Thunderbird Club

[Chucky Stiletti]

The 70's style ring in the neck pickup looks akward. Especially with that pickup placement.

John McVie had a ring in his NR, got to find a picture.

yeah that always looked cheesy to me…make a new pg! heck, a ring costs almost as much…

 

[GBassNorth]

just stay west of I-5.....

Well, that solves half the problem.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Well, that solves half the problem.

101 I should say?….

 

[GBassNorth]

101 I should say?….

LOL - I’m in that narrow swath of land east of Karen country (101) and west of Redneckville (5) as long as I stay in that 20 mile wide DMZ swath I’m relatively insulated from the extremes, for now.

 

[JIO]

I hear ya. You like the old Thunderbird bursts because they're not Sunbursts but Tobacco bursts. Which is also why I like them. A sunburst can only be made worse with tort. I do like the very early Fender two tone burst that's black and fades to a nice yellow. When you throw that red in there I'm done.

View attachment 4548911

I have a few sunburst basses - like any finish, there are versions and there are versions. 3TSB (3 Tone Sun Burst) is the most descriptive 'label' to describe a finish with a yellow or amber ('sun') center transitioning to a red into tobacco 'halo'. Otherwise many finishes fall under a more universal "burst" umbrella; tobacco-burst, green-burst, red-burst, blue-burst etc. My '66 P has a very pronounced 3TSB because at that point (start of the CBS years) they first shot an off-white base-coat to homogenize the wood, so the amber resulted in being more yellow. The other two finishes are translucent amber over wood so less high chroma.

The red has softened to a very subtle transition on this Coral/Dano body from the late '60s.

This burst is pretty cool - (not mine - not familiar with this brand)

...blast from the past (10yrs ago!) - my "Abalone Daze" etched silver-leaf w/mint burst finish I did on Alan Whitman's (Mermen/Joe Satriani) P-bass. It looked great under stage lights! (shot at Real Guitars/SF where Alan manned the front counter for SF master guitar tech Gary Brawer)

Pat Wilkins did the final finish (burst and clear-coat) in a colour matching the 'mint' pg, including the hs face. A very pretty bass in any light.

One of my earliest Gildaxe finishes was this 3TSB over variegated gold-leaf "shatter-burst" over spalted maple. My first finish by Pat.

 

[dagrev]

I have a few sunburst basses - like any finish, there are versions and there are versions. 3TSB (3 Tone Sun Burst) is the most descriptive 'label' to describe a finish with a yellow or amber ('sun') center transitioning to a red into tobacco 'halo'. Otherwise many finishes fall under a more universal "burst" umbrella; tobacco-burst, green-burst, red-burst, blue-burst etc. My '66 P has a very pronounced 3TSB because at that point (start of the CBS years) they first shot an off-white base-coat to homogenize the wood, so the amber resulted in being more yellow. The other two finishes are translucent amber over wood so less high chroma.

View attachment 4549173 View attachment 4549184
The red has softened to a very subtle transition on this Coral/Dano body from the late '60s.
View attachment 4549193
This burst is pretty cool - (not mine - not familiar with this brand)
View attachment 4549198 View attachment 4549200
...blast from the past (10yrs ago!) - my "Abalone Daze" etched silver-leaf w/mint burst finish I did on Alan Whitman's (Mermen/Joe Satriani) P-bass. It looked great under stage lights! (shot at Real Guitars/SF where Alan manned the front counter for SF master guitar tech Gary Brawer)
View attachment 4549210
Pat Wilkins did the final finish (burst and clear-coat) in a colour matching the 'mint' pg, including the hs face. A very pretty bass in any light.
View attachment 4549230
One of my earliest Gildaxe finishes was this 3TSB over variegated gold-leaf "shatter-burst" over spalted maple. My first finish by Pat.
View attachment 4549252

This is likely the best 3T Burst I've seen. I liked the looks and how it played, but it never sounded good at all. Get a perfect job blending each color in to the other. Sunbursts often end up looking like a stripe of black, stripe of red, and then a blob of yellow in the middle.

 

[GBassNorth]

I have a few sunburst basses - like any finish, there are versions and there are versions. 3TSB (3 Tone Sun Burst) is the most descriptive 'label' to describe a finish with a yellow or amber ('sun') center transitioning to a red into tobacco 'halo'. Otherwise many finishes fall under a more universal "burst" umbrella; tobacco-burst, green-burst, red-burst, blue-burst etc. My '66 P has a very pronounced 3TSB because at that point (start of the CBS years) they first shot an off-white base-coat to homogenize the wood, so the amber resulted in being more yellow. The other two finishes are translucent amber over wood so less high chroma.

View attachment 4549173 View attachment 4549184
The red has softened to a very subtle transition on this Coral/Dano body from the late '60s.
View attachment 4549193
This burst is pretty cool - (not mine - not familiar with this brand)
View attachment 4549198 View attachment 4549200
...blast from the past (10yrs ago!) - my "Abalone Daze" etched silver-leaf w/mint burst finish I did on Alan Whitman's (Mermen/Joe Satriani) P-bass. It looked great under stage lights! (shot at Real Guitars/SF where Alan manned the front counter for SF master guitar tech Gary Brawer)
View attachment 4549210
Pat Wilkins did the final finish (burst and clear-coat) in a colour matching the 'mint' pg, including the hs face. A very pretty bass in any light.
View attachment 4549230
One of my earliest Gildaxe finishes was this 3TSB over variegated gold-leaf "shatter-burst" over spalted maple. My first finish by Pat.
View attachment 4549252

I’d gladly take any one of those off your hands. 3TSB in the right context doesn’t bother me a bit. On a 1960’s Fender it looks perfectly at home, even with the exaggerated red band. And I love the burst on that Longhorn. For some reason you just don’t see many reverse bursts (dark center going to lighter edges) but I’ve always thought it was an interesting touch, and might look good on a bird. That said, Tbirds are a completely different shape than FSO, so I don’t think they lend themselves as well to a 3 band burst vs a simple burst or fade from light center to dark edges (aka Tobbaco burst). JMHO YMMV

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

This is likely the best 3T Burst I've seen. I liked the looks and how it played, but it never sounded good at all. Get a perfect job blending each color in to the other. Sunbursts often end up looking like a stripe of black, stripe of red, and then a blob of yellow in the middle.
View attachment 4549266

extreme bursts….cannot stand cherryburst on basses but it does look good on that L-5 imho…

 

[GBassNorth]

Still looking for a supplier for black plastic trim ring spacers. Thunderbucker Ranch has been a non response, I’ll try them one last time before writing them off. And Curtis Novak does have them but won’t sell separately from the pups and rings (at least they promptly responded). If I have to I’ll make my own but would rather just buy some finished ones for now.

@godofthunder59 any leads on trim ring spacers? I’d like to buy about six of them.

 

[KaraQ]

Still looking for a supplier for black plastic trim ring spacers. Thunderbucker Ranch has been a non response, I’ll try them one last time before writing them off. And Curtis Novak does have them but won’t sell separately from the pups and rings (at least they promptly responded). If I have to I’ll make my own but would rather just buy some finished ones for now.

@godofthunder59 any leads on trim ring spacers? I’d like to buy about six of them.

Any chance these could work?


Plastic Mounting Rings for Flat Tops in Black

 

[WillyW]

Still looking for a supplier for black plastic trim ring spacers. Thunderbucker Ranch has been a non response, I’ll try them one last time before writing them off. And Curtis Novak does have them but won’t sell separately from the pups and rings (at least they promptly responded). If I have to I’ll make my own but would rather just buy some finished ones for now.

@godofthunder59 any leads on trim ring spacers? I’d like to buy about six of them.

Tbucker ranch has some listed but @ $15 each... not gonna happen at that price...

 

[GBassNorth]

extreme bursts….cannot stand cherry on basses but it does look good on that L-5 imho…
View attachment 4549278

With you for the most part on the Cherry basses, but I do like the tasteful way Fender did it on my Jazz 5 with vintage cherry burst…

 

[GBassNorth]

Tbucker ranch has some listed but @ $15 each... not gonna happen at that price...

I’d pay it, but can’t figure out how to order off their website. No selectable links to the item, no cart, no phone number (sometimes that can be an iPad formatting thing so I’ll try again from my desktop computer). Days ago I did use their “help assistant” in the lower right corner and told them what I wanted, gave them my email address and text number but haven’t heard squat from them. Novack responded back the next day. I’ll try Thunderbucker one last time before I write them off as a place of business that I’ll never do business with.

 

[WillyW]

I’d pay it, but can’t figure out how to order off their website. No selectable links to the item, no cart, no phone number (sometimes that can be an iPad formatting thing so I’ll try again from my desktop computer). Days ago I did use their “help assistant” in the lower right corner and told them what I wanted, gave them my email address and text number but haven’t heard squat from them. Novack responded back the next day. I’ll try Thunderbucker one last time before I write them off as a place of business that I’ll never do business with.

not much excuse for that in the modern age...

floating cars and jetpacks and all that stuffs

 

[GBassNorth]

Any chance these could work?


Plastic Mounting Rings for Flat Tops in Black

I have some of those from previous builds and didn’t check yet to see if they’d fit, but my recollection is that both the flat top and carved top rings are tapered. I’ll check it out. Thx.

 

[D.M.N.]

Is that your bass, D.M.N.? Fair price for sure and GLWTS.



I prefer the neck P/U be ring-less as well. I'm kind of surprised that a pro would place a ring there but to each their own.

Nope, not mine, just saw it on CL. The 2013s and newer NR never quite did it for me visually.

 

[JIO]

This is likely the best 3T Burst I've seen. I liked the looks and how it played, but it never sounded good at all. Get a perfect job blending each color in to the other. Sunbursts often end up looking like a stripe of black, stripe of red, and then a blob of yellow in the middle.
View attachment 4549266

That's almost a red-burst. My '68 Custom Kraft is an orange/red-burst (I've seen examples that are more red, like the neck) but the front has faded to a nice orange/amber.

They did a cool green-burst also -

 

[JIO]

I hear ya. You like the old Thunderbird bursts because they're not Sunbursts but Tobacco bursts. Which is also why I like them. A sunburst can only be made worse with tort. I do like the very early Fender two tone burst that's black and fades to a nice yellow. When you throw that red in there I'm done.

View attachment 4548911

Having a nicely grained slab of wood underneath helps the final look also.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

That's almost a red-burst. My '68 Custom Kraft is an orange/red-burst (I've seen examples that are more red, like the neck) but the front has faded to a nice orange/amber.

View attachment 4549332

View attachment 4549329

View attachment 4549331
They did a cool green-burst also -
View attachment 4549338

Jeez JIO! how many basses do you have?.....

 

[GBassNorth]

Any chance these could work?


Plastic Mounting Rings for Flat Tops in Black

Just checked them, it’s a no-go, too small and they are tapered.