Thunderbird Club

[fasterpussycat]

Three Thunderbirds (and interloper).

 

[Butcherboy]

Ok... so which Bird is which?

Blue 2012? Red 1966 ?

Love ‘em both

Yes ...blue 2012, red 1966

 

[Butcherboy]

Very nice rig! Hopefully you didn't have to sell those beautiful birds to get it.

...Subie is 16 years old now, so I spend my money on gear....

 

[gaffster]

As Dorian's cat-5 eye wall was headed dead nuts over my house, you make some decisions on what to take since there would have been a pile of sticks and some pink insulation left. GF was cool...I explained how road worn short scale thunderbird basses don't grow on trees. So cooler of food and water, bottle of whisky, insurance papers, favorite clothes, our pet lop eared bunny rabbit Benjamin..and my favorite birds made the cut.

 

[GBassNorth]

As Dorian's cat-5 eye wall was headed dead nuts over my house, you make some decisions on what to take since there would have been a pile of sticks and some pink insulation left. GF was cool...I explained how road worn short scale thunderbird basses don't grow on trees. So cooler of food and water, bottle of whisky, insurance papers, favorite clothes, our pet lop eared bunny rabbit Benjamin..and my favorite birds made the cut.

Hope your house made it through ok. Gotta love your selection process. Anytime TBirds and Whiskey make the short list (right up there with food, water, clothing, mate, important docs, and the family pet) it's a great day.
Again, hoping all is ok now.

 

[MCF]

I'm not looking for another bass (not that I'm not looking at other basses), but if I found a decent old Hagstrom for a good price, I'd probably have to get it.

They’re very cool guitars, kind of like Mosrites are cool. There’s a guy near me that keeps listing a hollow body Hagstrom for $500 on cl. No takers for over a year. It disappears after a few weeks then he relists it for the same price. I would like a solid body like yours. They come up on GC often enough, but the ask is always pretty high.

This started life as a Model One (a.k.a., Kent). Two single coil pickups with on/off switch per pickup, a tone switch, a mute switch, and a volume pedal. The pickups were too thin sounding and low volume for me. Bought it for $20 off a guy at my favorite music store. Vinyl on the back was falling off, etc.
Now it's phase/off for each pickup, series/parallel, volume, and tone.
A teenager borrowed it. When it came back, a saddle was missing with a sticker saying "IOU". But needs a better bridge, anyway.
Like I said, this guitar is why I'm comfortable working on my THUNDERBIRDS.
The last photo is next to my THUNDERBIRD IV for size comparison.
View attachment 3532522 View attachment 3532523 View attachment 3532524 View attachment 3532525

That is some serious mojo Miles.

 

[MCF]

Ha! Thats just the least of how I celebrate the day after NBD...

Drill...check!
Drill bit...check!
Screws...check!
DIY Extension...check!

No sending it back now...

I have practice tomorrow so i'll take it off and paint it back after that.

I will say that now with my Italia strap (which I was able to extend a bit more) it sits perfect and is very comfortable to play!

Gutsy move with the drill. Now you’ve made it all yours! I’ll be taking advantage of the usual Italia 2fer sale after my PB IV arrives. I still need a good strap for my Foundation; the last one I bought for it ended going better with one of my Ps.

 

[gidbass]

Gutsy move with the drill. Now you’ve made it all yours! I’ll be taking advantage of the usual Italia 2fer sale after my PB IV arrives. I still need a good strap for my Foundation; the last one I bought for it ended going better with one of my Ps.

Well I was chosen so I figured it wasn’t going anywhere anyway...

 

[MCF]

I didn't see anyone playing them for a long time and then I saw/hear my favorite guitarist Nels Cline rocking' one at a cool lounge here in SF years ago. It wasn't his, remember him saying it was Carla Bozulich's - he also rocked the Dano RI's of the 90's. Love the unique sound of them.

Nels is so cool. I remember a blog post somewhere where he just showed up places and played through whatever amp was there. As I’ve said before, my favorite guitarist...he could could make a Thrifty Drug Store Teisco sound like a million bucks.

 

[JIO]

found it!...E-mu Systems company picnic 1995...ripped it raw from the CD and slapped some L1 limit...
the transition from "Starship Trooper" into "South Side" happens at 5:58...the one from "South Side" into "All Good People" happens at 9:11...

what bass were you playing?

 

[JIO]

Nels is so cool. I remember a blog post somewhere where he just showed up places and played through whatever amp was there. As I’ve said before, my favorite guitarist...he could could make a Thrifty Drug Store Teisco sound like a million bucks.

word

 

[bylar13]

View attachment 3532180
Hi all! Just poking my head back in to say “thanks” for the Lollar recommendation.

I sent an exploratory email Wednesday morning to Lollar regarding the black chrome covers. Luckily they were “recently found” and available. The pickups were delivered and I installed them today. That’s pretty fast, considering they came from Washington state to SW Florida.

I must say these pickups give me that clarity I was chasing with the string shuffling. Not quite Jazz bass snappy, but thick and clear. Just the right amount of definition.
I may even go back and retry my beloved Dunlop Super Bright Nickels.

I didn’t do anything with the stock 500K pots, and I’ll have to wait until next weekend for a live test drive to see how they do, but so far I’m liking them. Even with well worn Rotos, they ring clearly, while maintaining a thickness down below that seems characteristic of the TBird. I can’t tell if they’re as hot as the Gibsons, but There’s no noticeable drop in volume in my bat cave.

The last bit I may still fudge with is the mounting. The Lollars are half the thickness of the stock Gibson pickups. Lollar provides extra foam, but I added some heavier padding underneath the centers, just to have a bit more stability. They’re extended almost entirely out of the body, due in part to that tall Babicz bridge.

So that’s all I got for now. Thanks again for your support and guidance!

Awesome! Glad it worked out for you! With regards to the Babicz, I have one on my 2014 T-Bird and when I installed it, I used the included bridge shim.

After seeing other T-Birds that had Babiczs I noticed none had the shim plate. I emailed Babicz and they told me that it is not necessary. I was told it was included for other, older Gibson 3-point bridge replacements that required the extra height. If yours has it installed, it can be removed to bring the bridge lower. FYI.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

what bass were you playing?

thx!....66J into a Sunn Coliseum with a 2 X 15 JBL cab...

 

[gidbass]

Ha! Thats just the least of how I celebrate the day after NBD...

Drill...check!
Drill bit...check!
Screws...check!
DIY Extension...check!

No sending it back now...

I have practice tomorrow so i'll take it off and paint it back after that.

I will say that now with my Italia strap (which I was able to extend a bit more) it sits perfect and is very comfortable to play!

With the strap extender, i think a hard case is out, so what gig bags do you guys use? I'm googling now to see what options are but would prefer some real world input.

EDIT: considering this one https://www.amazon.com/Extra-Thick-Thunderbird-Bass-Guitar/dp/B00915I8R2#customerReviews

 

[BklynKen]

Sneak preview on the new ad for Whirlwind cables. (@godofthunder59)

 

[Nocturnal]

With the strap extender, i think a hard case is out, so what gig bags do you guys use? I'm googling now to see what options are but would prefer some real world input.

EDIT: considering this one https://www.amazon.com/Extra-Thick-Thunderbird-Bass-Guitar/dp/B00915I8R2#customerReviews

I have one of those bags. It does fit the Epi VP and every other Tbird I own regardless of manufacturer. There is not a ton or extra space when you put the VP in, but it kept mine safe the handful of times I took the Epi out this year.

The bag is not the super heavy duty type but it isn't the thin, useless type either. Better protection than some of my bags.

 

[GBassNorth]

Awesome! Glad it worked out for you! With regards to the Babicz, I have one on my 2014 T-Bird and when I installed it, I used the included bridge shim.

After seeing other T-Birds that had Babiczs I noticed none had the shim plate. I emailed Babicz and they told me that it is not necessary. I was told it was included for other, older Gibson 3-point bridge replacements that required the extra height. If yours has it installed, it can be removed to bring the bridge lower. FYI.

I have the 2015 Bird that comes with the Babicz bridge. It also had the spacer installed. The reason I took it out was because most in the saddles were in their lowest setting with the action and intonation set properly. I removed the spacer and had to promptly raise all the saddles to get the proper action and intonation. Net, I don't think it made any difference in string height once the action and intonation were reset. But it did give a much better break angle over the saddles for whatever that's worth.

Love the Bab bridge and all its flexibility but in real world terms, at the end of the day I don't get any better results than I do with the standard 3 point bridge or the two piece VP bridge. The difference is that I can set the Three point bridge or the VP two piece bridge to minimal action at pitch and intonation much much much faster than I can set up the Bab bridge. YMMV

 

[Engle]

Not sure what song on our set would call for the devil’s horns, but it was a good party!

 

[JIO]

thx!....66J into a Sunn Coliseum with a 2 X 15 JBL cab...

yes

 

[JIO]

With the strap extender, i think a hard case is out, so what gig bags do you guys use? I'm googling now to see what options are but would prefer some real world input.

EDIT: considering this one https://www.amazon.com/Extra-Thick-Thunderbird-Bass-Guitar/dp/B00915I8R2#customerReviews

I use this one as well. I added two contour-cut sheets of foam from a fabric store and it's sufficiently protected for trips to rehearsal and gigs.