Thunderbird Club

[MCF]

I got the Gibby out the other day and tried to tune it. I used the little SX tuner that came with the guitar pack, and clipped it to the headstock. Bloody thing was so far away I could hardly read it!
Anyway that stuffed things up.

So yesterday I tried again with the Snark, a bit better but the letters were a bit faint… then gone! Bloody battery died lol. No watch style battery in the house, of course.

Ok on to plan C.
I dug out the old style tuner that can work off the guitar cable. Cool.
It lasted 30sec and the battery died as well! Aha! No problem, I opened the latch and saw 2 AAA batteries there. We do have spares of those! Anyway, I tuned it up and now that sounds better! They were all half a step off by using the SX with dim lighting. It probably needs a new battery too.

Yes, I did have a plan D. I would have used my Zoom pedal next. It probably needs batteries too!

I’ve contacted the leader of the Young Adults Choir at my Church and offered to sit in if they want a bass guitar added. Wait and see, and start practicing a bit. The guy (Chris) leading the YA’s went to school with my eldest daughter and I’m a nodding acquaintance of his Dad, so he is aware I don’t even loosely fit the YA category but he isn’t worried - his problem is getting the YA’s to show up when they promise to lol. The bass situation is their 2nd guitarist is talking about switching to bass, or to keyboards, or to…

So Chris will have a chat and see what the guy actually wants to do, and will let me know. I might end up on the reserves list, which would probably suit me anyway. In the meantime I am invited to come in for a look when I want.

I had epithelial debridement procedures done in both eyes and then had the cataract in my left eye removed last year. Retuned my vision to what it was when I was about forty. Noticeable improvement. Growing old is getting old.

 

[MCF]

"Hey, fatso? Get in here!"
Ah, the 70s!

Aside from the color, those were horrifically ugly cars.

When my son was born, we needed another car that had AC. So we used a baby puke green ‘78 Bonneville that my dad picked up at an estate sale for $1200. It was only 10 years old and had about 30k on the clock. What a total POS. Replaced with the Volvo 740 Turbo Wagon about eighteen months later. Blue of course. Loved that car.

 

[Ringhammer]

‘78 Bonneville

What a total POS

As someone with a love for American muscle from 1955-1973, I find it amazing how from 1974 pretty much until the later ‘90’s, American cars were just terrible.

 

[javi_bassist]

I also want to ask you guys. Now that I have a Thunderbird, I am a little afraid of the Gibson bridge. I've had an Epiphone JC for 9 years and I have never really felt like it was proper set up. I think I managed to set it up properly, but I am not sure (one time the rear screws popped out from the body). I have taken a pic of the bridge of the Thunderbird as it came (action is really good IMO) and the Casady.

PS I know that you will probably say that I should replace the bridge. I probably will, but not in the short time.

 

[Gaolee]

I also want to ask you guys. Now that I have a Thunderbird, I am a little afraid of the Gibson bridge. I've had an Epiphone JC for 9 years and I have never really felt like it was proper set up. I think I managed to set it up properly, but I am not sure (one time the rear screws popped out from the body). I have taken a pic of the bridge of the Thunderbird as it came (action is really good IMO) and the Casady.

PS I know that you will probably say that I should replace the bridge. I probably will, but not in the short time.

Three points work just fine once they are set up. As you have discovered, they often need to be set nearly on the deck.

 

[MCF]

I finally got today my Thunderbird!

Awesome! Congrats.

 

[MCF]

As someone with a love for American muscle from 1955-1973, I find it amazing how from 1974 pretty much until the later ‘90’s, American cars were just terrible.

Air quality regs in Cal and 5 MPH federal bumper regs. Somehow the Japanese and European makers adapted. For the most part anyway. All the American makers cared about was selling as many as possible for as much as possible.

 

[kyral210]

Prefer the previous headstock with the band of colour around the edge. Not terribly concerned about it facing the ‘wrong way’.
The Hipshot tuners seems a good choice as a lot of people do that as soon as they get a bass.

Bridge. I don’t know but I’m ok with it. I quite like the look of the 3 point, but must admit to panic when my Goth arrived stringless and with the string guides in a little plastic bag.

DeCola pickups are excellent afaik. I have watched reviews on the EB basses that was super impressed. In fact I was keen on getting one until I found Thunderbirds.

Set neck? Nothing to complain about there although I would prefer neck through. My Goth is a bolt on, and my Gibson neck through.
The wider neck at the nut (1.6 vs 1.5) is ok by me. I seem to prefer a wider neck. But I’d have to try for myself.

It seems to me that this T’bird has a Studio-like body (adding the raised piece) with the recent NR neck and DeCola pickups and Hipshot tuners and bridge. Pretty much what someone building one from pieces might well select.

Please correct me gang if I’m wrong with this.

BUT they really need to offer a (even limited) range of colours. I’ll take a Sparkling Burgandy please.

Yeah, I’m surprised it’s just black and sunburst. Maybe the mod shop will spit out something awesome soon?

 

[MCF]

My first car was a 1973 Volvo 164E I sold it to fund a 1980 BMW 320i. I wish I still had both of them. I would have chopped the top on the 164E and dropped a V8 into the 320i. The Volvo had to hottest heater of any car I've owned. I figure was less likely to get pulled over, with the wildwood flower, in a conservative looking car. I didn't want to be like a friend of mine who was the most wanted man in Solano County for out running the cops. He had 70's 1/2 split bumper Camaro he was scary in that car.

The B30 with electronic FI was a decent package. Pretty nice first car.

 

[dagrev]

Better than this:
View attachment 7464190

I've been told I should use that type of cab.

 

[TBird1958]

I also want to ask you guys. Now that I have a Thunderbird, I am a little afraid of the Gibson bridge. I've had an Epiphone JC for 9 years and I have never really felt like it was proper set up. I think I managed to set it up properly, but I am not sure (one time the rear screws popped out from the body). I have taken a pic of the bridge of the Thunderbird as it came (action is really good IMO) and the Casady.

PS I know that you will probably say that I should replace the bridge. I probably will, but not in the short time.

Congratulations on your new Thunderbird, let me know if you would like a club number
Regarding the bridge, it looks fine, no need to replace it - I honestly think there's a great deal of misinformation out there concerning the 3 point bridge, pay it no mind.

 

[MCF]

I also want to ask you guys. Now that I have a Thunderbird, I am a little afraid of the Gibson bridge. I've had an Epiphone JC for 9 years and I have never really felt like it was proper set up. I think I managed to set it up properly, but I am not sure (one time the rear screws popped out from the body). I have taken a pic of the bridge of the Thunderbird as it came (action is really good IMO) and the Casady.

PS I know that you will probably say that I should replace the bridge. I probably will, but not in the short time.

I say spend your money on something else. I think the Babicz is the best bridge. But I won’t say you should replace your 3-point on the NR. There’s nothing wrong with it. From your pic, there is a whole lot of adjustment left if you want to go lower (with a corresponding move of the pickups). I’m one who sets the 3 point with an oh so slight upward tilt in the front. Others like them flat. Or slightly down in the front. If you’re happy with the action as is, that’s great.

The Cassidy looks proper to my eyes. Yeah, the inserts seem to pull out more often on Epis. I’ve repaired three Epi Thunderbirds with that issue. I use Titebond and patience, letting it set for several days before even attempting to restring. All have held fine after repairs. It’s important to recall that the thin ground wire needs to ground to the insert on the treble side so extra care is required when using glue and resetting the insert.

 

[TBird1958]

Tuesday, it's always a good day for a II, even if it isn't yours!

 

[dagrev]

As someone with a love for American muscle from 1955-1973, I find it amazing how from 1974 pretty much until the later ‘90’s, American cars were just terrible.

So true, sadly. You nailed the time frame for cars we all want to forget in many ways. Unfortunately, a good bit of it likely goes to 1970 and after when the regulations for car manufactures (manufacturing in general), began to take off like a funny-car. Many were obviously well intentioned and good--but even good things can have unintended consequences and create new kinks that then have to be worked out. Growing pains it seems.

My uncle was for a time one of International Harvester's go-to trouble shooting engineers worldwide. Retired ~'79/80. Ended up being offered their main plant but he wanted to stay here. Anyway, I remember him saying back then even for them some of the ways they had to begin to do things simply didn't work. Often things as "simple" cleaning parts for paint to not only look good, but to prevent rust had to be reinvented. Fixing one problem (getting rid of harmful stuff), ended up causing others. Seems some things were easy to say on paper but implementation was another matter. New and often unproven ways of doing things had to be rushed into production because a person in an office who never built anything set an arbitrary date on when it needed to happen. It all made sense, because older cars before early 70s were not the rust buckets that they were right after that. Mid to late 70s cars could easily begin rusting out in a few years. Some was design (GM pickups and their bed fender wells), but much of if was related to prepping the metal for paint. And that's just the things that could be seen!

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

I also want to ask you guys. Now that I have a Thunderbird, I am a little afraid of the Gibson bridge. I've had an Epiphone JC for 9 years and I have never really felt like it was proper set up. I think I managed to set it up properly, but I am not sure (one time the rear screws popped out from the body). I have taken a pic of the bridge of the Thunderbird as it came (action is really good IMO) and the Casady.

PS I know that you will probably say that I should replace the bridge. I probably will, but not in the short time.

Ouch.... no bueno....

 

[JIO]

"Hey, fatso? Get in here!"
Ah, the 70s!

Aside from the color, those were horrifically ugly cars.

Kojak was great - "Sapperstein!" Fatso was his actual brother! Jaco adopted his "who loves yah baby" and the way the theme song is composed and sounds was early influence on his later big band arraingments.

Good theme song too! Bassline is bitchin' - I learned it a while back, fun to play



Another great baseline - the head will get your fingers flying!

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

So true, sadly. You nailed the time frame for cars we all want to forget in many ways. Unfortunately, a good bit of it likely goes to 1970 and after when the regulations for car manufactures (manufacturing in general), began to take off like a funny-car. Many were obviously well intentioned and good--but even good things can have unintended consequences and create new kinks that then have to be worked out. Growing pains it seems.

My uncle was for a time one of International Harvester's go-to trouble shooting engineers worldwide. Retired ~'79/80. Ended up being offered their main plant but he wanted to stay here. Anyway, I remember him saying back then even for them some of the ways they had to begin to do things simply didn't work. Often things as "simple" cleaning parts for paint to not only look good, but to prevent rust had to be reinvented. Fixing one problem (getting rid of harmful stuff), ended up causing others. Seems some things were easy to say on paper but implementation was another matter. New and often unproven ways of doing things had to be rushed into production because a person in an office who never built anything set an arbitrary date on when it needed to happen. It all made sense, because older cars before early 70s were not the rust buckets that they were right after that. Mid to late 70s cars could easily begin rusting out in a few years. Some was design (GM pickups and their bed fender wells), but much of if was related to prepping the metal for paint. And that's just the things that could be seen!

I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that foreign manufacturers had to deal with expensive gas from the get go and the fact we didn't, took us down the wrong path, one that took longer than expected to U-turn out of....

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

sure you know what you're doing dad?....that pickup looks hosed.....

 

[MCF]

So true, sadly. You nailed the time frame for cars we all want to forget in many ways. Unfortunately, a good bit of it likely goes to 1970 and after when the regulations for car manufactures (manufacturing in general), began to take off like a funny-car. Many were obviously well intentioned and good--but even good things can have unintended consequences and create new kinks that then have to be worked out. Growing pains it seems.

My uncle was for a time one of International Harvester's go-to trouble shooting engineers worldwide. Retired ~'79/80. Ended up being offered their main plant but he wanted to stay here. Anyway, I remember him saying back then even for them some of the ways they had to begin to do things simply didn't work. Often things as "simple" cleaning parts for paint to not only look good, but to prevent rust had to be reinvented. Fixing one problem (getting rid of harmful stuff), ended up causing others. Seems some things were easy to say on paper but implementation was another matter. New and often unproven ways of doing things had to be rushed into production because a person in an office who never built anything set an arbitrary date on when it needed to happen. It all made sense, because older cars before early 70s were not the rust buckets that they were right after that. Mid to late 70s cars could easily begin rusting out in a few years. Some was design (GM pickups and their bed fender wells), but much of if was related to prepping the metal for paint. And that's just the things that could be seen!

When was the last time you saw a Vega? Was it even during this century?

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Tuesday, it's always a good day for a II, even if it isn't yours!

Yes!