Thunderbird Club

[GonePlaid]

Thought I'd jump into the semi hollow body pool. Just got a sweet deal on a Fender Starcaster the other day. First Fender product I've bought in the last 5 years. My last 6 bass purchases were all Gibby/Eppi darlings. It's a sweet looking bass (IMHO) and would fit well with a lot of the stuff I'm doing nowadays.
View attachment 3252834

Had it about a week now and still trying to get on with it. The ergonomics are bizarre - very heavy for a semi hollow body, does not want to stay in your lap while sitting (tries to jump forward), short scale is taking more time to get used to than normal (probably because my left hand is trying to keep the darn thing from hitting the floor while it's trying to jump out of my lap), and the headstock is heavy when strapped on. And to think, the Fender fan club complains about TBird ergos!

It also has something odd going on with the A and E strings on the neck pup - if you turn the tone knob to full bass and solo the neck pup then dig in on either of those two strings it farts out the cab. At first I thought I blew a speaker, plugged it into a different rig and got the same thing. Assumed they were just hot pups so I lowered the gain, helped a little but still not the right solution. Noticed the pups had been lowered all the way down into the body as far as they could go, nearly an inch air gap to the strings. So I raised the pups up to about a 2mm clearance, no change in the fart but sounded much better across the board. Fiddled with the neck tone pot and think it or a cold solider joint might be the problem, if not that it might be a microphonic pup. Typical hollowbody PITA to work on the pots since there's no control cavity access (you have to feed the entire electrical harness back through the ultra narrow sound holes to work on the pots. Fortunately they have a binding on them so less chance of mucking up the finish around the F holes.

I originally bought this bass because I wanted to drop some TBird pups in it. Not sure if that will work since the Fender Humbuckers have a completely different aspect ratio than anything Gibson uses. Might look at Dark Star options if I keep the bass. I'm into it for less than a couple hundred bucks so I have plenty of room to mod without going under on value.

If it's that uncomfortable/awkward to play, plus the difficulty working on it, I wonder if it's worth f---*ing with it.

*ool

 

[PillO]

Thought I'd jump into the semi hollow body pool. Just got a sweet deal on a Fender Starcaster the other day. First Fender product I've bought in the last 5 years. My last 6 bass purchases were all Gibby/Eppi darlings. It's a sweet looking bass (IMHO) and would fit well with a lot of the stuff I'm doing nowadays.
View attachment 3252834

Had it about a week now and still trying to get on with it. The ergonomics are bizarre - very heavy for a semi hollow body, does not want to stay in your lap while sitting (tries to jump forward), short scale is taking more time to get used to than normal (probably because my left hand is trying to keep the darn thing from hitting the floor while it's trying to jump out of my lap), and the headstock is heavy when strapped on. And to think, the Fender fan club complains about TBird ergos!

It also has something odd going on with the A and E strings on the neck pup - if you turn the tone knob to full bass and solo the neck pup then dig in on either of those two strings it farts out the cab. At first I thought I blew a speaker, plugged it into a different rig and got the same thing. Assumed they were just hot pups so I lowered the gain, helped a little but still not the right solution. Noticed the pups had been lowered all the way down into the body as far as they could go, nearly an inch air gap to the strings. So I raised the pups up to about a 2mm clearance, no change in the fart but sounded much better across the board. Fiddled with the neck tone pot and think it or a cold solider joint might be the problem, if not that it might be a microphonic pup. Typical hollowbody PITA to work on the pots since there's no control cavity access (you have to feed the entire electrical harness back through the ultra narrow sound holes to work on the pots. Fortunately they have a binding on them so less chance of mucking up the finish around the F holes.

I originally bought this bass because I wanted to drop some TBird pups in it. Not sure if that will work since the Fender Humbuckers have a completely different aspect ratio than anything Gibson uses. Might look at Dark Star options if I keep the bass. I'm into it for less than a couple hundred bucks so I have plenty of room to mod without going under on value.

According to GP, neck dive on a 7ender is impossible….

Seems to me that the wiring harness could come out of a pick up rather than an f hole. Gives you a little more room to maneuver (but still a PIA).

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

I was looking at that bass on train into work this AM, I really liked it. Price was not bad for a pretty cool bass - The PJ set up doesn't do much for me, but I'd have dealt with it

It was sold long before I looked at it unfortunately. I woulda preferred a dual reverse P pup setup, but like you said woulda dealt with it

 

[GBassNorth]

According to GP, neck dive on a 7ender is impossible….

Seems to me that the wiring harness could come out of a pick up rather than an f hole. Gives you a little more room to maneuver (but still a PIA).

I suspect not, the pups are mounted in a solid center block along with the bridge and neck bolts. The F holes expose the hollow portions of the semi hollow body.

 

[GBassNorth]

If it's that uncomfortable/awkward to play, plus the difficulty working on it, I wonder if it's worth f---*ing with it.

*ool

Well, like I said, "If I keep it".
Haven't decided just yet, will give it a couple more weeks of play time to decide. I have other basses that are equally odd to play and I wouldn't even remotely consider parting with them. My Warwick 5 string bolt on Thumb bass is a rock crusher from a tone stand point and a back crusher from an ergonomics standpoint. Sometimes a little PITA is worth it. We'll see if that's the case with the Starcaster.

 

[PillO]

I suspect not, the pups are mounted in a solid center block along with the bridge and neck bolts. The F holes expose the hollow portions of the semi hollow body.

Hard to believe that 7ender would make something difficult like that. All their design is around making manufacturing easy and low skill (for example mount all the electronics on the pick guard so that they can be manufactured separately, routes on the top of the body to negate the need to flip the body during manufacturing)

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Dang, sorry man. I guess AVG is just a bit slow updating their site, but in fairness, it sounded like it had only sold in the past couple of days. They said they were surprised by all the sudden interest, as it had literally been in their inventory for years.

They do have a neat SG bass and an extremely heavy RD bass to play around on. I already have an SG bass, but I've been mulling over how to make the RD happen. Not sure my back would like that, though.

Even though I suspect I could have made money off it later, right now most of the spare money (and time) is reserved for the books.

Plus, of course, I'd love to have an older Gibby. Duh.

 

[GBassNorth]

Hard to believe that 7ender would make something difficult like that. All their design is around making manufacturing easy and low skill (for example mount all the electronics on the pick guard so that they can be manufactured separately, routes on the top of the body to negate the need to flip the body during manufacturing)

Yeah, considering Fenders normal take on instruments I kinda expected to have a control plate on the flip side. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time I've worked on a semi hollow bass and had to fish stuff through the sound holes. There are some serious trade secrets in how to to do this properly, it's almost a "ship in a bottle" procedure.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

That's because we can't mention those in a family oriented thread like this one.

Is the Goth a bolt-on neck? They are asking a whole lot of money for it if it is.

It is, and they are. It's $10 shy of 200% the price of a new one (before tax), as opposed to 50% to 75% of new they typically go for.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Thought I'd jump into the semi hollow body pool. Just got a sweet deal on a Fender Starcaster the other day. First Fender product I've bought in the last 5 years. My last 6 bass purchases were all Gibby/Eppi darlings. It's a sweet looking bass (IMHO) and would fit well with a lot of the stuff I'm doing nowadays.
View attachment 3252834

Had it about a week now and still trying to get on with it. The ergonomics are bizarre - very heavy for a semi hollow body, does not want to stay in your lap while sitting (tries to jump forward), short scale is taking more time to get used to than normal (probably because my left hand is trying to keep the darn thing from hitting the floor while it's trying to jump out of my lap), and the headstock is heavy when strapped on. And to think, the Fender fan club complains about TBird ergos!

It also has something odd going on with the A and E strings on the neck pup - if you turn the tone knob to full bass and solo the neck pup then dig in on either of those two strings it farts out the cab. At first I thought I blew a speaker, plugged it into a different rig and got the same thing. Assumed they were just hot pups so I lowered the gain, helped a little but still not the right solution. Noticed the pups had been lowered all the way down into the body as far as they could go, nearly an inch air gap to the strings. So I raised the pups up to about a 2mm clearance, no change in the fart but sounded much better across the board. Fiddled with the neck tone pot and think it or a cold solider joint might be the problem, if not that it might be a microphonic pup. Typical hollowbody PITA to work on the pots since there's no control cavity access (you have to feed the entire electrical harness back through the ultra narrow sound holes to work on the pots. Fortunately they have a binding on them so less chance of mucking up the finish around the F holes.

I originally bought this bass because I wanted to drop some TBird pups in it. Not sure if that will work since the Fender Humbuckers have a completely different aspect ratio than anything Gibson uses. Might look at Dark Star options if I keep the bass. I'm into it for less than a couple hundred bucks so I have plenty of room to mod without going under on value.

Dump it. There are many playable basses out there waiting to be played....

 

[GonePlaid]

Well, like I said, "If I keep it".
Haven't decided just yet, will give it a couple more weeks of play time to decide. I have other basses that are equally odd to play and I wouldn't even remotely consider parting with them. My Warwick 5 string bolt on Thumb bass is a rock crusher from a tone stand point and a back crusher from an ergonomics standpoint. Sometimes a little PITA is worth it. We'll see if that's the case with the Starcaster.

Good luck whichever way you go.

 

[GonePlaid]

$20 throw-in-on-a-deal bass plus a ThunderBucker and 4 bridges from the parts drawer. Replaced the POC pre with VT. 32"

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This one was Stu Hamm's personal Washburn siggy... I kept the original piezo bridges and preamp and did a no mod additional ThunderBucker circuit after I bought it from Mojotone in Santa Monica. 34" VT on the sound hole cover.

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These are my personal basses, strictly NOT business.

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I had a Michael Kelly AEB(5 string-shoulda got a 4). The thing sounded great. The folks in the big band I was playing in said it sounded very UB-y which is what I wanted. But, after playing my EB3s and TBird, I couldn't get used to the MK's thickness, esp. when combined with my thickness. Wound up selling it to a guy who played at Epcot.

 

[Gaolee]

I was looking at that bass on train into work this AM, I really liked it. Price was not bad for a pretty cool bass - The PJ set up doesn't do much for me, but I'd have dealt with it

The color would look good on you. We are here to enable, and even our queen deserves encouragement at times.

 

[Gaolee]

Thought I'd jump into the semi hollow body pool. Just got a sweet deal on a Fender Starcaster the other day. First Fender product I've bought in the last 5 years. My last 6 bass purchases were all Gibby/Eppi darlings. It's a sweet looking bass (IMHO) and would fit well with a lot of the stuff I'm doing nowadays.
View attachment 3252834

Had it about a week now and still trying to get on with it. The ergonomics are bizarre - very heavy for a semi hollow body, does not want to stay in your lap while sitting (tries to jump forward), short scale is taking more time to get used to than normal (probably because my left hand is trying to keep the darn thing from hitting the floor while it's trying to jump out of my lap), and the headstock is heavy when strapped on. And to think, the Fender fan club complains about TBird ergos!

It also has something odd going on with the A and E strings on the neck pup - if you turn the tone knob to full bass and solo the neck pup then dig in on either of those two strings it farts out the cab. At first I thought I blew a speaker, plugged it into a different rig and got the same thing. Assumed they were just hot pups so I lowered the gain, helped a little but still not the right solution. Noticed the pups had been lowered all the way down into the body as far as they could go, nearly an inch air gap to the strings. So I raised the pups up to about a 2mm clearance, no change in the fart but sounded much better across the board. Fiddled with the neck tone pot and think it or a cold solider joint might be the problem, if not that it might be a microphonic pup. Typical hollowbody PITA to work on the pots since there's no control cavity access (you have to feed the entire electrical harness back through the ultra narrow sound holes to work on the pots. Fortunately they have a binding on them so less chance of mucking up the finish around the F holes.

I originally bought this bass because I wanted to drop some TBird pups in it. Not sure if that will work since the Fender Humbuckers have a completely different aspect ratio than anything Gibson uses. Might look at Dark Star options if I keep the bass. I'm into it for less than a couple hundred bucks so I have plenty of room to mod without going under on value.

The pickups look about mudbucker size. Which means a Dimarzio One ought to work. That would solve pickup weirdness, but it wouldn't help with the ergos any.

 

[TBird1958]

The color would look good on you. We are here to enable, and even our queen deserves encouragement at times.

I'm pretty sproingky about the new (old) SWR cabinet right now - can't wait to put it through it's paces New Year's Eve!

 

[JJR58]

I'm pretty sproingky about the new (old) SWR cabinet right now - can't wait to put it through it's paces New Year's Eve!

That would be a gig i'd love to be at.

 

[TBird1958]

That would be a gig i'd love to be at.

So, are you flyin' out to the (Best) West Coast?


I can comp you at the door

 

[dukeorock]

Really want to hear a model 1 pickup in person...seems neat

 

[GonePlaid]

Really want to hear a model 1 pickup in person...seems neat

Maybe you could find somebody in the audio biz that could get one on spec.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

I suspect not, the pups are mounted in a solid center block along with the bridge and neck bolts. The F holes expose the hollow portions of the semi hollow body.

this dude smokes one....Traynor!....