Thunderbird Club

[bluenose]

I'm so glad you're happy with it and thanks for the high praise! You've made your Epi look awesome!

your welcome Larry , as i said in my original post i read all of the posts from other new Epi owners regarding this bass its the only way to go info from owners ,i'd seen some of your early posts on the vinyls in the many threads on converting/glamming up the T's, hopefully you'll get a load of orders ,avoid a law suit from gibson and retire a very wealthy man

 

[cuth]

Shall I add you to the club as well? Lovely basses!

Sure! That'd be great. Thanks.

 

[Klondike]

Thanks both, much appreciated



I started out working life as a diver, a clearance diver in the Royal Navy back in the 70s. Did my sat ticket just before I left, I was going to go commercial but couldn't get a sat job in the UK and didn't fancy the alternatives so I retrained as a cabinet maker. I haven't done any diving since then other than a bit of freediving and spearfishing but not done that for the last 5 years either

I did most of my oil patch work in the Gulf of Mexico, always wanted to go to the North Sea or Africa but that never happened. Tough market. What are the odds to find two Com Divers in the same place? Pretty small.

 

[Gaolee]

This is picture or it didn't happen - former expensive hobby. Each time I fell off it cost about what a decent used Thunderbird costs, never mind entry fees, track days for practice, tires, routine maintenance, fuel, travel...

 

[TBird1958]

This is picture or it didn't happen - former expensive hobby. Each time I fell off it cost about what a decent used Thunderbird costs, never mind entry fees, track days for practice, tires, routine maintenance, fuel, travel...

Yikes! You're a danger seeker!

 

[GBassNorth]

On the subject of OTHER (expensive) hobbies... My main love other than music is tournament style water skiing, slalom course skiing. I could buy some pretty nice high end basses for what I gave for my last slalom ski and bindings. Tournament boats are WAY pricey, skis are WAY pricey, hell I gave $70 for my last pair of ski gloves. I actually have a sideline business building/selling slalom course systems (to help support my habit) but I won't bore you all with that here.

Quick back story. When I quit playing in bands 12 - 15 years ago (memory fails me...) I was totally burnt out on music, needed another release. I'd always skied but decided to get into it deeper. Kinda like music, if you get drawn into it it's a total addiction. Over the years I've had both shoulders rebuilt once due to injuries (it's a tough sport physically). When I got back into playing 3 years or so ago I did both, until I had to have my left shoulder rebuilt a second time last year. Ortho told me that if I tear it up again he doesn't think he can fix it a third time and I kind of need my shoulders to work if I'm gonna play bass, so... So I'm now retired from tournament style skiing. I now put that energy and time (and fundage) into my music. Still have the business of course but now it helps support THIS habit.

View attachment 920837

I did most of my oil patch work in the Gulf of Mexico, always wanted to go to the North Sea or Africa but that never happened. Tough market. What are the odds to find two Com Divers in the same place? Pretty small.

This is picture or it didn't happen - former expensive hobby. Each time I fell off it cost about what a decent used Thunderbird costs, never mind entry fees, track days for practice, tires, routine maintenance, fuel, travel...

Awesome stories and pics!
We have some real thrill seekers in this bunch. Might explain why some folks are drawn to the Bird in the first place - the thrill of being on the edge, being different, being yourself and not a carbon copy of 90% of the other bass players out there!

 

[Christine]

I did most of my oil patch work in the Gulf of Mexico, always wanted to go to the North Sea or Africa but that never happened. Tough market. What are the odds to find two Com Divers in the same place? Pretty small.

Well I rarely bump into any divers, all good guys in my book, very few exceptions. In hindsight I should have stayed in the navy for a few more years, I enjoyed the work mostly, was a bit screwed up after the Falklands war and I wanted out at the time. That's how I got to do my sat course, too unstable to be left on the clearance team and wouldn't stop fighting so they couldn't put me on a sweeper so they put me on a course. Good days, we got treated well, actually we were ignored most of the time as no one seemed to want to take responsibility of us so we got away with murder, not like being in the forces at all.

Had some friends go out to work in Nigeria after they left the navy, sounds like a hell of a place, I could have gone out to work with them, I was offered but the stories I'd heard put me off, life seems very cheap out there, I'm glad I didn't go. Sat work in the north sea seemed like good work but getting a job!!??

 

[Haji]

One of my friends, who works for a Senator now, used to be a Marine, and spent nearly 10 years in Africa as a contractor (and a further 5+ in Iraq during the early days; The Wild West). He loved it, but he understood how things work there better than most. We were chatting on the phone once, and I asked him to explain how Africa works to me. After an hour, I understood it less than I did before we began. Its very complicated there; so much tribal history to know its ridiculous.

 

[Gaolee]

Yikes! You're a danger seeker!

Nah, just a concentration junkie.

 

[bluenose]

your welcome Larry , as i said in my original post i read all of the posts from other new Epi owners regarding this bass its the only way to go info from owners ,i'd seen some of your early posts on the vinyls in the many threads on converting/glamming up the T's, hopefully you'll get a load of orders ,avoid a law suit from gibson and retire a very wealthy man

not sure how best to link one post to another on this site so i'll just add it to my last see if it makes sense , i've put together the photo's of the t'bird covers , i managed to trace some nickel silver sheet 2mm thick i wanted 1.5mm and 3 inches wide but couldn't get any , i rolled down the 2mm to 1.5mm ....what a pig that was , had to anneal it so many times ,nickel silver work hardens real fast, i'd made up cardboard templates of the covers from online photo's just approximated the dimensions and made them to fit my bass, the bass pickup hand rest /cover should have been a bit deeper but i just used what i had, i drew around the templates ,cut out the the covers , ground a groove in the corners to get a nice neat finish and bent into shape , i then silver soldered into the grooves at the corners, and after letting sulphuric acid remove the fire stain i filed and buffed them smooth ready for polishing, i made one side of the cover for the bass pickup shorter to allow for the thickness of the scratchplate , checked they fitted ok the Epi is slightly wider than the gibson in the raised section hence me making my own covers , i sent them off for chrome plating and got them back last week , really pleased with the end result , the nickel silver cost £20 the plating £30 + vat and postage my time was gratis , this wasn't an easy job if i could have got off the shelf covers that fit the Epi i would have done so.

 

[Klondike]

This is picture or it didn't happen - former expensive hobby. Each time I fell off it cost about what a decent used Thunderbird costs, never mind entry fees, track days for practice, tires, routine maintenance, fuel, travel...

Is that a TL?

 

[Gaolee]

Is that a TL?

It's an SV. I wanted to live.

I had a Gixxer race bike before the SV. It hated me and I hated it. We tried to kill each other. Fortunately, neither of us succeeded. The SV was a far better bike for me, and ironically, I was as fast on the SV as I ever was on the Gixxer. Turned out the Gixxer had a bent swingarm. No wonder it had such an evil personality! The easiest bike I ever rode on the track was a Daytona 675. That bike goes like it's just wired right into your brain. I didn't race it, though, because if you throw a Triumph into the bushes, the world weeps. When you throw a Zook into the bushes, nobody notices. Plus everyone else in the paddock has spares for the Suzuki. Back when I was on the track, it would have been a surprise to find another Triumph in the same county.

 

[tombowlus]

On the subject of OTHER (expensive) hobbies... My main love other than music is tournament style water skiing, slalom course skiing. I could buy some pretty nice high end basses for what I gave for my last slalom ski and bindings. Tournament boats are WAY pricey, skis are WAY pricey, hell I gave $70 for my last pair of ski gloves. I actually have a sideline business building/selling slalom course systems (to help support my habit) but I won't bore you all with that here.

Quick back story. When I quit playing in bands 12 - 15 years ago (memory fails me...) I was totally burnt out on music, needed another release. I'd always skied but decided to get into it deeper. Kinda like music, if you get drawn into it it's a total addiction. Over the years I've had both shoulders rebuilt once due to injuries (it's a tough sport physically). When I got back into playing 3 years or so ago I did both, until I had to have my left shoulder rebuilt a second time last year. Ortho told me that if I tear it up again he doesn't think he can fix it a third time and I kind of need my shoulders to work if I'm gonna play bass, so... So I'm now retired from tournament style skiing. I now put that energy and time (and fundage) into my music. Still have the business of course but now it helps support THIS habit.

View attachment 920837

Very nice! Looking great! I haven't run a course in a while, but I still enjoy tearing it up on a slalom!

 

[Mosstone]

I tried that instore and loved it. Nothing needed to be changed on it.
Bang went the original idea of buying a Gibson. It does everything I want.

Congrats! The Classic IV is an incredible bass! I loved it from the very first note. After A/B'ing against the Pro IV (active) and two Gibson birds (a 2014 and 2015) the Classic IV was the clear winner for me.

 

[Klondike]

It's an SV. I wanted to live.

I had a Gixxer race bike before the SV. It hated me and I hated it. We tried to kill each other. Fortunately, neither of us succeeded. The SV was a far better bike for me, and ironically, I was as fast on the SV as I ever was on the Gixxer. Turned out the Gixxer had a bent swingarm. No wonder it had such an evil personality! The easiest bike I ever rode on the track was a Daytona 675. That bike goes like it's just wired right into your brain. I didn't race it, though, because if you throw a Triumph into the bushes, the world weeps. When you throw a Zook into the bushes, nobody notices. Plus everyone else in the paddock has spares for the Suzuki. Back when I was on the track, it would have been a surprise to find another Triumph in the same county.

Nice, love the SV's! And the Daytona's. Heck I just love bikes! I have a Bandit 1200s but I modded her so now she Neked as a J bird rode her in AZ for five straight years, my truck didn't get much love.

 

[Gaolee]

I had a Bandit 600 in the late '90s. I bought it because I knocked the side stand off of an old Honda I had. I figured if I ever touched any parts of the Bandit down going around corners, it was time to give up motorcycles entirely. 30K miles later, both pegs were ground flat and I started bouncing the case protection bar off the ground in corner. So, I bought a used Triumph TT600 because it had the highest possible pegs. I figured those would never find the ground. That took two months. So, I headed to the racetrack and spent the next ten years learning how to ride fast without grinding hard parts. The craziest moment that didn't end up with me wondering where the bike went was grinding the peg and the muffler on that first Triumph. The tires were a little cooked, and both ends were sliding, and I was pushing the bike back up with my knee just about as hard as I could. Scared the living crap out of me, and I loved every moment of it. That bike was a cockroach. It survived all kinds of mishaps, but I finally blew the motor after running an extra 1500 rpm for about 30K miles. It had 50K on it when the bottom end gave up. Defeating the rev limiter isn't a great idea, as it turns out, but I'm still impressed by how tough that bike was. Then I got the Daytona in 2006 and still have one. Full blown racing started in 2008 and ended in 2010 when I blew the SV's motor in a high speed turn during an endurance race. The funny thing about that is I didn't fall off even though the back tire was completely covered with oil. I couldn't figure out what happened, since the motor sounded OK. The corner workers saw the cloud of smoke and figured out pretty quick that I didn't know the back tire was coated until I got into the corner. Finding yourself sideways in a corner at about 80 or 90 mph gets your attention, but somehow I made it around the corner. That made 'em a little frustrated, because instead of hauling me off, they had a much longer oil slick to clean up. Oh, well.

I miss it, but not enough to shell out the money to take it up again.

 

[BadBassDrummer]

My other evil time and money hogging pastime.

 

[Klondike]

I had a Bandit 600 in the late '90s. I bought it because I knocked the side stand off of an old Honda I had. I figured if I ever touched any parts of the Bandit down going around corners, it was time to give up motorcycles entirely. 30K miles later, both pegs were ground flat and I started bouncing the case protection bar off the ground in corner. So, I bought a used Triumph TT600 because it had the highest possible pegs. I figured those would never find the ground. That took two months. So, I headed to the racetrack and spent the next ten years learning how to ride fast without grinding hard parts. The craziest moment that didn't end up with me wondering where the bike went was grinding the peg and the muffler on that first Triumph. The tires were a little cooked, and both ends were sliding, and I was pushing the bike back up with my knee just about as hard as I could. Scared the living crap out of me, and I loved every moment of it. That bike was a cockroach. It survived all kinds of mishaps, but I finally blew the motor after running an extra 1500 rpm for about 30K miles. It had 50K on it when the bottom end gave up. Defeating the rev limiter isn't a great idea, as it turns out, but I'm still impressed by how tough that bike was. Then I got the Daytona in 2006 and still have one. Full blown racing started in 2008 and ended in 2010 when I blew the SV's motor in a high speed turn during an endurance race. The funny thing about that is I didn't fall off even though the back tire was completely covered with oil. I couldn't figure out what happened, since the motor sounded OK. The corner workers saw the cloud of smoke and figured out pretty quick that I didn't know the back tire was coated until I got into the corner. Finding yourself sideways in a corner at about 80 or 90 mph gets your attention, but somehow I made it around the corner. That made 'em a little frustrated, because instead of hauling me off, they had a much longer oil slick to clean up. Oh, well.

I miss it, but not enough to shell out the money to take it up again.

Ya that would be pretty freeky, i do t have any racing stories and my track days are short. With the two kids I just cant justify spending the money I would want to spend on gear etc.

 

[Klondike]

On another page, cant wait to see Star Trek!

 

[Haji]

This was Dec 10th, which means COLD and humid. My fingers were numb, but ya gotta shoot.
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