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Thunderbird Club

#24,302
hillerup said:
I wonder why Hiwatt was so inconsistent in their sizing of their amplifiers...?
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Bottom left is the Slade DR201, top left Bicrown era DR103, and on top of the 4x12s is a rather suspect bass 100 made from parts spirited away from the Fane factory and assembled at home by a employee.
 
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#24,304
Klondike said:
I never said disco album, i shidder to even say the words. But I could see borrowing a lick or two and making it my own in a song. Think about a shift mid song that might have a similar rhythm to some disco song then shift back.
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Noooooo!!! That would be like having a brain transplant were the donor was Hannibal Lecter :roflmao:
 
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#24,310
Then there was John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Funny thing as much as I hated those two, Travolta I like as an actor.

Disco to me was vanity taken to the nth degree, I know every fad has a degree of vanity attached to it but disco.... All those smeg heads in white flares and open shirts mincing around like they were trying to keep a suppository from popping out and leaving a brown stain for all to see
 
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#24,312
Christine said:
Then there was John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Funny thing as much as I hated those two, Travolta I like as an actor.

Disco to me was vanity taken to the nth degree, I know every fad has a degree of vanity attached to it but disco.... All those smeg heads in white flares and open shirts mincing around like they were trying to keep a suppository from popping out and leaving a brown stain for all to see
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Yikes! There's a mental image I won't soon forget!o_O

My biggest beef with Disco is purely on a personal taste level. For eons music was written and performed largely for the main intent of creating a sound you could dance to. There was swing, big band, sock hop, motown, and pop. Then in the mid to late 1960's a movement started (possibly Sgt. Pepper album) where music was something you could just listen to and enjoy the experience. You could still dance to a lot of it if you wanted but you didn't have to. Then in the mid 1970's some producer or band or night club I guess got the bright idea to market a sound that would drive folks back to the dance floors again, and bang, disco happened.

So there I am as a teen in the mid seventies enjoying my Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Yes and other epic classic rock stuff while my girl friends all listen to the Bee Gees, Barry Mantelow and Rod Stewart. Sure they could sing, and yes they had talent but it was polar opposite of what I liked. The net effect - I'm out trying to score tickets to a Grateful Dead or Pink Floyd concert while my girlfriend is all excited about the non stop disco music that will be played at the prom (rolling my eyes and sighing in disbelief that I might actually have to pass up on an Aerosmith tour and instead listen to four hours of nonstop Bee Gees, KC, and other crap wile I flail around a dance floor like nearly every other guy there with horrible John Travolta moves). Just so un-fun. :meh:
 
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#24,313
Seems to be some lack of clarity at present arising from the potential impact of recent CITES changes and the possible international trade implications of changes to US tariff arrangements for US companies production outside the US, as they might apply to these products outside the US. I have written to the Australian distributor of Gibson Brands to seek some clarity as to what might happen in Australia. I will post any reply I may get.

Here's what I wrote.

"
I understand that Epiphone recently announced a number of new models for 2017 at NAMM. This included a Thunderbird Vintage Pro Bass, replacing the current Thunderbird Classic Pro, and an Embassy Pro Bass.
The information provided indicated availability from July 2017.

Are you able to advise when these new lines will be available in Australia?

Are you able to advise whether current uncertainty as to possible US tariff changes associated with production by US companies outside of the US would affect availability and price of these new lines in Australia?

Can you advise where these new lines will be manufactured?

Are you able to advise whether recent (1/1/17) changes to CITES affecting the international trade in Dalbergia (Rosewood) species would affect price and availability of these new lines in Australia?

Thank you for your time."
 
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#24,314
Klondike said:
Been pricing those, wow are they expensive!
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The Slade DR201 was procured for me by a friend in the UK when Slade auctioned off their gear, even sat on it me for a year till I could pay for it. I won't say what I paid but far less than you see today. The DR103 I bought locally at a great local shop I think I paid 900 for it. The Bass 100 I bought off ebay when frankly I didn't know ship for shinola about Hiwatt cept I wanted one, turns out to be a good sounding amp, paid $350 for it plus shipping lol.
 
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#24,315
Upon reflection, much of the music one might put into the category of unsucky disco was what these days would be classed as RnB, or was funk (albeit at the poppier end of the continuum).

Okay = Donna Summer (Giorgio Moroder), Chic, KC and Sylvester and there's probably more I have forgotten. Not the BeeGees.

BTW - anyone with even a passing interest in electronic music and rap/hip hop should check out 808, a documentary about the Roland 808 drum machine.
 
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#24,316
It led directly to all kinds of other things, too. I can't imagine Herbie Hancock coming up with Sound System without disco having come first. I lived in NYC in the early 1980s, and the close juxtaposition of the budding hip-hop movement and the full blown punk rock movement was wonderful. Both were pure, primal energy boiling out of people who had opportunities to either make music or commit awful crimes, so they made ferociously energetic music. It got political pretty fast, too. The Message is just as powerful now as it was then, at least to me. Since it was all new, there was a whole lot of experimentation going on. Nothing was set like it got by the late 1980s. My girlfriend (now wife) came home one day with a 45 and told me I had to play it, because it was a rap ballad. Nobody could imagine such a thing up until LL Cool Jay did it. It was a whole lot of fun to be there during that period. I was playing rugby instead of playing music, but that didn't matter. It was everywhere.
 
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#24,317
godofthunder59 said:
The Slade DR201 was procured for me by a friend in the UK when Slade auctioned off their gear, etc even sat on it me for a year till I could pay for it. I won't say what I paid but far less than you see today. The DR103 I bought locally at a great local shop I think I paid 900 for it. The Bass 100 I bought off ebay when frankly I didn't know ship for shinola about Hiwatt cept I wanted one, turns out to be a good sounding amp, paid $350 for it plus shipping lol.
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The price you paid is more in line to the 5-6 thousand I keep seeing. The only way I might consider paying that kind of money I had better be playing with a mega super group like Metalica, Iron Maiden etc that sell out soccer stadiums around the planet and we had better be desperate to boot!
 
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#24,318
Klondike said:
The price you paid is more in line to the 5-6 thousand I keep seeing. The only way I might consider paying that kind of money I had better be playing with a mega super group like Metalica, Iron Maiden etc that sell out soccer stadiums around the planet and we had better be desperate to boot!
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Great to speculate about what you'd do if you had the $$...but here's the bottom line IMO:

With Hi Watts (or any other limited quantity of quality vintage gear - like unbroken 60s Thunderbirds for instance) their value is most likely to go up or at least stay the same if you purchase them for the low end of WHATEVER the current market is.

If you got the $$ or can get it...and you really want it, BUY IT!

At the least you'll get your money out of it less years of enjoyment value if/when you sell it.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
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#24,319
Dadagoboi said:
Great to speculate about what you'd do if you had the $$...but here's the bottom line IMO:

With Hi Watts (or any other limited quantity of quality vintage gear - like unbroken 60s Thunderbirds for instance) their value is most likely to go up or at least stay the same if you purchase them for the low end of WHATEVER the current market is.

If you got the $$ or can get it...and you really want it, BUY IT!

At the least you'll get your money out of it less years of enjoyment value if/when you sell it.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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I tend to agree with your sentiments Carlo.
 
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#24,320
Nocturnal said:
I tend to agree with your sentiments Carlo.
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The older I get the more , "You can't take it with you." resonates.

In that vein, I just took an order for one of this, 'Mardi Gras G8R Eighter'.

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I'll probably turn it into one of these: 1980 Olympia Cremina, the Thunderbird II of espresso machines!
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