Shaggy

Oops - left out contact for Thunderbuckers.... http://www.thunderbuckerranch.com/

So the modding began. As far as authentic 60’s-spec pickups go; there are only Mike Lull and Thunderbucker ranch “boutique” ones available. Bass Direct UK do the Lulls, which have an excellent reputation, but they’re not cheap; £200+ each, mounting rings another £30. I went for the somewhat cheaper Thunderbuckers, which are reverse-engineered from original ‘60’s Gibson units, are, totally hand-built in Arizona, and unlike the Lulls available in 3 types; the “’63”, the slightly hotter “’66”, and the overwound even hotter “Max” (I had a matched pair of the ‘66’s) Steve at Thunderbucker ranch was as friendly and as helpful as can be; anyone contemplating a similar custom build / conversion - buy with total confidence. Contact; And yes, they are every bit as good as the originals; beautifully made and sublime sounding, with lovely nickel-alloy covers too. The bridge / tailpiece were sourced from US ebay, nice heavy solid brass chrome plated units. The conversion was fairly straightforward; a matter of removing the P / J p/ups and the Schaller bridge, routing enlarged p/up cavities to take the Thunderbuckers, and drilling out to fit the big bridge posts and the tailpiece. The difficulties really arose from the routing for previous fittings – the neck p/up mounting ring doesn’t quite cover the old P p/up routing, such there is a 2mm gap at the rear – either I’ll have to fit a sliver of cocobolo veneer underneath or an oversized mounting ring. Likewise, lifting the Schaller bridge I was dismayed to find a neat little shallow oval cavity routed for the bridge earthing wire. Luckily the narrow new bridge unit exactly covered it at the correct distance, and the tailpiece covered the old bridge screws. What’s it like? Lovely! Not quite as comfy as my ’63 with that thick slab body (surprisingly light), but not far off, and with an even fatter and growlier tone. And no fear of neck breaks! The Fender P neck is a joy.; as a mainly Gibson player I’ve got to say I’m really sold on the Fenderbird concept as a near ideal one. I’m sure there’s many who preferred the bass in Mk 1 guise, and I fully understand why. No regrets though!!!

A quick “modding” project this one….. Having a silly number of vintage basses, my undoubted favourite is my ’65 Gibson Thunderbird IV. However – the usual issue with nice vintage instruments; it’s a worry playing dodgy venues……..especially with an old T’bird as the neck / headstock area really is a fragile one. So I’d been on the lookout for something I can gig; either an affordable ‘70’s T’bird (ie; probably one already with a neck repair), or a cheapish modern one suitable for “vintage” modding. Anyway; around May this year BigBassBob – a very pleasant BC-er from West Wales, advertised his custom Fenderbird here, that he’d put together last year ( http://basschat.co.uk/topic/173719-fenderwarmoth-fenderbird-price-drop-l500/page__p__1656844__hl__fenderbird__fromsearch__1#entry1656844 )Basic specs - Fender CIJ ’62RI Precision neck, circa 1998, with slab rosewood board. Hipshot chrome tuners. US Warmoth Thunderbird body; 1-piece mahogany with cocobolo top, ebony pinstripe between. Cocobolo control knobs (passive V/V/T) Nordstrand P / J pickups Schaller 3-D chrome bridge It immediately caught my eye as a very tasty looking bass; and the more I thought about it the more I imagined it with a nice pair of chrome ‘buckers and vintage Gibson-style bridge/tailpiece….. So I had this off Bob around early June, together with the active EMG P / J p/ups he’d previously fitted. And what an absolute peach of a bass it was; really beautifully put together with obvious attention to detail, and sounding very nice indeed – very vintage P. So much so I was very, very tempted just to leave as is. But…….it was just too “Fender-y”. It had to change….

Had a load of used DR 5-string sets off John via his post in the "Recycled" forum - I'd been expecting 1 or 2 sets, but what arrived will probably last me the rest of my life! (with the limited amount I play 5-string....) Great, friendly, helpful guy, one of the top BC-ers - many thanks mate!

[quote name='convair' timestamp='1339896547' post='1696093'] [font="Times New Roman"][b][color=black][size=3]Thank you Shaggy! as you know they are rather special & great fun to play, my IV is really a II that someone way back when turned into a IV for some reason I like the II better in fact I’ve found myself turning down the bridge pup on the IV because I like the sound of that one pup in the sweet spot, [/size][/color][/b][/font] [font="Times New Roman"][b][color=black][size=3]Cheers[/size][/color][/b][/font] [/quote] I thought the control knob spacing on the '64 IV didn't seem quite right! Looks lovely though - what amp do you play them through? Agreed about the "sweet spot" - I've been quite intrigued by the Lull Tom Petersson sig model - http://mikelull.com/site/instruments/signature/signature-petersson.html - it looks wrong, but I bet it sounds massive

[quote name='bigsmokebass' timestamp='1339547210' post='1690499'] Your looking about £800-1100 UK RRP for the basic Gibson KN RD sig, where as on ebay for the classic Gibson RD is £1700-2250 with different finishes, vintage appeal and all the other bells and whistles . . . . all depends on your wallet if your truly after a RD for this sort of money. admittedly, id own both if i could as they both seem real nice basses. The classic is delicious as a collector item and 'Only at home' instrument and the KN would make an excellent work horse for me BSB [/quote] Prices for RD's seem to have bucked the trend for Gibson basses and rocketed recently; there was an all-original blond RD Artist in my local music shop for £500 only a few years ago, hung around for ages.

[quote name='convair' timestamp='1339377943' post='1687728'] [IMG]http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/i353/rick4005/393324_211341608955033_100002375860669_427982_268367199_n.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/i353/rick4005/383133_211341655621695_100002375860669_427983_683021223_n.jpg[/IMG][IMG]http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/i353/rick4005/77.jpg[/IMG] My Birds two '64s & a '68 & a '77 [/quote] Those are just utterly lovely, especially the '64 II and IV!!! Sexiest pics on this or any other porn thread.... My '65 T'bird IV (top of page 3 I think) is my all-time favourite bass, but there's something so classy about the single p/up II model. I'm currently modding the Fender / Warmoth Fenderbird I had off BigBassBob with dual Thunderbucker ranch p/ups and '60's type bridge & tailpiece to use as a gigging workhorse - I'll post in the build diary forum (as it ain't a Gibson....) Some real drool-worthy Gibbos here, keep 'em coming......

PM sent

I bought David's EBS ValveDrive - couldn't have been easier; the pedal arrived well packed within days. A top guy; both to talk to and do business with - highly recommended. Like many BC-ers (I suspect) I have a strong aversion to getting involved with deals abroad - was greatly reassured by this feedback thread, which just shows how useful they are, and all of the postive comments of course borne out. Thanks David!

Pete bought my P/J Nordstrand pickups - easy deal, fast payment, great comms, thanks mate! Looking forwards to seeing the finished bass.....

For the price I reckon that's not a bad effort - IMHO pickups on this and the originals should have been big chrome 'buckers (as they were on the guitar version) but that's just my chrome fetish - Gibson should have kept it on the T'birds too. And the 2 + 2 paddle headstock is just plain wrong. As much as I love ny RD Artist ('77 fireburst / ebony) an authentic re-issue would have been pointless as it was so much "of its time", from the sheer weight of the bloody thing to the wacky Moog electrics. The FA Delogada is tasty, but if Mike Lull made a version that would really be something - plus you know there'd be a 5-er version.....

Awesome - looks in reasonable nick, I'd def have it if it were closer. Wasn't someone here selling the 8 x 10 version recently?

[quote name='neepheid' timestamp='1338887922' post='1680429'] I like basses, ergo I own multiple ones. I play whichever one takes my fancy at the time but I do make sure that they all get a run out (even my office bass gets out into the real world sometimes) and it's not a chore because I like playing all of them. I have no time for agonising about "which bass sounds right" - they all sound like basses - so I just pick one up and get on with it. In short, I don't worry about it at all. [/quote] This For 25 years I had one bass and one amp. With the coming of the internet and finally a bit of spare cash this crept up to four basses, which rather horrified me, so I made a massive effort to get down to two (one fretted, one fretless). My success in this can be measured by my current number of basses; 15 (and three amps) - which represent every bass I've ever felt significant GAS for since starting playing bass in a band at 16, and a couple of other "oddball" basses that I couldn't resist. They all get played, a fair few get gigged, but realistically I have to acknowledge that I've become a collector which is something that I never wanted to be. But what the hell - to me they aren't just tools but deeply sexy objects in their own right - I also make basses so the whole notion of design and ergonomics fascinates me. The missus moans about them now and again, but on the whole has supported my sad obsession. (and this is apart from the 3 electric guitars, 2 flamenco guitars, 1 classical guitar, 1 steel-string acoustic guitar, 3 violins, 3 mandolins, 2 lutes, 1 theorbo, and 1 tenor banjo.....)