Thunderbird Club

[Miles_ONeal]

Well, I’m committed to giving them a shot.

I worked on the setup on the ‘15 yesterday after installing them Friday night over polishing the frets and hitting the board with a little F1. First off, my Babicz does not like the silks at the ball ends. A bit tight. And I followed the directions re installing at the tuners; half wrap and back through the slots, then down. A PITA. What would have taken 10 minutes or less an a 7ender took forever to get them seated correctly on the narrow shafts. Tuned them up and started playing them in.

Saturday, I tuned again and played some more. Yesterday I set relief at .012 and string height at a a bee’s d**k around 5/64 all the way across. Then worked on intonation. I started with the lengths as set for the (way dead and lifeless) rounds that were on it. The G wanted to be way sharp on the harmonic. The D too, to a lesser degree. Played them in some more. I love how they feel, smooth and fast (as I’ve mentioned before, I’m pretty much a finger style, moving thumb player).

Today I’ll work on dialing them in some more and tweak pickup height. The bridge PUP is a bit too high for my style when I play over it. So far not choruusy, even with taps off and volume and tone all the way up. I’m not hearing a volume issue from string to string. And it sounds birdy, but too shrill on the high-mids.

At this point, it’s more about making it comfortable to play than getting it sound perfect in a mix as I’m not playing out for now. I love flats and tend to want to play the basses with them more. So I’m going to leave these on for a while and as Goalee says, play it.

No idea on a 15, but on my Epi IV and Epi Pro V, changing strings was a piece of cake, very quick. And I hadn’t changed bass strings in decades, having mostly played guitar till a few years ago. Same drill as to how, but mine were easy. Maybe just counter to where your fingers are used to going?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

A lot of the early Japanese bikes were terrible in the wet over here in blighty, especially the 250 two strokes. Mid 70,s.

I eventually realized the spark plug lead insulation was bad, but by then I had bent a rim and worn out the rings. I sold it when I went to college, which I later regretted.

 

[TBird1958]

Meanwhile on the West Coast...…….

Puget Sound looking west towards the Olympic Peninsula and mountain range of the same name. I so want to retire out that way.

 

[mr zee]

This is the view at the bottom of my back garden

and looking back to the house

 

[PillO]

I eventually realized the spark plug lead insulation was bad, but by then I had bent a rim and worn out the rings. I sold it when I went to college, which I later regretted.

Yeah, many people regret college...

 

[PillO]

This is the view at the bottom of my back gardenView attachment 3428084
and looking back to the houseView attachment 3428098

Dude! Water your lawn!

 

[mr zee]

Dude! Water your lawn!

This is what it looked like aug 2018 when we viewed property, moved n mid jan 2019 and the lawn is more like a jungle now, also adjacent to north sea so nature takes care of watering. Will take a pic tomoz n post.

 

[GonePlaid]

Total derail. I absolutely love being in Brooklyn. To prove how clueless I really am. I had no idea there was a ferry 5 minutes away from me. Gets you to other parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. And it’s a nice boat unlike the old beat up, broken down Staten Island Ferry. And yes, I am smiling as CB would put it.

View attachment 3427982 View attachment 3427977

That's what I tell 'em at DMV.

 

[Count Bassie]

Here's my view today.

Honey, I shrunk the shed...

 

[GonePlaid]

Had one very similar to your 160. Currently have a CB 450 in the garage. Fun and neat little bikes

When I decided(74?)to get another bike, I wanted the 750(biggest at the time). Sat on it and it was trying to pull my groin(tank too wide). Salesman suggested the 550. Disappointedly I tried it. It was like it was custom made for my dimensions. Kept it a coupla years but hard to carry a TBird and piggyback bassman on it so adios.

 

[PillO]

This is what it looked like aug 2018 when we viewed property, moved n mid jan 2019 and the lawn is more like a jungle now, also adjacent to north sea so nature takes care of watering. Will take a pic tomoz n post.

Well, on spec. Dude! Cut your grass!

 

[PillO]

Here's my view today.
View attachment 3428141 View attachment 3428142

Honey, I shrunk the shed...

I was thinking porch for midgets. And I approve of your refreshment!

 

[PillO]

Here's my view today.
View attachment 3428141 View attachment 3428142

Honey, I shrunk the shed...

Also, I love the field stone wall in the back (Ahem?). I assume no mortar holding it together.

 

[JJR58]

I don't recall anyone demanding proof...

 

[BklynKen]

Here's my view today.
View attachment 3428141 View attachment 3428142

Honey, I shrunk the shed...

DUDE! BEER!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

This is the view at the bottom of my back gardenView attachment 3428084
and looking back to the houseView attachment 3428098

Dude! Flippers!

 

[RedVee]

I know-just an example to check out.

Me: Proud German.

Do you have licorice allsorts in NA ?

My background is like a licorice allsort.

 

[TBird1958]

This is the view at the bottom of my back gardenView attachment 3428084
and looking back to the houseView attachment 3428098

This is beautiful, I would love it even more when the weather turns a bit nasty, nice cozy brick home.

 

[RedVee]

Great question!
When I get the 2015 dialed in later today I might update my scoring. But for right now I'd say each of the birds is capable of a fairly broad tone range. That's probably why they fit in so many different music settings.

For now, the VP is my go to bird, it just does everything right. I have strong hopes for the 2015. The Anniversary Bird is a solid player. The Goth is a bit of an enigma and just as much at home in a baritone guitar mode as a bass mode.

Relatively speaking if I had to list each birds range from a deep/dark setting (tone rolled off, neck pup soloed, finger picking between neck and neck pup) at a value of zero; to a hifi/bright setting (tone all up, neck pup full on, finger picking over the bridge pup) at a value of ten, I'd probably list them as follows...

2015 Gibson Thunderbird = 2 to 8 no mid hump, slight scoop, little punch*
2013 Gibson Golden Anniversary Bird = 3 to 7 no mid hump, slight scoop, good punch
2017 Epiphone Gibson Thunderbird VP = 3 to 9 slight high mid hump, strong punch
2017 Epiphone Goth Thunderbird stock = 4 to 6 significant mid hump, no punch
2017 Epiphone Goth Thunderbird modded = 1 to 9 significant mid hump, strong punch

*may be revised once string selection is finalized and set up complete.

Sorry, what do you mean by ‘mid hump’ ?

So true. Funny how you really can’t hear a difference between songs recorded with the Ric and those with the Hofner. Between his hands playing and Martin’s On the dials/sliders, it’s a distinct sound.

Any idea what he was playing on “Something”?
I’m on the Gold Coast for a week (work) and neglected to pack my copy of Beatles Gear.

I'd jump on it! Alas, another day.

Now that’s one that would be a candidate for the white refin.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Nothing that fancy. This, except greener, and I think it had the tuning fork badge rather than “Yamaha” on the tank. Can’t swear to that.
View attachment 3427678

Now I'm thinking the tuning fork logo was elsewhere. The racing stripe atop the tank was continued on the erar skirt behind the seat. Manual drum brakes. Heel-toe shifter (one down, three up, I think). The carb was in the side of the crankcase. I never found anything in Augusta faster to 30MPH than bigger two strokes. Not very many cars could beat it to 40MPH. A granny in a tired Rambler could beat it to 50MPH, which was the clocked top end (by my dad and a couple of friends), despite Yamaha's claimed 55. To sustain 50 against much wind or more than ~10 degree grade, I had to lay down on the tank. OTOH, it still ran quite well with two people on it. I usually saw 90-100MPG. It could have gotten much better but gas was cheap and I was all about acceleration and speed (such as it was).

It was billed as a scrambler, but it was basically a street bike with a high pipe and compromise tires (biased toward street riding). It saw a LOT of dirt time, including trail riding for fun and learning how to control slides, turns, and stops on dirt roads, which saved my life more than once in gravel or on wet pavement. It also got jumped enough that I was amazed the shocks still worked when I sold it.

A few years later I borrowed my BIL's Kawasaki triple 250 over the winter when my van died, When the weather warmed up and he wanted it back, we bought a Yamaha XS650E twin. The bike pictured is a random internet photo; my luggage rack also had a sissy bar that adjusted forward and back. I routinely carried a 100W combo (or occasionally a small practice amp) strapped on the luggage rack with the guitar strapped to the sissy bar. It handled like a drunk pig, but it worked.

After I ran that ragged, I traded it for one of the very first Honda Interceptors, a 1983 VF750F water-cooled V4. It was billed as easy to maintain (based on their latest race bike!) but it was a pain to work on. When they first came out, each Honda dealer was allocated exactly four for the forseeable future. I had read glowing reports about this and the newest Kawasaki 750. I wanted to test ride both. But every Interceptor in Atlanta was sold well before the dealers got them. I found a dealer an hour north of Marietta in Dahlonega who had a couple. "If you come up on your current bike, you can have a test ride." The dealer himself gave me the keys, jumped on a Kawasaki KZ1000 and said, "follow me!" Once he saw I could handle the bike, we spent the next hour tearing up back roads in the mountains. I called my wife, she said sure, I signed a contract, got the loan the next day, and picked the red one. Only then did I find out the dealer had bought the first Interceptor to arrive, and that I had thus ridden his personal bike the day before. Incredible! The blurry photo below is that bike. I miss it.