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Thunderbird is go


T-Bay

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I have been bouncing ideas around for a while for a headless Thunderbird and have finally bitten the bullet and started ordering stuff. I don’t have the tools to make a neck so I have ordered a Jazz style neck off eBay which will eventually have the head chopped off. A headless bridge and end plate is also on its way. I have found a local wood yard that does decent blanks and have fired off an email to them. A wanted ad has gone up for some thunderbird pick ups but if the worst happens I will buy some decent ones from the states. As soon as bits arrive and work starts I will get some pics up. It will be a slow process as life is pretty busy at it is but I am in no rush.

Edited by T-Bay
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23 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

Thanks, it was a very useful read. I am starting from scratch as opposed to a donor bit the process will be similar if a bit more involved. So far I have a neck, headless system and pair of pick ups on the way. After putting up a wanted ad last night I was nosing around The for sale sections when I saw a pair of pickups come up for trade only for a pedal I had going spare. What are the odds of that?

 

I am still unsure what I will do exactly, as with most of these things I guess it will evolve over time. At the moment I have three trains of thought- 1, a straight copy of the thunderbird, probably with a bit more rollover at the edge like my studio model, 2, similar but with heavily chamfered wings to take a bit of weight out but keep it looking normal, 3, skeleton the wings with big cut outs - I like this idea but not sure how stable the wood would be so feel this could be a bit risky.

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On 18/11/2017 at 18:28, AndyTravis said:

You seen this on eBay, headless Precision by Cort!

D993C34F-B01A-4A0A-B40E-9596599C1F17.jpeg

I messaged the seller about this one as I was quite interested (note the "was") - apparently it is rather on the heavy side and a bit of research suggests that the body may be plywood. It's still up for £250 but I think that is possibly a bit overpriced. Also didn't like how the jack socket had been modified - if you wanted to put a normal P-bass scratchplate back on it you'd be left with some mess to sort out, shame really.

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I'd be interested if it was a five... and it wasn't on EB... and the seller was open to a haggle... and it was local so I could try before I buy...and if I wasn't reminded of Leo every time I looked at the body shape... and it...

Nah, forget it.

I bought my five string Steiny for that sort of money new.  I have a B2A as well.  I think I've had 'nuff of headless bass for a bit.  Funny enough, I never wanted to progress to a composite version or a Status.  I like the sound of wood and these days I am mostly tending towards the full bodied guitars with compact heads.

@T-Bay I'd like to try the headless Thunderbird still.  Making the body from scratch should make it interesting when it comes to hanging it off the strap.  "The sit" as @Andyjr1515 describes it.

Are you keeping a book as to whether the nut will end up at ear, shoulder or elbow level?  I'll have a punt on it floating nicely at the shoulder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Yippee!  I finally got how to tag other members into the conversation.  Er, did I really just admit to that out loud?)

Edited by SpondonBassed
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20 minutes ago, charic said:

I'm not sure why that turned up in the search... it doesn't for me xD maybe you got lucky!  I'll be trying to roll it back again shortly

I didn't use any fancy terms just "headless thunderbird" in the advanced search panel with all the defaults checked.

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25 minutes ago, charic said:

You may have got in the slight window where I had allowed for all content (prior to it crashing the site), I'm just trying to turn it back again :)

Nippy aren't I?

It's a pity you aren't an incandescent light bulb.  You've nearly got enough Watts to dimly light a pantry!  Let me make it 59.

Edited by SpondonBassed
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7 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

I'd be interested if it was a five... and it wasn't on EB... and the seller was open to a haggle... and it was local so I could try before I buy...and if I wasn't reminded of Leo every time I looked at the body shape... and it...

Nah, forget it.

I bought my five string Steiny for that sort of money new.  I have a B2A as well.  I think I've had 'nuff of headless bass for a bit.  Funny enough, I never wanted to progress to a composite version or a Status.  I like the sound of wood and these days I am mostly tending towards the full bodied guitars with compact heads.

@T-Bay I'd like to try the headless Thunderbird still.  Making the body from scratch should make it interesting when it comes to hanging it off the strap.  "The sit" as @Andyjr1515 describes it.

Are you keeping a book as to whether the nut will end up at ear, shoulder or elbow level?  I'll have a punt on it floating nicely at the shoulder.

 

 

(Yippee!  I finally got how to tag other members into the conversation.  Er, did I really just admit to that out loud?)

 I don’t understand why the balance point is such an issue for a lot of makers, it’s a fairly simple thing to calculate after all. I messed about with ways of improving the balance on the scrap EB0 I refurbished, even small changes can make massive differences. My Gibson T-bird has no issues at all. This one will be lighter in the body but that should be countered by the lack of head. The headless tuner/ bridge also shifts the weight that way so it isn’t one of my worries (plenty of other things are!).

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34 minutes ago, T-Bay said:

 I don’t understand why the balance point is such an issue for a lot of makers, it’s a fairly simple thing to calculate after all. I messed about with ways of improving the balance on the scrap EB0 I refurbished, even small changes can make massive differences. My Gibson T-bird has no issues at all. This one will be lighter in the body but that should be countered by the lack of head. The headless tuner/ bridge also shifts the weight that way so it isn’t one of my worries (plenty of other things are!).

No book then...?

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