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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
-
- Tags
- club thunderbird
- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,897
- 142,236
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
Much love to you and your family - always.
It has occurred to me Geoff. And I'm sitting here with coffee at 7:30 Saturday am, thinking it's not far-fetched. I have access to a shop again, with a decent drill press with a table and clamp jig. Hmm...
Spending money is a little lower on the list than it used to be...
A Thunderbird is preparing to fly south.
Wow you take a week off and suddenly you're 25 pages behind...
What a beauty!! Congratulations!!
It is. An opportunity arose to get a bucket list Thunderbird from one of our wonderful brothers here in the club. A bit different from my others with the sidewinders and natural finish.Who's a pretty 'Bird...??
I couldn’t afford one as a college student. Now, almost fifty years later, the time has arrived.
Probably a bit better than the $250 E1 you had thought “just because” about yesterday.
Yep. But with a bit of modding, that Epi could make some wonderful music. Heck, even without modding, it would make someone very happy.
Drop dead gorgeous Marshall!
Lots of new birds in the club these days, hopefully many of them will be at the GTG this summer.
Speaking of which, do we have any rough dates or location ideas for the ‘25 GTG. I just booked up two weeks in mid July for a trip to Idaho, so calendars are starting to fill up fast.
If you need measurements, let me know.
A piece of brass or stainless rod would do it.
BlunderBuild update.
I guess this means Im committed to my fretless plan.
No glue on the frets, thankfully, but Im learning how to deal with chipout. My first experience with pulling frets.
Oddly, the fret slots are cut deeper on the left, in keeping with the overall "rotated error" in the board machining.
Based on measurements, the slot bottoms are parallel to the heel face. So once I re-radius the board, they would still be 'level.' Weird. If I wanted to refret I probably could, but the draw of a fretless experience is getting compelling.
I got some Bolivian rosewood veneer from Rockler to fill the slots. I want the lines to be subtle, rather than high-contrast. Perfect fit size wise though a bit pale... amazing coincidence that the standard thickness for cabinetry veneer is near exact the nominal cut for a fret tang.
I'm also planning to replace the plastic markers with real mother-of-pearl, since I'm completely resanding from existing crooked 14" radius to the new, hopefully level, 12" radius. Havent decided what if anything to do about the side markers... which are on BOTH sides of the neck.
Speaking of the board machining being rotated, this will need addressing too:
... probably will have to trim down to maple all the way across, instead of the nut sitting on the board as would be usual.
I could add a thin layer of rosewood for the nut to sit on, but it'd probably be pretty fragile. We'll see how much height is needed after the board is sanded and my nut blank arrives. Buying tiny pieces of rosewood is not exactly supported.
Currently waiting on a bunch of stuff on order. Argh. I hate waiting, mid project. But no local sources even if I had time to drive all over collecting a piece here, a piece there.
Had also the joy of going to the doc yesterday to address a trigger finger problem in the middle finger of my right (fretting) hand that's been coming on for about 6 months.
First attempt: cortisone shot. Day later it seems to be helping. It was not fun, but not nearly as painful as I'd heard. Fingers crossed, it'll do the trick.
I guess this means Im committed to my fretless plan.
No glue on the frets, thankfully, but Im learning how to deal with chipout. My first experience with pulling frets.
Oddly, the fret slots are cut deeper on the left, in keeping with the overall "rotated error" in the board machining.
Based on measurements, the slot bottoms are parallel to the heel face. So once I re-radius the board, they would still be 'level.' Weird. If I wanted to refret I probably could, but the draw of a fretless experience is getting compelling.
I got some Bolivian rosewood veneer from Rockler to fill the slots. I want the lines to be subtle, rather than high-contrast. Perfect fit size wise though a bit pale... amazing coincidence that the standard thickness for cabinetry veneer is near exact the nominal cut for a fret tang.
I'm also planning to replace the plastic markers with real mother-of-pearl, since I'm completely resanding from existing crooked 14" radius to the new, hopefully level, 12" radius. Havent decided what if anything to do about the side markers... which are on BOTH sides of the neck.
Speaking of the board machining being rotated, this will need addressing too:
... probably will have to trim down to maple all the way across, instead of the nut sitting on the board as would be usual.
I could add a thin layer of rosewood for the nut to sit on, but it'd probably be pretty fragile. We'll see how much height is needed after the board is sanded and my nut blank arrives. Buying tiny pieces of rosewood is not exactly supported.
Currently waiting on a bunch of stuff on order. Argh. I hate waiting, mid project. But no local sources even if I had time to drive all over collecting a piece here, a piece there.
Had also the joy of going to the doc yesterday to address a trigger finger problem in the middle finger of my right (fretting) hand that's been coming on for about 6 months.
First attempt: cortisone shot. Day later it seems to be helping. It was not fun, but not nearly as painful as I'd heard. Fingers crossed, it'll do the trick.
Were you ditching the 3-point bridge? I only ask as the saddles are at a fixed radius and won't match the new radius.
Well, taking a tape to the available width, where this business happens, I've got about 23/4"...
If you've got some numbers handy I'm all ears, thanks!
