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Thunderbird Club

#158,984
GBassNorth said:
I'm in the camp that believes wood does impart a degree of tone or sonic character to an electric bass. So if your alder Fender equipped with TBird pups is what you're trying to memic then you should probably start with a similar weight Alder TBird body with similar pups. The similar body & neck woods combined with similar electronics and pup placements should get you very close to where you want to be.

That said, mahogany is still my all time favorite body wood, followed by Alder. I hate swamp ash. Mahogany and walnut are not my favorite neck woods. My favorite neck is Rosewood/Rosewood or wenge/wenge.


The paint sample on the paper looks almost cardinal red on my computer. I think Gibson had a color close to that in their 2019 TBird line up.

I'm really fond of red basses, especially if you can see an interesting wood grain underneath. However, I've always leaned more towards the deeper warmer reds (candyapple, black cherry...) vs the pinker or brighter reds (lipstick red, cardinal...). It's a personal preference thing, but I like the finish to have depth when you look into it and highlights when the light glances across it, vs a more monotone neon type finish. Reds with thick thick clear coats always look cool to me as well.

A nice example of woodgrain through a red...
View attachment 3939725
Click to expand...
I'm with you. But I do like Swamp Ash. I have three with it and all sound great for my purposes. I do hate Bass Wood. The few basses I've played with it all sounded dull.

I like Red, Blue, White, Black, Sunset Orange, Candy Apple Red, Purple, Burgundy Mist, Wine....well just about everything but brown/tan and that 3 tone sunburst thing with tort.

That kind of top sure would make a killer Thunderbird!
 
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#158,985
dagrev said:
I'm with you. But I do like Swamp Ash. I have three with it and all sound great for my purposes. I do hate Bass Wood. The few basses I've played with it all sounded dull.

I like Red, Blue, White, Black, Sunset Orange, Candy Apple Red, Purple, Burgundy Mist, Wine....well just about everything but brown/tan and that 3 tone sunburst thing with tort.

That kind of top sure would make a killer Thunderbird!
Click to expand...
what photo are you guys referring to? don’t see any tort anywhere..
 
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#158,986
Chucky Stiletti said:
what photo are you guys referring to? don’t see any tort anywhere..
Click to expand...
I didn't see any either--unless this is albino tort... I'm glad I didn't see any. The less tort I see the better.
10b-jpg.jpg
 
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#158,991
Ok bird brains, I'm officially confused now.

Recall that I recently acquired a 1977 Greco bird that had what I assumed to be a thoroughly broken in set of Roto flats on it (so old and poorly installed they should be replaced, but sound too sweet to be removed). These flat wound strings have dark red silks at both ends with brass balls, no idea how old but I'd guess many many years, maybe decades.

I figured I'd buy a new set of Roto flats just incase anything happened to these.

But while I was noodling around on my SG, also equipped with what I thought I correctly recalled were Roto flats that I put on a couple of years ago, I noticed the bridge silks are black (red up at the nut) and the balls are red, white and blue.

WT7 is going on???
Are either of these sets actually Roto flats? Does Roto make more than one type of flat? Did the older ones have red silks at both ends and brass balls? Have I lost my mind? Should I just give away all my basses before I hurt myself?

Pics if it helps ID the strings...
IMG_4220.JPG
IMG_4221.JPG


PS - just noticed the G saddle position. Yes it's a tad flat and the D is a tad sharp. I may have forgotten to intonate when I installed the new strings. My OCD self slaps forehead in disbelief.
 
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#158,994
GBassNorth said:
Ok bird brains, I'm officially confused now.

Recall that I recently acquired a 1977 Greco bird that had what I assumed to be a thoroughly broken in set of Roto flats on it (so old and poorly installed they should be replaced, but sound too sweet to be removed). These flat wound strings have dark red silks at both ends with brass balls, no idea how old but I'd guess many many years, maybe decades.

I figured I'd buy a new set of Roto flats just incase anything happened to these.

But while I was noodling around on my SG, also equipped with what I thought I correctly recalled were Roto flats that I put on a couple of years ago, I noticed the bridge silks are black (red up at the nut) and the balls are red, white and blue.

WT7 is going on???
Are either of these sets actually Roto flats? Does Roto make more than one type of flat? Did the older ones have red silks at both ends and brass balls? Have I lost my mind? Should I just give away all my basses before I hurt myself?

Pics if it helps ID the strings...
View attachment 3940290 View attachment 3940292

PS - just noticed the G saddle position. Yes it's a tad flat and the D is a tad sharp. I may have forgotten to intonate when I installed the new strings. My OCD self slaps forehead in disbelief.
Click to expand...
The SG's are definitely Rotosounds. The red, white, and blue ball ends. No idea about the Greco.
 
Last edited:
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#158,996
TBird1958 said:
Put Ken Smith RockMasters on that Greco! :laugh:

Unleash the Angry Bird!
Click to expand...
LOL - no no no no, no! :D
The sound is so perfect right now I'm afraid to do anything to the bass that might effect the mojo.

:jawdrop:Heck, I haven't even cleaned the COVID embedded scum off of the tuning keys or pickup cover. The tuning keys are actually downright gross to touch, feels like they were played hard and put away wet, many times. I'm leaving the encrusted chrome that way for now as I work on my herd immunity - what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger, so they say.:cautious: Besides, whomever it was that abused the tuning keys also had their grubby little fingers (hopefully nothing else) all over the strings. I shudder to think of what dead skin and germs are imbedded in the windings, and those strings are staying on. I think I'm up to date on all my tetanus shots.:nailbiting:
 
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#158,997
GBassNorth said:
LOL - no no no no, no! :D
The sound is so perfect right now I'm afraid to do anything to the bass that might effect the mojo.

:jawdrop:Heck, I haven't even cleaned the COVID embedded scum off of the tuning keys or pickup cover. The tuning keys are actually downright gross to touch, feels like they were played hard and put away wet, many times. I'm leaving the encrusted chrome that way for now as I work on my herd immunity - what doesn't kill ya makes ya stronger, so they say.:cautious: Besides, whomever it was that abused the tuning keys also had their grubby little fingers (hopefully nothing else) all over the strings. I shudder to think of what dead skin and germs are imbedded in the windings, and those strings are staying on. I think I'm up to date on all my tetanus shots.:nailbiting:
Click to expand...

I have no idea how to clean up the stock hardware, mine is very dull, it just is......... That bass will snarl with some Smith's you owe it to yourself to have one very unruly Bird!
 
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