Jean-Luc Pickguard

The fake serial number decal on the back of the headstock is a nice touch

I'm very pleased with the EMG Geezer Butler I put in my '81 Fender Precision.

It comes with everything you need (including the pots etc) to install without getting the soldering iron out.

I'm very impressed with the build quality of my flamed maple starfire II.

This budget version looks pretty good, but its lost much of what sets a starfire apart from other semis by doing away with the one piece bridge and not having a chunky bisonic pickup. Also it looks like it might have a flat top & back rather than arched.

I have never had any problems with stringing flats thru the body, and I have never heard of any cases of strings breaking when doing so. I've seen/heard warnings about this and also about not using long scale flats on short scale basses, but Fender puts long scale Fender flats on the JMJ with no issues - and they feel & sound pretty good to me.

I have also used LaBella flats and TI flats on my other mustang without any issues. The only basses I have used cobalt flats on are my thunderbirds, but if I wanted to try them on a mustang I wouldn't hesitate to put a set on.

...and its on a ukulele!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/233859070673?ul_noapp=true

Armstrong pickups: http://www.armstrongpickups.co.uk/

Bootsy!

Briefly last year I owned three epiphone thunderbird vintage pros; a white one and two in sunburst. With the same strings and setup I honestly wouldn't have been able to tell them apart without looking at the colour/woodgrain. When I decided to sell one of the sunbursts, which one of the pair to keep was an arbitary decision as they were so similar.

The new metallic colours look great. I wonder whether the bridge will be fitted in the correct place on these.

This does make me worry that similarly finished vintage pro thunderbirds will be coming out at some point, and I won't be able to resist them although I already have a pair in white and sunburst.

They're great little basses with a very easy playing neck but that price surprises me.

My red squier jaguar SS was my main gigging bass in a previous blues/rock band. It cost £165 new from Thomann when they were first available. I've fitted EMG-X pickups & BTC system preamp, fender hi-mass bridge and upgraded tuners so its probably worth 400 to me.

Get the new neck. Then get a new body, bridge, pickup, pickguard and other bits & bobs to add to the neck you removed.

Sorry, you’re all wrong. This was originally a feature to prevent passing slugs from taking a shortcut to the other side of the body under the strings between the pickup and bridge. It doesn’t happen now of course, so the strip is unnecessary but it was a common occurrence in the early 60s.

I really like the shape of the headstock on my Guild Starfire bass.

The thunderbird headstock is also one of my favourites, but the extra long version on my Epi vintage pro with added Gotoh GB640 tuners makes it look even better.

I thought the whine was going to be tracked down to be coming from a guitarist complaining about bass players who use pedals

It looks like its a left handed bass but he plays right handed - wonder why he even got it on the first place. Horrible looking thing it looks like a prop from a star trek bar scene.

3 minutes ago, Old Horse Murphy said:

Smurfs aren't cheap to milk. You need specialist equipment or farmers with very small hands. The cost soon mounts up

And there's only one female smurf, unless they're ahem, 'milking' the males somehow?

I've just had a horrible thought. If they can do the JC in gorgeous colours, they might decide to do a run of vintage pro thunderbirds in similarly lovely shades. I already have a white one and a sunburst and I'm running out of places to hide new basses

Am I imagining things, or does a member of the audience call out a request for Wonderwall at 1:27 in the video?

it might be easier for people to work out what case this is if you can post some pics

The studio iv I played had a slightly more radiused edge than thunderbirds usually have, but I wouldn't call it a forearm contour

2 hours ago, leftybassman392 said:

As long as it can record the BJ faithfully...

Do any thunderbirds have a forearm contour? I don't recall seeing one on any I've owned or played.

15 minutes ago, 6feet7 said:

But what's it like? as I only play 5 stringers it's this or nothing. I'm more into how it looks and feels and am not bothered about how it's made.

I tried out the four string version of the studio. It was okay but not in the same class as an epiphone vintage pro.

There's a five string epiphone pro-v at the Gallery at the moment which does have a thru neck: https://thebassgallery.com/collections/all/products/epiphone-thunderbird-5-string

I would have loved to have one of those if I had owned a strat when I was 15

The 5 string gibson version from that time is not a 'classic' style thunderbird with the usual neck thru construction but is designated as 'thunderbird studio' model. instead of the neck-thru construction of nine-ply mahogany/walnut neck with mahogany wings it has a mahogany body with a mahogany set neck, and a different bridge.