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Thunderbird Club

#304,587
Water buffalo said:
Hello all, today Zzounds delivered my purple flake Epi Thunderbird. I ordered it a couple months ago, and it was put on backorder until now.

My first thought was how cool it looked, but upon further inspection, it appears to me that the bridge is rather high off of the body. to the point of being slightly tilted. the breaking angle from the tailpiece to the bridge seems to be pretty extreme.
View attachment 7052392

I have a black Epi Tbird, it's the version before the 64 bird, I got a deal on it due to it having cracks at the nut. The string tension keeps the cracks closed and I haven't had the time to repair it, but it plays fine as is. It is currently in my bass storage, so I haven't been able to compare it, but I feel that the black bird plays better. I may be wrong.

Also, as I was taking pics, I found cracks on both sides of the neck. Nothing horrible, but they are there.
View attachment 7052400View attachment 7052401

The neck has an underbow (strings are closer at nut/body, higher in the middle of board), I am a builder/tech, but I do not want to touch it until I'm sure that I'm not going to return it.



Honestly, the cracks at the nut are not a deal breaker, I'm more concerned with the height of the bridge. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
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I don't think the height at the bridge is an issue. They angled the neck back more in this production run and added a spacer under the neck pu ring because of it.
Those cracks at the nut would be a deal breaker for me on a new instrument.
I don't see the harm in adjusting the truss rod to see if it works.
 
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#304,588
Miles_ONeal said:
The foolishly named 64 Thunderbird has a bit more angle on the neck, requiring a higher bridge. I can’t recall hearing any problems with the possible exception of a tailpiece pulling up - but I can’t recall for certain if it was the 64 or a recent Jack Casady or what. I would keep an eye on the tailpiece to be safe.

Beautiful bird, tho!
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The tailpiece pulling up has happened occasionally on all the VPs/60's/64's. They use relatively short screws and if the screws get stripped (or the wood is a little soft) it can happen. But that's an easy fix.
Casadys don't have tailpieces - from the factory:)
 
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#304,590
JJR58 said:
He was amazing.
I hope I can even pick one up at 87 :roflmao:
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I saw/heard Ron with the Modern Jazz Quartet, Herbie (once solo), Wayne (twice w/Weather Report) and Tony with Freddie Hubbard - and Miles twice in the early '80s. It's pretty amazing Miles & co went from this to Bitches Brew (& beyond) in a short few years.

1970 - Dave Holland on P-bass
 
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#304,591
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