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Thunderbird Club

#17,261
bluenose said:
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. View attachment 921010 View attachment 921011 View attachment 921012 View attachment 921013 View attachment 921014 View attachment 921015 View attachment 921016 View attachment 921018 View attachment 921019 View attachment 921020 View attachment 921021 View attachment 921022 View attachment 921023 View attachment 921024
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Well, the work paid off in the end. With the covers, that 'bird looks fantastic. So classy.

Klondike said:
On another page, cant wait to see Star Trek!
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How was it?
 
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#17,265
Christine said:
Which one? I love the first one with the T Bird logo on it, really stands out from the norm. The blackbird one is awesome too if the logo was polished alli it would be even better but that's me
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Not sure. Possibly going to contact her about something custom. Maybe the celtic style from the LP guard in the background. Or something. Definitely keeping the T-bird logo in the middle. I'm going for a light steampunk aesthetic with this bass. Though I really like the one that looks like she made it for Melechesh that's on her facebook page:
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#17,266
Korladis said:
Thinking about getting a pickguard made from here: Link Removed
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Some cool designs and they're really good value condsidering they're handmade ,a mate of mine used to deal in vintage and unusual guitars, he had a Zemaitis les paul style in stock for a while, the whole front was an engraved plate ,but i prefer the way these have cut outs and backplates so that you have a bit of texture to the design , look out for the odd sharp bit as you cheese grate your hand doing a pete townsend style windmill ;)
 
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#17,267
Korladis said:
Not sure. Possibly going to contact her about something custom. Maybe the celtic style from the LP guard in the background. Or something. Definitely keeping the T-bird logo in the middle. I'm going for a light steampunk aesthetic with this bass. Though I really like the one that looks like she made it for Melechesh that's on her facebook page:
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Being a Celt myself I can't fault that
 
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#17,268
bluenose said:
Some cool designs and they're really good value condsidering they're handmade ,a mate of mine used to deal in vintage and unusual guitars, he had a Zemaitis les paul style in stock for a while, the whole front was an engraved plate ,but i prefer the way these have cut outs and backplates so that you have a bit of texture to the design , look out for the odd sharp bit as you cheese grate your hand doing a pete townsend style windmill ;)
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Just realised you're in Southport, not that far from me, Anglesey
 
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#17,270
Korladis said:
I think in terms of color I'll go for slightly aged brass or copper.
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Copper looks great on a bass, I built one years ago in school, it was a Shaftesbury copy (honest LOL my mate had one so I drew around it) painted it cream and made some ashtrays out of some copper in the metal work class the year after, to be fair it looked the part. No pics sorry it was 40 something years ago
 
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#17,271
Christine said:
Copper looks great on a bass, I built one years ago in school, it was a Shaftesbury copy (honest LOL my mate had one so I drew around it) painted it cream and made some ashtrays out of some copper in the metal work class the year after, to be fair it looked the part. No pics sorry it was 40 something years ago
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I bet it looked cool.

Admittedly, the bridge and pickups won't match the pickguard, but that's okay. Steampunk stuff often has more than one metallic color.
 
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#17,275
sorry missed the chrome bit ,okay so you have a flat top chrome finish on your pick up ,have a flat cover made thats exactly the same shape as the top of your pickup in whatever colour metal you decide if its got lots of cut outs you will see the chrome through the gaps in the coloured metal , the effect is two tonal would look good , i've used the same technique with scroll work in yellow gold over a flat white gold back plate it works really well
 
#17,277
bluenose said:
yeah but thats a different country how do we get on at border control these days ;), love north wales some great walking and scenery , my favourite castle as a kid Beaumaris, just a pity i'm moving myself and business to berkshire later this year ,i'll miss the north and the music scene up here
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Bummer, the music scene in your area is brilliant, after I packed in cabinet making I went to Liverpool uni, some class bands about
 

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