination with this Fender USA Standard Alnico P pickup! Controls are master volume and master tone, with the push/pull tone pot adding the Lace Sensor to the signal. Hopefully I'll get around to recording a few sound samples eventually, but I'm really stoked on this bird. Great sustain and nice even resonance up and down the neck. Couldn't be happier and have had a hard time putting it down lately. Also, perfectly balanced, hangs just right, and ballpark weight is probably about 8 lbs. Good to be back on the bird bus!

donnervogel.jpg
 
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#264,472
mellowgerman said:
Feels good to finally be returning to the Thunderbird club! I've owned several Thunderbirds over the years and always admired their species. Some years ago though, I decided it was time for me to stick with shortscale basses. I believe my modified Epiphone Thunderbird Classic IV Pro was one of the last longscales to leave me. I loved the tone and style of the bass, but it the ergonomics made the bass a little uncomfortable for me to play in comparison to my go-to shortscales. So my thinking was to let it go and keep an eye out for one of the Gibson limited edition shortscale Thunderbirds. Unfortunately, they hardly ever come up for sale and when they do the asking price has often become double of what they sold for new. They always sell, so I can't fault the sellers, but I decided to hold out with hopes of finding one at a more reasonable price point.

Unfortunately that never really panned out, so I shifted my goals a bit to creating my own shortscale Thunderbird. A few weeks ago I came across a stockpile of homemade bodies that somebody was trying to sell cheap. One of the bodies was a funky Thunderbird with a bolt-on neck pocket. I snagged it up and then started to look for a neck that would fit. A little research revealed that the Ibanez TMB-30 neck heel was just right and there happened to be a good deal on a used one locally. The shorter scale required the original bridge position to scoot forward a bit, leaving the original screwholes exposed, so I added the tailpiece. That also allows me to use a wider selection of strings on this bass, so it was a win/win.

The body already had P/J pickup routes, which is a configuration I've typically not been a big fan of. Love a good P bass, but the jazz bridge pickup does very little for me. I tried a few different pickup combinations that fit the cavities and started to feel temptation to route it out for a proper T-bird bridge pickup, but then remembered I still had a Lace Sensor "Red" model pickup, that previously sounded pretty great in a Bronco bass. Figured, might as well give it a try. Turns out it's a bomb combination with this Fender USA Standard Alnico P pickup! Controls are master volume and master tone, with the push/pull tone pot adding the Lace Sensor to the signal. Hopefully I'll get around to recording a few sound samples eventually, but I'm really stoked on this bird. Great sustain and nice even resonance up and down the neck. Couldn't be happier and have had a hard time putting it down lately. Also, perfectly balanced, hangs just right, and ballpark weight is probably about 8 lbs. Good to be back on the bird bus!

View attachment 5218837
Click to expand...
Very cool!
 
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#264,473
Stealth57 said:
They seem desperate to sell. Wrote me saying $175.

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I have forgotten - what is that? That shape, along with F-holes is my idea of what guitars should look like. It's partly why I was so happy to have got an EB-2 back when.

[edit] Ibanez Artcore. I should have known. I had an ES-335 clone Artcore about ten years ago and I miss it. Not enough to clutter up the place with another one, but it was a really good guitar. I didn't like the way the pickups sounded as much, though. If that bass is anything like the guitar I had, it will be a lot of fun to play. For $175, you can't really go wrong if you want a semi-hollow bass. It is probably a short scale. I sure wouldn't steal parts from it.
 
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#264,474


Okay, where do I begin with this one? It was when my best friend and I went to Amsterdam in 2018. I noticed that he wore loafers but no socks, and I made a remark about it. At which he began to sing George Michael's "I want your sex" as "I want your socks."

We were laughing so hard about it that I decided that I should do something with that. And so, I got out my copy of "Faith" studied the track and recorded my own version. It took me many hours recording all the parts myself, but if you want to make a joke funny, you really have to put in some effort.

The Instruments used were an acoustic bass guitar, a Yamaha PSR 1700 Keyboard for the synth bass, pan flute solo and the drum sounds, the guitar was my Squier 1989 Stratocaster "the veteran"

So, recently I found this image generator which makes funny drawings according to whatever you describe. And I figured to make a Music Video using the images made from the lyrics. I'm a big fan of Weird Al Yancovic, and I know that HE always works out every detail in order to get his parodies right.

Of course, the song doesn't belong to me and I hope the estate of George Michael doesn't mind me having made this funny parody, which also was meant as a respectful salute.
 
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#264,479
mellowgerman said:
Feels good to finally be returning to the Thunderbird club! I've owned several Thunderbirds over the years and always admired their species. Some years ago though, I decided it was time for me to stick with shortscale basses. I believe my modified Epiphone Thunderbird Classic IV Pro was one of the last longscales to leave me. I loved the tone and style of the bass, but it the ergonomics made the bass a little uncomfortable for me to play in comparison to my go-to shortscales. So my thinking was to let it go and keep an eye out for one of the Gibson limited edition shortscale Thunderbirds. Unfortunately, they hardly ever come up for sale and when they do the asking price has often become double of what they sold for new. They always sell, so I can't fault the sellers, but I decided to hold out with hopes of finding one at a more reasonable price point.

Unfortunately that never really panned out, so I shifted my goals a bit to creating my own shortscale Thunderbird. A few weeks ago I came across a stockpile of homemade bodies that somebody was trying to sell cheap. One of the bodies was a funky Thunderbird with a bolt-on neck pocket. I snagged it up and then started to look for a neck that would fit. A little research revealed that the Ibanez TMB-30 neck heel was just right and there happened to be a good deal on a used one locally. The shorter scale required the original bridge position to scoot forward a bit, leaving the original screwholes exposed, so I added the tailpiece. That also allows me to use a wider selection of strings on this bass, so it was a win/win.

The body already had P/J pickup routes, which is a configuration I've typically not been a big fan of. Love a good P bass, but the jazz bridge pickup does very little for me. I tried a few different pickup combinations that fit the cavities and started to feel temptation to route it out for a proper T-bird bridge pickup, but then remembered I still had a Lace Sensor "Red" model pickup, that previously sounded pretty great in a Bronco bass. Figured, might as well give it a try. Turns out it's a bomb combination with this Fender USA Standard Alnico P pickup! Controls are master volume and master tone, with the push/pull tone pot adding the Lace Sensor to the signal. Hopefully I'll get around to recording a few sound samples eventually, but I'm really stoked on this bird. Great sustain and nice even resonance up and down the neck. Couldn't be happier and have had a hard time putting it down lately. Also, perfectly balanced, hangs just right, and ballpark weight is probably about 8 lbs. Good to be back on the bird bus!

View attachment 5218837
Click to expand...

Really cool little bass, congratulations!
 
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