Two Gibson Thunderbird Copies

[Prostheta]

Right now I have my hands full with the five-string bass I have on the go, but soon that baby will be ready to be finished and left to cure. The next projects are two four-string Thunderbird basses made pretty much to the exact same spec as the production model. One will be a stage dog in a solid finish over much the same build specs as the production model, the other will be a combination of woods which differ to the original build for home and studio use. The beaut!

Let me break down the Gibson Thunderbird piece by piece.

- nine laminate neck-through with scarf jointed headstock

- (out to in) mahogany/walnut pin/mahogany/walnut pin/mahogany core

- 20 fret rosewood fingerboard over a 34" scale (looks like ebony in most photos though!)

- two side wings joined to the body with a V joint

- three way adjustable bridge

- (currently) two ceramic magnet humbuckers

- vol/vol/tone

THE BEAUT

The laminates of walnut aren't spectacularly thick (around 1.0-1.5mm) so I presume they don't affect the tone hugely. The wing/body join is a "V" joint with the V protruding into the neck tenon at it's widest point (4"/10cm). I'll probably abandon this idea in favour of a straight planed join as I can't seem to source cutters to do this cheaply.

Now, the ideas I have for modifying this slightly are to use the two wenge laminates Will (Soundat11) sent me between three pieces of (hopefully) quartered mahogany (if I can buy any in the UK!). Either side of the laminates, I intend to pinstripe oak and wenge veneer making it a MwoWowMwoWowM (!!) neck. Lower case denotes veneer as opposed to stock. Fingerboardwise, I like the idea of Ziricote (damn you Simo!) or perhaps Cocobolo if I feel particularly masochistic that week. The wings will comes from my flatsawn stock. The pickups will be a straight out pair of EMG-45DCs with an EMG-BTS tone system.

I would prefer to maintain the sound of a Thunderbird through the build of The Beaut but changing the pickups to active ceramics, and the fingerboard wood will alter the tone. Question here: how would the wood changes affect the tone in opposition to rosewood? I love the rolling growly mid-sound of Thunderbirds, so I could dial back the sound somewhat with the EQ. Anyway.

THE STAGE DOG

We're not talking beauty here. I intend to solid-finish the neck and body black, at the most a blackburst over the mahogany. Neck laminates aren't crucial to the looks - merely the stability and tone. Pickups will be the same EMG combo. I'm open to discussion on what would make good practical laminates for the neck (three piece mahogany?). I'll probably go ebony on the fingerboard (which I know will change the sound a lot).

This will teach me a hell of a lot over the side-by-side builds as A/Bing the instruments will be awesome at the end of the line.

What I'm interested in discussing (usually to the Nth degree as is traditional) is:

- how wood choices will affect the overall sound of the instrument, and why the production instrument sounds like it does (apart from the quirky midrange!).

- alternative pickup choices (I've always played EMG and actives so I'm blinkered)

Phew. Hopefully this will turn into a nice epic venture.

Build is slated to start January, depending on the winter here and how the five-string progresses.

Oh yes - before anybody mentions it: I'm familiar with the basic characteristic wood sounds, but am interested in combinations and how you can use woods to sculpt your tone to a degree. I blame Wes' maple on this bit. :-D