Thunderbird Club

[Count Bassie]

Thanks dooood! I tried it at work and it doesn't read the software here. ***? Don't they know I have to do this at work? Haha. I'll hit the site when I get home. Thank you again!

Not at all! I hope you end up with a killer cab.

Also check out US Speaker, they can give you pretty good advice about matching speakers with cabs.

 

[MCF]

NBD (sort of). So work took me to an all expense paid trip to Fresno at the end of March. 10 nights in a downtown hotel. Ugh. During down time, I haunted the downtown pawn shops. I came across a 2010 Goth that the shop wanted $199.00 for. The body was in great shape with only a bit of buckle rash. The neck, however was questionable. And the strings were a mess. Someone actually restrung the D with what was obviously an A and the G was just as thick. A mess. The neck was offset to the left to the point that the G string was barely on the fretboard. The frets, however, were clean and there was no fret sprout. There was a slight "twist" under the twelfth fret under the E string. I played it and all the pots were clean. The pickup tone was nice. But the action was so high, I could pass me wallet through the neck pickup and the neck. I'm pretty cocky in my abilities to make almost anything playable, so I offered $100.00. The owner took $120.00 after a considerable amount of talking.
I finally had the time to work on it this weekend. I heat treated the neck with bracing overnight and then reset the neck. I adjusted the pickups and put a set of Ernie Ball 45-105 round wounds on it. I thoroughly cleaned everything. I let it set for a couple of days and did an intonation last night. 24 hours later, everything is great. It plays and sounds great. I think I did Ok, if you don't count the five or so hours it took to get things dialed in. I got it to a medium/low action with no buzz. It is a nice bass and I may hang on to it. If I decide to sell, it will be a perfect starter for a kid just learning to play. Only remaining issue is the neck dive, Can anyone tell me a resource to get a new strap button to install it on the neck plate?

 

[theNecatoR]

Those are pretty common replacements for the Gibson 3 point bridge. I don't personally have one, but I know they extend past the raised center section of a Thunderbird by a bit. Other than that, I'm sure they work just fine. If you are putting it onto an older Thunderbird, you won't have to shim it. If you are putting it onto a newer one (I believe the neck got higher around 2010 but I'm not sure the exact date), then you will have to shim it. If you buy it new, it should come with the shim plate you need. If you have one and don't have a shim plate but need one, I have one that came with a Babicz bridge. The bridge is on a 1991 Thunderbird and doesn't need the plate, so I would send it to you to see if you could use it if you need it.

I am thinking on building a replacement for my RD Standard, since they are quite hard to get. And I thought this could be a better alternative than the original bridge.

I installed a Hipshot 3-point.on my Epi Tbird made in 2014. No shim came with the bridge but it was not needed, saddles only needed to be raised about 1 or 2 tenths-inch for setup. Easy to adjust, well made, big improvement over the original 3-pt. I did have to glue the inserts for the bolts back into the body when they pulled up. About half the price of the Babicz bridge.

Is your TB a Classic pro? And could you assist me with the height from bass top to saddle and from bass top to fretboard top? I need them to calculate the angle for my build
Thanks!

 

[Dadagoboi]

No doubt they (Gibson) just kept using the '76 stamped ones until they ran out just as Carlo stated, when that was exactly, who knows? Anybody have a '78?
I'm curious about the changeover to stamped s/n from decals, and locations they were made. Did Nashville make '76s? or was all production done in Kalamazoo?

The later ones had the Bi Bird with no number. In fact, the current p/g on my '77 is one of those, it's a replacement, I added the '76'. The original owner of the bass switched to a black guard and knobs as soon as he bought it in '77, so did I when I bought my original one that year. At the time I didn't like the white guard OR the goofy bird. It was a year after the actual Bicentennial when that crap was everywhere including Government mailboxes and fire hydrants...

...And '77 WAS THE YEAR OF PUNK!

Both my white '77s have stamped serial numbers below the tuners, middle of headstock.

 

[hillerup]

View attachment 883918 NBD (sort of). So work took me to an all expense paid trip to Fresno at the end of March. 10 nights in a downtown hotel. Ugh. During down time, I haunted the downtown pawn shops. I came across a 2010 Goth that the shop wanted $199.00 for. The body was in great shape with only a bit of buckle rash. The neck, however was questionable. And the strings were a mess. Someone actually restrung the D with what was obviously an A and the G was just as thick. A mess. The neck was offset to the left to the point that the G string was barely on the fretboard. The frets, however, were clean and there was no fret sprout. There was a slight "twist" under the twelfth fret under the E string. I played it and all the pots were clean. The pickup tone was nice. But the action was so high, I could pass me wallet through the neck pickup and the neck. I'm pretty cocky in my abilities to make almost anything playable, so I offered $100.00. The owner took $120.00 after a considerable amount of talking.
I finally had the time to work on it this weekend. I heat treated the neck with bracing overnight and then reset the neck. I adjusted the pickups and put a set of Ernie Ball 45-105 round wounds on it. I thoroughly cleaned everything. I let it set for a couple of days and did an intonation last night. 24 hours later, everything is great. It plays and sounds great. I think I did Ok, if you don't count the five or so hours it took to get things dialed in. I got it to a medium/low action with no buzz. It is a nice bass and I may hang on to it. If I decide to sell, it will be a perfect starter for a kid just learning to play. Only remaining issue is the neck dive, Can anyone tell me a resource to get a new strap button to install it on the neck plate?

The easiest way is to just drill a 5th hole through the neckplate, right between the two holes closest to the neck. Then you could either move the existing strapbutton from the upper bout to the new location, or you could add a straplock instead and keep the original strap button at it's location - I've done that to all by Epi birds...

 

[hillerup]

View attachment 883918 NBD (sort of). So work took me to an all expense paid trip to Fresno at the end of March. 10 nights in a downtown hotel. Ugh. During down time, I haunted the downtown pawn shops. I came across a 2010 Goth that the shop wanted $199.00 for. The body was in great shape with only a bit of buckle rash. The neck, however was questionable. And the strings were a mess. Someone actually restrung the D with what was obviously an A and the G was just as thick. A mess. The neck was offset to the left to the point that the G string was barely on the fretboard. The frets, however, were clean and there was no fret sprout. There was a slight "twist" under the twelfth fret under the E string. I played it and all the pots were clean. The pickup tone was nice. But the action was so high, I could pass me wallet through the neck pickup and the neck. I'm pretty cocky in my abilities to make almost anything playable, so I offered $100.00. The owner took $120.00 after a considerable amount of talking.
I finally had the time to work on it this weekend. I heat treated the neck with bracing overnight and then reset the neck. I adjusted the pickups and put a set of Ernie Ball 45-105 round wounds on it. I thoroughly cleaned everything. I let it set for a couple of days and did an intonation last night. 24 hours later, everything is great. It plays and sounds great. I think I did Ok, if you don't count the five or so hours it took to get things dialed in. I got it to a medium/low action with no buzz. It is a nice bass and I may hang on to it. If I decide to sell, it will be a perfect starter for a kid just learning to play. Only remaining issue is the neck dive, Can anyone tell me a resource to get a new strap button to install it on the neck plate?

How did you heat treat the neck?

 

[Mike A]

 

[hillerup]

The later ones had the Bi Bird with no number. In fact, the current p/g on my '77 is one of those, it's a replacement, I added the '76'. The original owner of the bass switched to a black guard and knobs as soon as he bought it in '77, so did I when I bought my original one that year. At the time I didn't like the white guard OR the goofy bird. It was a year after the actual Bicentennial when that crap was everywhere including Government mailboxes and fire hydrants...

...And '77 WAS THE YEAR OF PUNK!

Both my white '77s have stamped serial numbers below the tuners, middle of headstock.

I may have said it before: But that is a really subtle band name...

 

[JIO]

...And '77 WAS THE YEAR OF PUNK!

Could be a movie still from the punk version of Spinal Tap! (smell the ripped T-shirt!)

 

[Dadagoboi]

Could be a movie still from the punk version of Spinal Tap! (smell the ripped T-shirt!)

That's The Masque in Hollyweird, the equivalent of San Fran's Mabuhay Gardens. As punk as punk got on the West Coast.

 

[JIO]

That's The Masque in Hollyweird, the equivalent of San Fran's Mabuhay Gardens. As punk as punk got on the West Coast.

cool! I was responding humorously to the words on the kick!

 

[Fabian Brummel]

My monster, Gibson Thunderbird 50th anniversary. Main bass for sure!View media item 10092

 

[Gaolee]

View attachment 883918 Can anyone tell me a resource to get a new strap button to install it on the neck plate?

Just drill a hole in the plate and use the strap button and screw you already have. It works great. The plate is soft metal of some kind if it's like the bolt-on I have.

For what it's worth, the 2015 got out to play last night. I'm having a tough time deciding which one of the three Gibsons is the main one and which ones are backups. I think it's a rotation. They are all a little different, and they all sound like they should. Just slightly different. Having to pick a favorite 'Bird and not being able to do it is tough, but I'll just have to bear it.

 

[Mosstone]

Hello,
a couple of questions again. Does someone has a Hipshot replacement bridge? Supertone it´s called if I recall correctly
How do you like it? and could you assist me with two measures: The distance between bass top and top of the saddles. And the distance between bass top and top of the fretboard of your bird.
Thanks in advance!
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I put one of those on my Classic IV Pro. Installation is easy. Doesn't really change much, tonally. Most importantly, it doesn't fall apart when you release string tension. That's the main reason I got it. That, and the ability to adjust individual string height.

Don't have the bass right here, so I can't help you with the measurements at the moment.

 

[Nocturnal]

The easiest way is to just drill a 5th hole through the neckplate, right between the two holes closest to the neck. Then you could either move the existing strapbutton from the upper bout to the new location, or you could add a straplock instead and keep the original strap button at it's location - I've done that to all by Epi birds...

Exactly how I have mine on my Epi bolt-neck basses.

 

[TBird1958]

My monster, Gibson Thunderbird 50th anniversary. Main bass for sure!View media item 10092

Pics if you have them, share that beauty with us

 

[Fabian Brummel]

Pics if you have them, share that beauty with us

It's in the practise shed at the moment! Will post some tomorrow or the day after!

 

[TBird1958]

It's in the practise shed at the moment! Will post some tomorrow or the day after!

We'll all look forward to seeing it! If you like I can add you to our club then as well.

 

[Haji]

Just an "I'm kinda wondering" type question: Since I have a bought and paid for food blister, I have a little bit of a problem with muh Bird tipping away from me at the top. Its a 2014 so the front strap pin is on the neck plate, and I've moved the rear pin up about 5 or 6 inches. If I move the rear pin to the upper bout, or at least up from where it came from the factory, would that he'p with the Blister Tipping (I'm gonna use that for my as-yet-unformed cowpunkabilly thrash band name).

 

[Mike A]

Just an "I'm kinda wondering" type question: Since I have a bought and paid for food blister, I have a little bit of a problem with muh Bird tipping away from me at the top. Its a 2014 so the front strap pin is on the neck plate, and I've moved the rear pin up about 5 or 6 inches. If I move the rear pin to the upper bout, or at least up from where it came from the factory, would that he'p with the Blister Tipping (I'm gonna use that for my as-yet-unformed cowpunkabilly thrash band name).

I do the same... for the same reason! That's the #1 reason I have two Epi Classics and haven't grabbed a Gibson reverse Tbird yet. I don't want to drill a hole in one! ...but I might anyway.