Thunderbird Club

[Skerrvydog]

Met a Thunderbird Valentine at a gig on V-Day. Vivian plays with a super fun band called Cowbell Superstar and was sporting a new white Vintage Pro.
Go check em out sometime if you’re in the Philly/ Bucks County region.
I encouraged her to come join the club of course...

 

[JJR58]

View attachment 2919916 View attachment 2919918 Met a Thunderbird Valentine at a gig on V-Day. Vivian plays with a super fun band called Cowbell Superstar and was sporting a new white Vintage Pro.
Go check em out sometime if you’re in the Philly/ Bucks County region.
I encouraged her to come join the club of course...

Vivian has got a VP. Two lovely white Birds there. Cool Pics! Is this the start of a beautiful friendship?

 

[godofthunder59]

Cold and gray here, waiting for some sun to take pictures of my first nonreverse Thunderbird dated 1968.

 

[Shannon]

He likes people. He hates furniture. It could be worse. He could hate Thunderbirds. Then what! Actually, Kat has a point. He might be bored. Another hateful furry shedding machine might help with that problem. It would make vacuuming up the fuzz twice as impossible. Pick your poison.

What do you think is inside these?

 

[Shannon]

So it's similar to a modern P (1-5/8) only with some girth. It sounds perfect. The CroMagnon hands would like it. Maybe I should measure mine. I just assume they are noodle necks, but that doesn't mean it's true. The only one that's truly an aircraft carrier deck is the Fender P. It's flattened out, too, so it's a little unpleasant until you adjust to it's width and flatness.

Just so you know, an aircraft carrier flight deck also has 4 wires in tension.
Clearly they are... (puts on shades)... bass boats.

 

[Shannon]

I don't know where people got the misconception that Thunderbird's are heavy. That one pisses me off the most, muddiness? That could just be from the person doesn't know how to EQ an amp. Neck dive? Strap placement, thin strap, some actually do to some extent. But heavy?! Never held one that was over (roughly) 9 lbs

Maybe someone got into some horrible accident involving dirt and water and a 'Bird? Then he came back in and complained that his 'Bird was all muddy' and someone thought he was talking about the sound?

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

Maybe someone got into some horrible accident involving dirt and water and a 'Bird? Then he came back in and complained that his 'Bird was all muddy' and someone thought he was talking about the sound?

Certainly possible!

 

[GBassNorth]

Couldn’t take the gaps around the pickups, so went ahead and got rings. I kinda like it...
View attachment 2919781
Wow, that’s a terrible picture!

Looks much better with the trim rings!

 

[theFixer]

Funny things happen. I’ve been watching and waiting for a Rumble 115 cab, to complete my little assemblage, to come up at a price and location suitable to me.
I’ve also been wondering about changing the pickup on my pretend P Bass.
Today I missed out on a Quarter Pounder P for $50.
Have another browse around tonight and it now seems I have a year old GK CX115 cab on hold, a suburb basically between where I grew up and my high school location. so looks like I’m going ‘home’ on Saturday morning. Bit stunned, but in a good way.

So... yer tellin' me you found a 1x15 cab on the way to school???

 

[theFixer]

View attachment 2919916 View attachment 2919918 Met a Thunderbird Valentine at a gig on V-Day. Vivian plays with a super fun band called Cowbell Superstar and was sporting a new white Vintage Pro.
Go check em out sometime if you’re in the Philly/ Bucks County region.
I encouraged her to come join the club of course...

Now THAT looks like a fun night!!! Any chance there's a "separated at birth" story in there somewhere?

 

[Nocturnal]

AND...

Found this clip of REM’s very first tv appearance around 35 years ago. Saw them a bunch back then and they really were something special in the early days

I enjoyed early R.E.M. but by the 4th album they were just something that my then girlfriend/now wife listened to. Saw them after the drummer had the brain issue and they played NOTHING from the first three albums!! I was finished with them completely at that point. I had only agreed to go to the show originally because Sonic Youth was the opener and I had never seen them. When the rescheduled tour came thru Luscious Jackson were the openers. I saw that band 5 times without ever trying. They opened a lot of shows back then.

 

[GBassNorth]

The design of the 'bird certainly lends itself to neck-divability. That cricket bat of a headstock is practically reason enough all on it's own! The front strap button being up by the 17th fret surely doesn't lessen that effect. I know mine dives like a socially unacceptable innuendo I can't print in a public forum... but I don't care. Nor do I understand why so many people do. Ya just learn how to deal with it. So it's a little "tilty". Big friggin' deal! It ain't like there's a concrete block tied to the headstock! SG's are consistently and universally known to be neck-heavy... but ya don't see or hear people b!tchin' about it all the time. So, what is it about Thunderbirds, that makes people feel this "need" to trash talk it, and try to keep others from trying it out for themselves? Did the most popular kid in the world proclaim that T-birds were uncool, thus provoking blind hatred throughout the entire lemming community or something? As for muddiness... that's obviously nothing more that uneducated B.S. from people who haven't heard for themselves. I have the cheapest version of T-bird pups available, in the cheapest version of T-bird available... and though I'll hastily admit they don't sound like ThunderBuckers or Lulls... The sound is clear, complex, and robust, with character and definition. The only way I can make it sound "muddy", is if I solo the neck pup & roll the tone off. Ironically... that's what I do when I'm shootin' for a P-bass tone. Does that mean that all P-basses are muddy?

I think the Fender fanboyz realize deep down that the Thunderbird could easily give a P bass or a Jazz bass a run for the money in just about any setting. It threatens the very existence of their favorite instruments if left un-checked. Consequently, many of them freely chime into the echo chamber and feed themselves and anyone else listening a bunch of half truths, outdated information and just plain lies. All that negative confirmation creates a bias in the mind of those that overhear it but don't have any first hand experience to refute it (I was one of those).

It wasn't until I bought my first SG Supreme 4 years ago that I realized 90% of the players in the TB GenPop don't have a freaking clue about what they're talking about. Here I am 6 Gibby/Eppi instruments later and I still haven't found one loudly proclaimed fault of Gibson basses to be true. Three Thunderbirds, Two SG Supremes and a 2014EB all purchased on line (no try before you buy) and not a bit of neck dive, no mud, no quality control issues, no boat anchors, no self detaching headstock, no garbage bridges, no noodle necks, not even any hate mail from a$$hole Henry.

TB GenPop is where the delusional persuade the gullible to believe the improbable.

 

[theFixer]

... the delusional persuade the gullible to believe the improbable.

What a great quote!

 

[JJR58]

What a great quote!

They pretty much go for it every time. Sad, but my favorite so far is the comment Kat got on the V only on a Pbass.

 

[dukeorock]

Cold and gray here, waiting for some sun to take pictures of my first nonreverse Thunderbird dated 1968.

Yes, please!

I enjoyed early R.E.M. but by the 4th album they were just something that my then girlfriend/now wife listened to. Saw them after the drummer had the brain issue and they played NOTHING from the first tree albums!! I was finished with them completely at that point. I had only agreed to go to the show originally because Sonic Youth was the opener and I had never seen them. When the rescheduled tour came thru Luscious Jackson were the openers. I saw that band 5 times without ever trying. They opened a lot of shows back then.

You could do worse! I saw REM a few times early on and thought they were incredible. Seems like once I could understand the lyrics and they started getting political, I more or less checked out, but there were still a lot of great songs over the years

TB GenPop is where the delusional persuade the gullible to believe the improbable.

Theres a great sig right there!

 

[dukeorock]

They pretty much go for it every time. Sad, but my favorite so far is the comment Kat got on the V only on a Pbass.

I get crap all the time for not liking tone pots as well. As if there’s no other way to damp highs when you need to...like hand technique or eq

 

[JJR58]

I get crap all the time for not liking tone pots as well. As if there’s no other way to damp highs when you need to...like hand technique or eq

And the GP just loves a go at hand technique and eq.

 

[godofthunder59]

So I am up to the fateful day I bought my first Nonreverse Thunderbird, the receipt shows the date March '80, I thought I bought it in '79 but the paper work doesn't lie.
I remember the day clearly. I went to the House of Guitars and checked out the back display case, l called it the turd case. For years there had been 4-5 Nonreverse Thunderbirds there, Craig Grubers modded white one was among them. I gravitated to a beat Tobacco Sunburst II, there were hammer and screwed driver marks in the back. Man it seemed big and frankly a little homely but I was intrigued .
I went to plug it in and holy cow there was this fantastic sound coming from this beast of a bass. I had to have it. I put it on layaway and paid it off as quickly as I could. I remember when I went to pick it up Bruce brought two out front, one was in much better condition I insisted on getting the beat up one. It took me awhile to cope with the lenght of the bass and beefy neck but man was it worth it !
The bass is unusual, it's body is thicker than any Nonreverse I have owned and the body also has a very sharp radius on the body's edge, only one I have ever seen like it. The serial number dates it a '68, some sources say none were shipped in '68 but I have checked it many times over the years.
It's been my main bass all these years,it has had two headstock repairs and a split body. I semi retired it around '09, think I'll be taking it back out this summer.

 

[godofthunder59]

More pics.

 

[dukeorock]

So I am up to the fateful day I bought my first Nonreverse Thunderbird, the receipt shows the date March '80, I thought I bought it in '79 but the paper work doesn't lie.
I remember the day clearly. I went to the House of Guitars and checked out the back display case, l called it the turd case. For years there had been 4-5 Nonreverse Thunderbirds there, Craig Grubers modded white one was among them. I gravitated to a beat Tobacco Sunburst II, there were hammer and screwed driver marks in the back. Man it seemed big and frankly a little homely but I was intrigued .
I went to plug it in and holy cow there was this fantastic sound coming from this beast of a bass. I had to have it. I put it on layaway and paid it off as quickly as I could. I remember when I went to pick it up Bruce brought two out front, one was in much better condition I insisted on getting the beat up one. It took me awhile to cope with the lenght of the bass and beefy neck but man was it worth it !
The bass is unusual, it's body is thicker than any Nonreverse I have owned and the body also has a very sharp radius on the body's edge, only one I have ever seen like it. The serial number dates it a '68, some sources say none were shipped in '68 but I have checked it many times over the years.
It's been my main bass all these years,it has had two headstock repairs and a split body. I semi retired it around '09, think I'll be taking it back out this summer. View attachment 2920199 View attachment 2920199 View attachment 2920200 View attachment 2920201 View attachment 2920202 View attachment 2920203 View attachment 2920204

Beautiful!