Thunderbird Club

[Miles_ONeal]

Like anything...

True. Sturgeon's Law. But a lot of the crap I can avoid without much inconvenience. Music being such an integral part of me, I end up heavily over-exposed to crap. It's gotten so bad in Austin (Austin!) that I seldom listen to any of the music channels on the radio.

 

[Larry V]

Yep, other than that one that was way underpriced on here in Boston a few weeks back, they’re getting steep and scarce. And used Epi bolt-ons are no longer the price leader once you add in the $100+ everyone seems to want for shipping. The game is changing, at least for now.

Shipping has indeed gotten out of hand. You'd think that when more and more people are opting for online shopping with delivery, the delivery companies would be making bank with full delivery vans and the prices would be lower due to competition. Nope, not what I'm seeing... just the opposite. Oh, you want to ship something? That'll be one million dollars.

Austin Powers Doctor Evil GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

 

[Larry V]

VERY bad day financially for the family, forced to sell my VP (alot of my gear will have to hit the market I fear)

Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage Pro w/ OHSC 2010s Tobacco Sunburst | Flying Pig Sound | Reverb

For Sale - Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage Pro w/ OHSC

So very sorry to hear this as well.

I know this might not be what you need to hear right now or maybe it is but never in every possible scenario I have in my head for a, "VERY bad day financially for the family" would $600 make any real difference.

Keep the bass. It makes you happy and selling it will only compound what is already a very bad day.

 

[Larry V]

When she was young, my daughter was a Wiggles fan. We saw them on the farewell tour for the original Wiggles.

*sarcasm on:
Wow! You saw the original Wiggles?!?!
Rock on, dude! No way?!?!
*Sarcasm off

Full disclosure, I took one for the team and accompanied my daughter to a One Direction concert years ago. I literally zoned out and honestly don't remember it.

 

[PillO]

Thunderbird content!

View attachment 3970763

Not Thunderbird content

View attachment 3970764

Fragile. It must be Italian. Must be a major award of some kind. I'm betting it's a leg lamp.

 

[PillO]

During the short time I lived in Cincinnati, I missed the Jeff Beck/Stevie Ray Von tour that was in Dayton Ohio (just north of Cincinnati) on a Wednesday night. (work day night) SRV died in the plane crash shortly thereafter. Oh well... I did see the Pixies in their early prime and had a "back stage pass" provided by my bandmate who was a local DJ. Kim Deal was the bomb for me in their show and her local (Dayton?Columbus?) parents were at the backstage reception. Pretty cool!

I saw them in Toronto on that tour. The encore was incredible. Jeff Beck and SRV. Then they bring out Jeff Healey as well.

I don't know if Jeff Healey was ever popular outside of Canada, but he was an incredible player.
Jeff Healey - Wikipedia

 

[PillO]

Shipping has indeed gotten out of hand. You'd think that when more and more people are opting for online shopping with delivery, the delivery companies would be making bank with full delivery vans and the prices would be lower due to competition. Nope, not what I'm seeing... just the opposite. Oh, you want to ship something? That'll be one million dollars.

Austin Powers Doctor Evil GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

In the case that fixed costs are high and variable costs are low, such as operating a delivery network with trucks and sorting facilities that will run whether servicing one package or one hundred, you would expect unit costs (and consequently unit prices) to fall as volume increases... Until the system reaches capacity (or nears capacity). At or near capacity, the system can no longer deliver everything and the company needs some method of discriminating and the best way is to raise prices. Lower value shipments will drop off and the company retains only the higher value shipments and garners a higher profit. Kind of like Uber's surge pricing.

I suspect that fixed costs may have increased as well. Additional costs for protective equipment and perhaps having to offer premium wages for working in close contact with strangers.

Capacity of the system could be increased, however that requires an estimate that increased shipping activity will continue in the longer term as it involves increasing fixed costs. Increasing capacity also takes time.

 

[LetItGrowTone]

The drones are coming. It'll be cheaper, right?

 

[PillO]

*sarcasm on:
Wow! You saw the original Wiggles?!?!
Rock on, dude! No way?!?!
*Sarcasm off

Full disclosure, I took one for the team and accompanied my daughter to a One Direction concert years ago. I literally zoned out and honestly don't remember it.

*sarcasm on:
Wow! You saw One Direction?!?!
Rock on, dude! No way?!?!
*Sarcasm off


The things we will do for our kids. But, I think the Wiggles is better than One Direction; the Wiggles have a number of very attractive dancers.

 

[PillO]

The drones are coming. It'll be cheaper, right?

Oh yeah. I really want to have a "package" delivered to me by drone...

 

[KaraQ]

Fragile. It must be Italian. Must be a major award of some kind. I'm betting it's a leg lamp.

Hmmm...don't think its Eye-talyun, but there ain't no markings to say.

It IS an award, to congratulate me for on my great skill at losing $$$

Most unfortunately it is, in fact, not a leg lamp
Just another cheap-o bass-o

 

[Flying B]

I scored my first thunderbird yesterday, a classic iv. I've been on the lookout for a while but it seems to be mostly the bolt on variety that keep coming up locally and I really wanted the neck-through, so snapped this one up as soon as i saw it (for around the same price as the bolt-ons seem to go for strangely)
Anyway, couldn't be happier, amazed at the huge tone this thing produces, had a jam last night with our drummer and lead guitarist and sounded great in the mix, dare I say it better than my p-bass...
Needs a clean up and a tweak of the action (when I work out how these 3 point bridges work) but I'm very happy with it. Can I have a number please!

 

[Larry V]

I scored my first thunderbird yesterday, a classic iv. I've been on the lookout for a while but it seems to be mostly the bolt on variety that keep coming up locally and I really wanted the neck-through, so snapped this one up as soon as i saw it (for around the same price as the bolt-ons seem to go for strangely)
Anyway, couldn't be happier, amazed at the huge tone this thing produces, had a jam last night with our drummer and lead guitarist and sounded great in the mix, dare I say it better than my p-bass...
Needs a clean up and a tweak of the action (when I work out how these 3 point bridges work) but I'm very happy with it. Can I have a number please!
View attachment 3970902

SCORE!

Congratulations!

As for the bridge... make sure to have the ferrule end of the bridge lower than the front.

 

[redstrand]

The drones are coming. It'll be cheaper, right?

I'd like to see a drone carry a T-40.

 

[GBassNorth]

?...
something I clipped from TB some time ago and modified heavily that has proven to be spot on for all my Gibby needs

Do this...
1. Loosen the strings to a slack setting then adjust your truss rod to create a slight back bow. From a dead straight neck position it might take two or three 1/3 clockwise turns. BTW, it's clockwise as seen from the headstock end of the bass looking down the neck towards the bridge.

2. Next, lower your bridge until the rear of the bridge is just off the body and the front of the bridge is about 1/8" higher than the rear.

3. Bring your strings up to tension and tune each string (don't worry about intonation yet).

4. Now check your action around the 15th and higher frets to see if it's comfortable for you without any or too much buzz (some players don't mind a little buzz). Don't worry about buzzing in the lower registers at this point. Raise your bridge as necessary to eliminate unwanted fret buzz in the 15th to end of fretboard area but always make sure the front stud is keeping the front of the bridge at least 1/8" higher than the rear of the bridge.

Note: the saddles on the 3 point bridge are specific in height to each string to ensure the strings match the FB radius, they are sequentially numbered so check to make sure each one is in the proper position. Also note that it is much easier on you, the studs and your stud inserts to slightly loosen the strings before raising the bridge height. Yes that means you'll need to retune after each adjustment. As an alternate, you can start step 4 with the bridge in a higher position and keep lowering and tuning until you get the level of buzz in the 15th and higher frets that suits you. Just be sure to always keep the front stud higher than the rears.

5. Now you've got your bass retuned with a lower action at the high frets. Your lower frets will now either buzz (see 6a for the subsequent steps) or the action will still be too high even in the low registers (see 6b for the subsequent steps).

6a: Low Register buzzes: You need to loosen the truss rod. Take off the truss rod cover and insert an allen wrench in the allen nut (the cheaper Epis generally have allen nuts). Don't detune the bass for that, rather lift the A and the D string to the side to the slots of the G and E string to have room for turning the allen wrench. With the bass' butt resting on your toes and the strings/fretboard facing away from you, you - while standing up and looking down - will now turn the allen wrench counterclockwise maybe 1/3 of a turn and immediately look to find out how the action of the bass has altered and buzzing has become less or disappeared. Don't be scared of overdoing it - it is impossible to break a truss rod by loosening it as you are releasing tension. That said, one or two "one third turns" counterclockwise should do it. sometimes you will need a few more of those to actually adjust the bass if the neck is too straight or even curved away from the fretboard (called back bow).

6b: Low Register has too much action: Same as 6a, except that you have too tighten the truss rod now which is done by turning the allen wrench clockwise. You will also have to be more careful as you can break a trussrod by overtightening it. When tightening a truss rod its best to slacken the strings a bit first, then make your truss adjustment followed by retuning and checking to see if your adjustment eliminated unwanted fret buzz.

7. After a combination of either steps 5 and 6a or steps 5 and 6b you should have a relatively or even totally buzz free bass with good to reasonable action. If there is still some persistent buzzing at some places then raise the bridge a little. Raising the front stud will raise all strings (remember to slacken the strings first then after raising the front stud retune the bass). Raising the treble side rear stud just a very tiny bit more may help the D and G string, or raising the bass side rear stud just a tiny bit more may help the E and A strings. The bridge does not have to be dead level but it should be very very close.

8. You should be done... but if you're still getting buzzing just on one string (while the other strings are buzz-free) and you have to raise the bridge considerably to make it go away even though you could stay much lower if it were just for the other strings, then double check you're saddles to ensure they're in the proper sequence. In a pinch you might be able to swap the D and A saddles but only as a last resort. If you still have unwanted buzzing then your low action expectations may be too much or you might have a string or fret level or neck hump problem. See step 9 for string checking. For fret level or twisted neck or neck hump or ski jump problems find a good luthier and see if they can fix the problem.

9. Occasionally it's possible to twist a string when installing a them on a bass. A twisted string can potentially have an odd oscillation that may make it vibrate in more of an elliptical pattern vs a flatter pattern. In some cases the effect is great enough to cause fret buzz on that specific string. To fix this, detune the string and starting at the nut pinch the string between your fingers and slowly slide down the string towards the bridge allowing the ball end of the string to spin as needed to eliminate any accidental twist you may have put in the string when installing. Once untwisted, hold the ball end in position and retune the string without letting the ball flip or spin. This should eliminate any twist related issues.

Edit: follow all the above steps in order. Don't skip steps or start in the middle.

I scored my first thunderbird yesterday, a classic iv. I've been on the lookout for a while but it seems to be mostly the bolt on variety that keep coming up locally and I really wanted the neck-through, so snapped this one up as soon as i saw it (for around the same price as the bolt-ons seem to go for strangely)
Anyway, couldn't be happier, amazed at the huge tone this thing produces, had a jam last night with our drummer and lead guitarist and sounded great in the mix, dare I say it better than my p-bass...
Needs a clean up and a tweak of the action (when I work out how these 3 point bridges work) but I'm very happy with it. Can I have a number please!
View attachment 3970902

B - welcome to the club. Our Queen should be by shortly to officially welcome you and assign a number. In the meantime, I've linked (in this post above) the bridge set up method I use for all my Thunderbirds and other three point bridge equipped basses. Enjoy!

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

Fragile. It must be Italian. Must be a major award of some kind. I'm betting it's a leg lamp.

 

[Larry V]

View attachment 3970971

The soft glow of electric sex. -Ralphie

 

[Engle]

Brought home my first T-bird today - an Epiphone Vintage Pro in black. Pulled it out of the box, no obvious problems. Tried to have a bang on it - strings are slacked off. Ok, no problem. Tuned it up, and the open E makes a truly godawful racket. 1st fret F note, too, and it feels a little goofy. All the other strings ring true with no excessive buzzing anywhere on the neck.

First thought is backbowed neck, so I check relief. I little straight for my taste, but no biggie. So I pull out my setup tools and go to town. I check everything, bridge height, nut height, neck relief, the whole works. The factory setup is surprisingly good, if a little low for my preference. At least it is clear that a setup was done.

Anyway, still buzzing. So I go over every little screw on this thing. Tighten everything - pickup mounting screws, pickguard, tuners, bridge, tailpiece, I checked every screw on this badboy. Still buzzing.

Now I'm starting to get a little worried. I pop the truss rod cover and make sure the nut is snug. Looks good, still buzzing.

Starting to panic now, if I'm being truthful. Then I remember the intonation way way out on the E string and all the other strings were ok. Lightbulb - I swapped out the E string for another one I had lying around, just as a test. Bingo!!!! Turns out I just had a broke-ass E string from the factory, everything is great now. So that's my whole afternoon and I haven't even plugged it in yet lol

Welcome! Glad you got it sorted out. Love my VP!

 

[bylar13]

Thunderbird cousin in the TB classifieds:
For Sale - Bluesman Vintage Deville 2T (2020) Aged Surf Green w/ Lollar Thunderbird p'ups

 

[Engle]

*sarcasm on:
Wow! You saw the original Wiggles?!?!
Rock on, dude! No way?!?!
*Sarcasm off

Full disclosure, I took one for the team and accompanied my daughter to a One Direction concert years ago. I literally zoned out and honestly don't remember it.

I went to 5 Seconds of Summer...I’ve also seen Panic at the Disco and Halsey. They were all modern productions not rock shows.