Thunderbird Club

[Chucky Stiletti]

Yes it does. Great bass line and you killed it. Where's the rest? That's not right to suck somebody in and just stop.

thx D!

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Recently on the T-bird fb page - '65 NR

View attachment 4612032View attachment 4612035View attachment 4612033View attachment 4612036View attachment 4612031View attachment 4612037View attachment 4612034

I was never attracted to the late '60s NR T-bird in the past - but in retrospect, I like it a lot. Love the very deep "belly contour" the Gen1 never had. There's other reasons but I'll leave it there for now.

definitely makes one wonder if the NR wasn’t the demise of the early TBird…..would
the reverse have indefinitely survived like the Paul has?…

 

[JIO]

definitely makes one wonder if the NR wasn’t the demise of the early TBird…..would
the reverse have indefinitely survived like the Paul has?…

Considering your observation - it appears the gen1 (reverse) T-bird was/is universally considered to be thee iconic T-bird. The late '60s T-bird for all who love it - inevitably came second.

 

[Border]

Other than MitG (which is fine), those are most of my favorite Tull albums. Sounds like a great concert!

Hey Miles, it was a great concert! I been a fan of JT for a long time, so knew every song. Definitely go check him out if the tour comes your way. Cheers!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I believe he said his belly was the reason for the front strap. Maybe it was his best option, or maybe the best one he thought of at the time. With all the other cuts and holes, adding one to the back to test it out wouldn't hurt anything at this point.

I know he claimed no belly cut. Huh?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Hey Miles, it was a great concert! I been a fan of JT for a long time, so knew every song. Definitely go check him out if the tour comes your way. Cheers!

I hope to!

 

[RedVee]

Did someone say Superbird?

Ford Australia XA Falcon GT Hardtop showcar in 1973.
Look at the Bird on that!

They did bring out the Superbird option on the GT Hardtop… but with a much smaller bird decal.

 

[JIO]

Did someone say Superbird?

Ford Australia XA Falcon GT Hardtop showcar in 1973.
Look at the Bird on that!
View attachment 4613520

They did bring out the Superbird option on the GT Hardtop… but with a much smaller bird decal.

Kinda' silly looking - but ATC a 'decent' graphic design... I guess. Was never a 'muscle-car' fixated person back then anyway. My older brother was and had a '70 "monkey shït green" Chevelle with black racing stripes... like this one.

 

[Bent77]

Happy it’s not a Thunderbird or Thursday

 

[dagrev]

definitely makes one wonder if the NR wasn’t the demise of the early TBird…..would
the reverse have indefinitely survived like the Paul has?…

I can't help but think sales/interest were not what was hoped for on the reverse, so they tried something that wasn't so atypical looking. Had they stuck with it, they may have been making a stupid business decision, or like you say, reverses could be as omnipresent as LPs. Seems Gibson tried "out of the box" with Explorers and Vs but chickened out due to sales.

 

[dagrev]

Happy it’s not a Thunderbird or Thursday View attachment 4613683

In that case...

Just noticed the D and G strings aren't in the groves.

 

[Engle]

To his credit, later in the thread he did post a video of he and his band on stage. He’s playing the modified bird, with the headstock and strap massacre for all to see.

After watching the video, I can see why he’s miffed about the face of the bird falling forward and I don’t think it would help if he held it to the side or slung it low, I don’t even think a belly cut would help, he’s just flat out a big dude in every direction and he makes that Tbird look like a toy, I can’t even imagine him with a standard guitar or short scale bass. That said, a simple strap rout from the pin over the front of the top rear bout of the bass would have solved his problem equally well and wouldn’t look like a hack job. The headstock mod may have been cheaper than buying five ultra light tuners (which would have been the correct path) but I doubt it really made enough difference in weight to stop a dive.

All in all, I think he just really doesn’t care much about what people think of his mods, and I don’t think he valued maintaining the original condition of the bass either. He has a bass he rocks on stage and it’s a Tbird with a story now, I’m sure he gets a lot of mileage out of that story and I doubt he’ll stop modding it any further. Like striped knee high socks, psychedelic shoe laces, and “look with I did to my bass” threads, it gets attention, and sometimes that’s all people crave.

Well said George!

 

[WillyW]

In that case...
View attachment 4613711
Just noticed the D and G strings aren't in the groves.

are there dubble grooves?

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Tube tuesday!…

 

[dagrev]

are there dubble grooves?

It's put away right now, but not that I know of. Saddles could be off a tad (why just those two?), or it could be me that's off and just strung it and never paid any attention. I'll have to see if the strings have to bend a bit to fit in the grooves. Fortunately the tone is in the fingers, headstock and pedals and not the bridge saddles, at least not yet, so I should be good either way.

 

[TBird1958]

In that case...
View attachment 4613711
Just noticed the D and G strings aren't in the groves.

Looks like you have the pickups raised quite a bit too, it's interesting that mine is cranked down all the way and the bass is loud, almost overloading the front end of the amp - The Greco, Lull and Jackson all do that.

 

[WillyW]

It's put away right now, but not that I know of. Saddles could be off a tad (why just those two?), or it could be me that's off and just strung it and never paid any attention. I'll have to see if the strings have to bend a bit to fit in the grooves. Fortunately the tone is in the fingers, headstock and pedals and not the bridge saddles, at least not yet, so I should be good either way.

I would get a hipshot

 

[MCF]

I know he claimed no belly cut. Huh?

Yeah. I thought those had a cut. But it has been a long time since I’ve seen one.

 

[brbadg]

Well, with the new band in the works, I decided to narrow down the number of guitars I'm going to use to only two and here they are both.
View attachment 4613304
- The Red one is a 1991 Fender USA Prodigy
- The Blue one is an eighties Washburn G-Junior, which actually is my original "Rote Sau" guitar.
View attachment 4613312

So with this new band, the idea is to hop into a van and start touring, play all the dumps and shacks and kip in either the van or at squats. So I figured just to narrow it down to something of which I KNOW works and just stick with it.

They are both quite similar in lay out and sound and both have comfortable for me neck profiles and can be adjusted in ways that make sense to me.

Well, then, time for me to start woodshedding so my new band will be ready to hit the road soon.

Is this the right thread? Where’s the Thunderbird content?

 

[Stealth57]

Is this the right thread? Where’s the Thunderbird content?

This is not-Thunderbird Tuesday. You have to wait for Thursday for Thunderbird content.

To prove the point, this is what us newbies do before we see the light. Buy a cheap arse bass, decide we want to learn, figure out the bass is , learn to do a proper setup, and then mod the he77 out of it. New pups, new bridge, new tuners, new electronics, new knobs, new strings, strap loks...only thing original was some wood.