Thunderbird Bass

[skibum5545]

Don't expect much progress on this one any time soon, mates. I made the mistake of taking on a difficult project during High School's Junior year, but at least the design is 99% done.

Specs:

35" Extra Long Scale

Thunderbird IV Reverse body styling

Pau Ferro/Curly Hard Maple/Pau Ferro Neck Through

Honduras Mahogany wings

Curly Maple Epoxied Fretboard w/ fretline inlays

ABM (maybe Steinberger?) Headless System

2 G&L MFD Humbuckers

Wiring:

Vol-Tone-5 Way Switch

Kill Switch for each pickup

I have everything I need except the Bridge setup and the wood for the wings. Here's the design:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v79/skibum5545/tbird.jpg

I still have a couple design issues to work out, though. First, will I have to modify the body shape to make room for the fine tuners of the bridge, or will there be some way to do a Lion's Claw rout for them. Also, would it be possible to angle the tailpiece upwards, so as to provide better access to the tuners?

I'll post more as I do more. However, that might involve changing plans for the curly maple in the neck, or just splurging on a thickness sander.

Edited January 3, 2005 by skibum5545

[bassman]

My experience with the ABM system is that the tuning ratio is so high- 40:1, that you only need access to the top portion of the tuning "roller" to be able to bring it up to tune. So you could really route out an angled slope into the body, and some extra routing so the tuners dont get caught on the wood underneath, and it should work fine. Test it out in somse scrap- full scale of course so that you try it under full string tension. Definitely dont angle it the opposite way that it is supposed to be angled.

[volverine]

Hey thanks for the comment on my guitar, I would use a steinberger bass bridge in your place - especially if I were in U.S. where it's pretty available.

Keep up the good work - headless guitars rule

[darren wilson]

Is that going to be a bass or a guitar?

If you're intending for this to be a bass, you might want to check your proportions. Bass bridge/tailpiece units are usually located at the very rear butt-end of the body, just because of the scale length involved. It looks like you're taking Firebird guitar proportions and making a bass out of it... where you've got the bridge positioned, it looks like it's going to be huge and tail-heavy.

[skibum5545]

Thanks for the tips. To be honest, I myself was surprised at how far up the tailpiece ended up. However, even despite the longer scale length, this was the only way I could tease something vaguely reminiscent of upper fret access out of the Thunderbird body shape. That coupled with the fact that the lack of a top horn makes the T-Bird notoriously neck-heavy, and I'm not terribly worried.

However, I've postponed plans for this bass, most likely, until I finish with the one I was first planning on. Don't expect progress any time soon; it will likely be summer (or later) before I even start on this thing.

[bassman]

make sure you buy some double ball end strings for planning... this will affect your scale length... good luck with 35"- you can use regular strings and use the locking set screw to pin them down- this will not work with Thomastik Infeld strings- they are to soft and have a bunch of silk in them , they will mash and unravel, same goes for tapewounds- th double balls must used for tapewounds. I am currently trying to see if I can have some custom lengths of double ball end tapewounds made for another hybrid bass- only five strings and 35"+ scal length.