MCF

The Epi Blackbird is a great bass. I use stainless steel rounds on most of my Thunderbirds. I generally use SIT Power Steels or Dunlop Marcus Miller stainless Superbrights. Yours looks to be in better shape than mine. Congratulations!

The current Epi Thunderbird case will be fine for it and isn’t too expensive. The Gator Cases Hard-Shell Wood Case for Thunderbird Bass Guitars (GWE-TBIRD-BASS) is a rectangular case that it will fit. Also not too expensive and the covering is hardier than that on the Epi case. 

Bought yesterday for The  Kindle App.  Just finished it. Very enjoyable read.