Thunderbird Club

[ectoflanger]

Never heard of this site but it had the story. Vid in the story.

Gary Leff, a Texas-based travel expert and author of the blog "View From the Wing," did not personally observe the incident but watched the video and said that while the video may appear shocking, this type of handling is not uncommon.

"Airlines usually say behavior like this is unacceptable when a video comes out, but it’s actually fairly standard," Leff said, expressing his point of view.

Baggage handler at LAX caught carelessly tossing expensive guitars - Dexerto

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Back in the 1980's I was allowed to carry my 1979 Stratocaster onboard in its rectangular black molded case with the big imprinted "Fende"r letters on the outside of that era. The stewardesses were not only quite attractive back then (yeah, I'm a dog), bu they were really cool about accommodating said Stratocaster, either putting it in the hanging locker or occasionally laying it under unoccupied seats - Yay 80's!!! - although it was an otherwise unhappy decade for me-

 

[Nocturnal]

Angry getting up on stage with GnR*
in Sydney doing a Tatts song Nice Boys (don’t play rock n roll)

*Firebird sighting

I think GnR covered "Nice Boys" on their first EP.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Yes there is.

Save this as a bookmark on your menu or in your menu and it will take you to the first post after you finished reading.

Thunderbird Club

How mine looks. Bass is a pull down, Thunderbird is a single bookmark.
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The watched threads page has links like this for each of your watched threads. One stop shopping!

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Back in the 1980's I was allowed to carry my 1979 Stratocaster onboard in its rectangular black molded case with the big imprinted "Fende"r letters on the outside of that era. The stewardesses were not only quite attractive back then (yeah, I'm a dog), bu they were really cool about accommodating said Stratocaster, either putting it in the hanging locker or occasionally laying it under unoccupied seats - Yay 80's!!! - although it was an otherwise unhappy decade for me-

There was that front closet looking space across the aisle from the front bathroom with the curtain to the right , remember?

 

[Engle]

I definitely have continuous 58-59 Hz hum (detected by a tuner app on my phone that has freq. readout) with either or both volume controls up. Wearing the bass on a strap, I can rotate and get the bass in a position where the hum all but goes away (exactly like every other single coil pickup equipped bass I’ve owned), but if I turn a few degrees either way, it comes up quickly.

I’ve spent hours and days shielding and grounding this bass. Nothing I’ve done has changed the hum in the slightest. That’s why I’m convinced the pickups are single coil or have only one of the two coils connected to the leads.

By the way, the DC resistance of the pickups are;
Bridge: 9.37 K ohms
Neck: 9.27 K ohms

I have good continuity between the sleeve of a cable plugged in the output jack to the bridge & even to the tuner posts. 0.2 ohms between the jack ground and bridge, 0.6 ohms between the jack ground and tuner posts (continuity through DR coated strings…)

A Humbucker works by using two coils and reversing the coil direction and the magnetic direction of the second coil. If your pickups have 2 coils wounds in the same direction, they will still have the DCR of a humbucker without the noise canceling feature.

 

[GBassNorth]

I've used them on a number of my basses, a few with the Yamaha units which are well designed. There's lots of variety out there and even the least expensive work just fine. They are good for variable width string-spacing.

I have some bridge singles on my Dingwall DBird bass. As you noted, they work just fine.
There’s a lot of hype out there about high mass and full contact and various metals in the bridge design world. As best I can tell it’s all a nuance that is rarely if ever heard in a mix from a tone standpoint. The deciding factors for my builds are how functional it is (which most are), how flexible it is (some are better that others), how it fits the build from an aesthetic standpoint, and what it costs.

 

[JIO]

I have some bridge singles on my Dingwall DBird bass. As you noted, they work just fine.
There’s a lot of hype out there about high mass and full contact and various metals in the bridge design world. As best I can tell it’s all a nuance that is rarely if ever heard in a mix from a tone standpoint. The deciding factors for my builds are how functional it is (which most are), how flexible it is (some are better that others), how it fits the build from an aesthetic standpoint, and what it costs.

The Ibanez singles have a sub-level inset for one screw & string-thru channel. Sorta' like a G&L bridge - a further grounding to the body below the surface. I agree about "high mass" hype. The most extreme example was the '80 Fender "Claw" - a huge solid brass monstrosity. It's how the bridge is grounded to the body that is worth talking about. (ala' Bruce Johnson) I've used his method on a few of my builds with great success.

And I also agree with your 'deciding factor' list. No 'cookie-cutter'.

These are the common economical singles - no issues. These GHS flats are still on the bass - built 13yrs ago! Still sounds great!

 

[JIO]

Back in the 1980's I was allowed to carry my 1979 Stratocaster onboard in its rectangular black molded case with the big imprinted "Fende"r letters on the outside of that era. The stewardesses were not only quite attractive back then (yeah, I'm a dog), bu they were really cool about accommodating said Stratocaster, either putting it in the hanging locker or occasionally laying it under unoccupied seats - Yay 80's!!! - although it was an otherwise unhappy decade for me-

In '76, I flew with my '62 II in its OHSC. Those cases were the furthest thing from 'protective'. It was big enough to stack two T-birds and close the lid! (only exaggerating a little...) No 'form-fit' padding like on the nice Epi versions out there. So I screwed a leather belt strap across the yoke to keep it from bouncing around. When I got it at baggage claim on the other side, I checked it to make sure it was ok. The leather strap was yanked out of the yoke. Luckily the bass was ok...

 

[Big Wiggs]

I've been reading this forum for over a year, and I would like to join the club.

 

[Mikaelbass]

Went to a local guitar store today that specialises only on odd/old/cool guitars. Lots and lots of greco's, orvilles and the like of all types.

They had three Greco TB with dual humbuckers, two white and a black. They all sounded relatively different funnily enough. Unfortunately the amp I was playing through was nothing to write home about.

Definitely confirmed I wanted a thunderbird bass gain, the shape just speaks to me. None of those greco's were particularly impressive though, probably a mix of the humidity making the paint feel really sticky, action was pretty high on all of the basses (and pickups probably too low) but the pickups/bridge and tailpiece were all pretty corroded hard. The black one was definitely a player and had a great sound...if it was sunburst I would probably have walked out with it.

None of them sounded as mighty as the 77 single pickup model I had.

So far game plan is:
Early Gibson Tbird with ebony board in burst (then go gold everything)
or
Orville Tbird
Vintage 70's tbird

 

[godofthunder59]

Thunderbird Thursday! My 2024 Nonreverse in Heritage Cherry. Out of the four of these I own this is my favorite. I hadn't had a chance to use it in a band situation until recently but boy does it shine, great vintage tone and the D and G string notes just pop! Easily the best Thunderbird Gibson has built in a long long time.

 

[dagrev]

The watched threads page has links like this for each of your watched threads. One stop shopping!

There are other threads? Why?

 

[dagrev]

In '76, I flew with my '62 II in its OHSC. Those cases were the furthest thing from 'protective'. It was big enough to stack two T-birds and close the lid! (only exaggerating a little...) No 'form-fit' padding like on the nice Epi versions out there. So I screwed a leather belt strap across the yoke to keep it from bouncing around. When I got it at baggage claim on the other side, I checked it to make sure it was ok. The leather strap was yanked out of the yoke. Luckily the bass was ok...

Yes, to say "case" is to use the term loosely!
I think it could be fair to say the Epiphone box my Epi Embassy "donor" bass came in was as protective if not more so. At least the bass couldn't flop and slide around.

 

[dagrev]

I've been reading this forum for over a year, and I would like to join the club.

Welcome! Sweet TP Thunderbird. Another member her has one--and we are all envious.

 

[Nocturnal]

I've been reading this forum for over a year, and I would like to join the club.

Welcome!! Beautiful Bird!!!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

There are other threads? Why?

You know. Amps. Pedals. Gig reports. Craziness. Etc.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I've been reading this forum for over a year, and I would like to join the club.

Beauty! Welcome.

 

[Ringhammer]

Re: New Thunderbird.

Seems like they have a lot of NR necks and nowhere to “set” them.

I’m glad they didn’t do something cool like do the set neck thing, but with the “curl” going the right way for a reverse body, a ‘60’s style 2-point bridge with claw, and the vintage reissue pickups with rings, and some color choices like arctic/polar white, heritage Cherry and (for Marshall), Pelham blue.

I say I’m glad they didn’t because at least now I don’t have to figure out how to buy one.

 

[BklynKen]

I have a 1991 that had those in it. There was no noticeable hum from that bass while it had those pickups. I have subsequently replaced them with Thunderbuckers. There wasn't anything specifically wrong with the pickups except that they had black plastic covers instead of chrome or nickel. I'm very shallow. My thought is that you have a bad ground somewhere or that one or both pickups have internal shorts or discontinuities. One thing to look for in grounding is solder joints in the control cavity. The ground for those pickups is by the shielding on the cable. Shielding for each pickup wire should be grounded by a solder joint to its volume pot. Another place to look is the ground wire to the output jack. The bass will still make plenty of noise even if that has come off. It just won't be grounded.

Those pickups are in my RNR. They're perfectly quiet when they need to be.

 

[GonePlaid]

You know. Amps. Pedals. Gig reports. Craziness. Etc.

We have all o' that-and more-right here.