{"id":1157,"date":"2019-10-02T20:43:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T19:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2019-10-02T20:43:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T19:43:09","slug":"thunderbird-iv-not-a-submarine-a-bass-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/thunderbird-iv-not-a-submarine-a-bass-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunderbird IV. Not a submarine, a bass guitar."},"content":{"rendered":"

This time it’s the Thunderbirds that need rescuing.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird
Thunderbird in case<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I bought this bass guitar case for \u00a320. The seller insisted that the guitar came free, because it was “a load of s**t”. Who was I to argue.<\/p>\n

The case alone is worth twice what I paid. That yellow package in the middle is a new set of strings, \u00a320. I’m already quids in before I look at the guitar.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird
Thunderbird as acquired<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While it looks a bit of a mess, most of the issues are cosmetic. All of that horrible gaffe tape needs to go. That revealed a lose strap button that was soon fixed by plugging the screw hole with matchstick and PVA and re drilling. I’ll fit strap locks to this. Those stickers will have to go as well.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird
Thunderbird Bridge missing saddle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The missing bridge was found in the case. Unfortunately it is missing one saddle. Apparently this is a common problem with these 3 point Gibson bass bridges. The saddles are only held in place by pressure from the string. If the string breaks the saddle can, and often does, fall out to be lost forever in the mosh pit.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird
Thunderbird New bridge saddles<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Buying saddles for most guitar bridges is a painless exercise. Not so with this. Gibson bass guitars are a rare beast, the market being dominated by Fender and their clones. This means that spares availability isn’t great. Black saddles were not be found. A whole bridge\u00a0 in black wouldn’t give much change from \u00a3100. I found a chrome bridge from China for \u00a320. I retained the original bridge but transferred the chrome saddles, hoping that they would not look out of place behind the shiny strings.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird
Thunderbird New nut<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A the other end of the neck the nut was broken. I fitted and fettled a replacement. That nice new string set mentioned earlier holds everything together. I spent some time tuning up and setting the action and intonation. Plays well now.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird.
Thunderbird. Pickup<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now the electrics. The pickups were sitting rather low in the body. They stayed that way when I loosened their screws. It turned out that the foam rubber underneath had perished. Fortunately I have some foam of the right type in my spares, so this was quickly sorted.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird
Thunderbird Tone Pot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Controls were ok, except the tone pot. Crackly pots can often be sorted by a squirt of switch cleaner spray and a good wiggle. On this occasion this chemotherapy didn’t do the trick. Transplant surgery was required. Here we see the new part being soldered in.\u00a0 Note the use of a beer mat to hold the part still and protect the body from damage.<\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird
Thunderbird Headstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So an outlay of \u00a320 for a case with a free guitar, plus \u00a320 for the bridge and another tenner for nut and electrics. Call it \u00a350 for a very nice bass guitar. The case came free!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This time it’s the Thunderbirds that need rescuing. I bought this bass guitar case for \u00a320. The seller insisted that the guitar came free, because it was “a load of s**t”. Who was I to argue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guitar","category-repair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.wiredwood.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}