Well it has been a long time since I've stopped in on this club. I've been living in Connecticut for the past 4 years while at school, and since flight cases for T-Birds don't exactly come easy, I always left it behind back west when I was out there. However, now I'm back west and have renewed interest in the 'bird.
While I was driving back from the east coast, I stopped in Minneapolis to see some family, and it just so happened the band Temples was playing that night, so I ended up going to see them, and their frontman brought out a late 60s Non-Reverse Firebird XII for a few numbers. That reminded me of the 8-string Thunderbird I'd seen on TB ages back, and how cool that damn thing was. After poking around for some info on it (thanks Tbird1958 for answering my questions!), it seems getting a hold of one of those isn't terrible likely, seeing as the builder isn't building them at the moment. So, pipe dream put on hold. ANYHOW, it did prompt me to pull the Zebrabird out from under the bed when I got home. I've never terribly got along with the thing for a number of reasons. I love how it looks, but when I got it I was coming from a AVRI Precision, so the neck always felt rather uncomfortable (made my hand cramp up), the frets always seemed excessively large, and the string spacing felt a bit awkward. So it only came out on rare occasions. I've thought about selling it a number of times, but couldn't really bring myself to do it, given there's only 400 of them.
When I pulled it from under the bed, it was pretty apparent it needed some work. At somepoint it must have got some moisture in the case or on it somehow, as the frets were all...corroded, rusted? Covered in green buildup and rust, anyways, meaning when bending strings it felt scratchy and gritty. So, first thing first, got out some steel wool and tape, and polished the frets and then oiled the fretboard. Next step was dropping the action, A LOT. I'd never set it up after I bought it, and the factory setup just wasn't that hot. Neck was straight as an arrow, but high off the board. Cranked the bridge down a lot, dropped the pickups massivelt, retuned it, and MAN, what a difference. Before I'd had issues with my fingers hitting the pups when I was playing and feeling the bass was always way overpowering the treble, but with the pickups down, it's far more balanced with a lot more room to play on now. I also realized that I just have no need for the brdige pickup to be on at all, and that the neck pup is the only one I really use. To be fair, a Precision is still my measuring post for bass tone (mind you, not a "flatwond, tone rolled off" one, rather tone wide open, Swing 66s, into a driven Sunn amp, think Entwislte on the '69 US tour), but now the 'Bird aligns far more closely with my tonal goals, but still having a distinct flavor. It'll start getting a fair bit more use now. I've been using it to learn the Bach Cello suites on this week.
Now I just have a hankering for a Non-Reverse Thunderbird II in Willow Mist poly (light sage green) or, if I can ever track down a builder, a Non-Reverse Thunderbird VIII in Polaris White. Let the GAS flow.
Oh, and here's a pic of the Zebrabird getting worked on.
) it's now earned the name goth.
