I got this Epi Thunderbird IV a couple weeks ago (ltd edition white). It was labeled used but looked perfect to me so I got it. I needed a good bass to record w/ my guitars.

What bugs me is that the strings don't seem to be centered very good....or am I being paranoid?

It plays perfect and don't have a problem with it, but it bugs me...is there a bridge adjust to fix this...I don't think so, it just has height adjustment on the bridge.

I don't have anything near this on my guitars...strings line up perfect w/ neck and pickups. On my other bass (the one that I'm tossing), the strings seem to be a little off, but not as much as this one.

Not being a "bass" guy, just wondering if this is ok????

yeah that's doesn't look right...not a repair guy but I don't know that there is any fix for that outside of resetting the bridge by filling the holes with wood putty or whatever and redrilling the holes so they are properly aligned but I'm not sure.

What kind of bridge does it have?? a picture of that might be helpful...:thumb:

Doh! here's a pic of the bridge. 2 outside screws for height...not sure about the one in the center...looks like tilt or something. Intonation screws are facing the bridge pickup...not toward the outside like most.

I wouldn't worry about it man.

If it plays great, and sounds good, and feels good in your hands, whats the problem??

I've had guitars where the strings were off by a wee bit - but the guitar still played and sounded great.

Let it go man - it's no biggie.

BUT!

If it still bugs you so damn much - you could shim the neck and push it over just a hair. If your not much of a repair man yourself, ask a local guitar shop if they could do it for you.

Agree with PJ not that huge a deal

and what about the nut? are the grooves centered or off also?

The nut seems ok. The position dots are perfectly between the 3rd and 4th strings until it gets to about the 15th fret or so.

I can also tell that the neck pocket isn't perfectly hugging the neck...looks like little gaps....not perfectly straight gaps.

I can't imagine it's been butchered before...since everything else is pristine...doesn't even looked "used"...more like a b stock or something...lol

You might be able to do something about it if it's the neck. If not, and it's the bridge, I don't see it being fixable. You would have to fill the bridge holes and then drill back into them with a minor offset...wouldn't likely be very strong. I suppose you might find some uber-strong epoxy that you could set the bridge mounts with but it would probably drastically affect the sound.

If this was a guitar I'd call it a loss. I actually bought one new that had this flaw and it was a problem...E string had a tendency to go off the neck. With a bass though I doubt it's a major concern and I wouldn't worry about it one bit if you aren't noticing it in your playing. Cosmetic crap isn't worth fucking with. The only thing I imagine it could affect on a bass is intonation and I doubt it's by much...again, probably not noticable.

So I'd say whatever. If it's new take it back...it's a flaw that shouldn't have made it out of QA (unless you got it for a deal because of it's flaws). If it's used oh well...play it until you find something nicer and sell it. Any Epiphone (modern anyway) is likely not going to be your final upgrade unless it's a really exceptional one. They are nice...but not the best.

Almost appears as if the neck itself is out of alignment....like the nut end is tweaked slightly up, as you would be holding it. I would take the strings off, and loosen the mounting screws, and see if you have play back and forth (gently!!) as if the body is stationary, and the neck is like a pendulum...if you can get it to move downward at the nut end, and try and shim between the side of the neck, and the neck pocket. Seems that would even it out, based on what i can see from the pics.....:thumb:

This what JPF already said, but If it is a bolt on neck simply loosen the screws slightly and leverage the neck until the strings appear to line up correctly and then tighten the screws back up. I'm sure you thought of that already but I just wanted to just throw that out there again.

Yep, I guess they are bolt on necks. . I have an old crumbling Precision bass that had the same problem, but I didn't even loosen the bolts and simply muscled the neck into the right position (not wise), however it didn't seem to hurt it. These guitars are tough! I'm sure there is enough play at the neck joint and heal to correct this issue with your Thunderbird, but JPF is right though, you should probably be gentle. I love Thuderbirds!

Taking a close look, it seems to me like it´s that sort of tunomatic bridge that is not properly centered, at least I can see it´s not aligned with the pick up positioning. If it´s that, (sure looks like it from the perspective on the last picture), I believe you can refill the holes with some epoxy based putty and just drill the holes again for repostioning it, it is not a real hard thing to do. But again, thats what I can see from the picture.

Thanks guys...

Yeah....I believe it's the bridge not being centered.

If you look at the pic w/ the bridge you can (or maybe you can't) tell that one of the screws is closer to the center body contour edge than the other side. It might be off by like 1/8" or so.

I don't think I'd really want to redrill just for that. I might though. I guess it was just a f-up when built.

Everything else is perfect....best looking fretboard/fret job I've seen. It would hurt playability if it was a guitar, but being a bass it doesn't affect it.

It IS the bridge mate!
I bought the same bass (see below) back in '97. and it's perfect.
Those alpine white jobby's were rushed out as limted editions if I remember correctly.
Rush jobs usually = fuck ups galore.

Send it back! You didn't pay for shoddy workmanship!