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Thunderbird Club

#83,744
GBassNorth said:
I recall reading the thread in the GenPop on a 2018 Sweetwater red bird purchase with photos that looked exactly like that. IIRC the buyer returned it to Sweetwater and had them ship a replacement, turned out the replacement had the exact same issue, so Sweetwater opened another only to find it also had the same issue. They eventually did find one that was fine but the prevailing thought at the time was the basses were not installed in the factory case correctly and that the damage was from the factory. So there's at least 3 birds out there with the same issue.

Looks completely fixable and at a reasonable cost as long as no refinishing is required. But you might want to look into the whole discussion about improper case storage. Who knows, if true there might be a higher than normal neck support cross brace in the case that's causing the problem. I'd hate to fix something like that and then have it happen again after I put it back in the case.
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Good point. Both of my Tbirds don’t really sit in the case well. It’s like the forming for the body isn’t deep enough, and just carrying them makes the bass slip down and out of the body form. My 2000 Blackbird AND my 2012 Heritage Cherry Bird do it.
 
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#83,745
Nocturnal said:
This will be coming to my house soon. It started as waaaaaayyyyyy overpriced but he reduced it dramatically and had the "Make Offer" button there, so I sent an offer. So I might be in the market for some used TBPlus pickups or it might be a simple fix. From what he told me he never really investigated once the neck pickup "quit working". I don't really care for the pickguard so will probably get a metal or mirror replacement. Even with replacing the pickups I did good on the price.

View attachment 3045781
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Curious to know how it sounds with just a simple master volume, master tone & kill switch. Then again, i preferred the Blackbird over this one.
 
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#83,746
JIO said:
Gibson produced a three pu bird?
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JJR58 said:
That’s the second one I’ve seen. Obviously, not in person.
What was it like @TBird1958?
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Yes, it's a Gibson produced bass, they did make a small number of them, Uwe thought it to be a prototype and that they were using it to test positions for the pickups. It played very nicely as you might expect, I would have really liked to open it up through my own amp as I think there are some interesting tonal possibilities........
 
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#83,748
ThaCoast said:
Curious to know how it sounds with just a simple master volume, master tone & kill switch. Then again, i preferred the Blackbird over this one.
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I expect it to sound a bit different based on the maple wings and different electronics setup. Only one way to find out; compare them. Of course the BlackBird I still own was modded to vol-vol only. It doesn't sound quite the same as the first one with just the kill switch. Similar, but not the same.
 
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#83,749
Nocturnal said:
I expect it to sound a bit different based on the maple wings and different electronics setup. Only one way to find out; compare them. Of course the BlackBird I still own was modded to vol-vol only. It doesn't sound quite the same as the first one with just the kill switch. Similar, but not the same.
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Blackbird might be darker in tone, where the tigerflame might sound brighter with the maple. I can't wait to have my epiphone goth thunderbird back in play - with deep sixx pups wired to a kill, it'll sound great.
 
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#83,751
Unclejackrock said:
Good point. Both of my Tbirds don’t really sit in the case well. It’s like the forming for the body isn’t deep enough, and just carrying them makes the bass slip down and out of the body form. My 2000 Blackbird AND my 2012 Heritage Cherry Bird do it.
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My 2014 does that as well. The case is from the early 2000's IIRC and an actual Gibson case. It is the black version with a grey interior.

FWIW, I had the Pan/Pink case like the one you got with yours for my 2014 t-bird. It felt really flimsy by comparison. Not sure if that is a thing or not.
 
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#83,752
bylar13 said:
My 2014 does that as well. The case is from the early 2000's IIRC and an actual Gibson case. It is the black version with a grey interior.

FWIW, I had the Pan/Pink case like the one you got with yours for my 2014 t-bird. It felt really flimsy by comparison. Not sure if that is a thing or not.
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I haven’t gotten the brown case yet. Both of my other Birds have a black case, and they seem the same inside, except the Blackbird case has a blanket and the other one does not. They both let the bass slip out of the body form while carrying.
 
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#83,754
Been meaning to do this. Get the cab up off the floor. Remove as much cab to floor coupling as possible. Certainly not pretty, but hey, use what ya got, right? Huge difference in tone and controlled low end.

IMG_0321.JPG
 
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#83,755
bylar13 said:
My 2014 does that as well. The case is from the early 2000's IIRC and an actual Gibson case. It is the black version with a grey interior.

FWIW, I had the Pan/Pink case like the one you got with yours for my 2014 t-bird. It felt really flimsy by comparison. Not sure if that is a thing or not.
Click to expand...


Take a clean dish towel and fold it into a long narrow shape and lay it lengthways across the lower 'bout, put pink cover in place - problem solved.
 
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#83,758
TBird1958 said:
Take a clean dish towel and fold it into a long narrow shape and lay it lengthways across the lower 'bout, put pink cover in place - problem solved.
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Thank you for the advice!! Really, I can see where I can make use of the one thousand micro fiber towels I keep around for this. I guess it never really occurred to me how to fix this issue. I’ve banged my birds around for a long time, and I get super salty every time I see my girls hanging out of the form. However, can’t Gibson with its hundreds of years of guitar making experience figure out how to keep a Tbird from flopping around??
 
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#83,759
JJR58 said:
Been meaning to do this. Get the cab up off the floor. Remove as much cab to floor coupling as possible. Certainly not pretty, but hey, use what ya got, right? Huge difference in tone and controlled low end.

View attachment 3046077
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I dare you to post this out in GP 2ith a complex set of calculations that determine the volume of the plastic tubs. Then let everyone argue over:
The correct calculations for volume,
The correct amount of dampening material (papers from the looks of it) to have in the tubs,
The corrections for the density of the plastic, and
The best tubs for metal.
 
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