Thunderbird Club

[dagrev]

Earl Scheib says $200 will do it. Maaco might be even less.

What happened to $99?

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

TT!
View attachment 7345847

I moved the SVT rig upstairs from the basement. Wanted to be able to sit by the fire

Ouch. I forgot how heavy that rig is. I understand why Chucky’s Ampeg rig doesn’t get out much.

would need a roadie to entertain my current gigging schedule with an SVT which is why I dig these.....big fan of one trip in, one trip out no splitting stipends with a roadie....

 

[dagrev]

TT!
View attachment 7345847

I moved the SVT rig upstairs from the basement. Wanted to be able to sit by the fire

Ouch. I forgot how heavy that rig is. I understand why Chucky’s Ampeg rig doesn’t get out much.

What a way to play and watch TV.

 

[Gaolee]

nah...no thx, original mudbucker pls....
View attachment 7345888

That's the first '67 I have seen with a single pickup and an intonable tilt-o-matic bridge. I think they started putting that bridge on two pickkup models in 1967, but mostly that was a feature in 1968 and later. I suppose it was whatever was in the parts bin when they assembled it. That one doesn't appear to have ever have had a cover anywhere. Most of them, including mine, did have that. Consistency wasn't a Gibson thing back then, if it even is now.

That one appears to have had a mute, based on the shadow in the finish. I have a mute for mine, but it makes the action sky high. It came with a mute, based upon the holes in the top, but there's no way to use it if you play anything more than open strings. Some of them, the mute works fine. Some of them, like mine, it doesn't. Even neck angle wasn't consistent. I guess they never heard of things like jigs back then. Go figure.

 

[MCF]

What a way to play and watch TV.

Watching a great game. 1-1 bottom of the fourth. Go Dodgers!

 

[Gaolee]

What happened to $99?

They charge extra if you roll down the windows. Painting the interior is more paint, so it costs more.

 

[ectoflanger]

No shade intended. The GS2 is stunning and no doubt topnotch. We've all said for years at least some Thunderbirds should have inlays, and I know I mentioned before that binding would be killer. I know when they came out I was shocked at how good they looked, and that Gene even played a Thunderbird. Gibsons yes, Thunderbirds? Who knew. He's no doubt played every bass known at some point, but I know I never thought of him as a Thunderbird player, thus the shock there.

Beautiful Explorer!

I once read in a bass mag interview where he said he had played Spectors but in the long fussing too much about sound can undermine music creativity..

One could argue that Bob Ezrin had a lot to do with the arrangements on the Destroyer album and even taught the band on music theory but Gene played a cool bass lines on “Flaming Youth”-

 

[MCF]

Earl Scheib says $200 will do it. Maaco might be even less.

I’m old enough to remember the ad “I’ll paint any cay for $19.95. No ups. No extras.”

No masking and no prep (except for covering the windows with newspaper). They didn’t even wash it before spraying.

 

[Mike N]

Earl Scheib says $200 will do it. Maaco might be even less.

10 years ago or so there was a collision shop down the road from where I worked that was "The Home Of The $795" paint job.

Naturally that didn't include any body work or painting the door jambs (if you were changing colors), basically it was a scuff & spray.

I saw one job they did on a friend's car and I swear while the paint guy was laying the paint, there was someone standing in front of him throwing sand & dirt on the panels being painted.

Holy crap, the hood on this guys car felt like you were running your hand over a cheese grater.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Once they’re dialed in, I pretty much don’t have to mess with them much.

That's my experience.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

What happened to $99?

Inflation. Tariffs. Investors. The internet. Video games. Big Pharma.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

would need a roadie to entertain my current gigging schedule with an SVT which is why I dig these.....big fan of one trip in, one trip out no splitting stipends with a roadie....
View attachment 7345946

Yep. Rumble City here.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

end of an era, farewell.....

KISS Guitarist Ace Frehley Dead at 74

Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist for KISS, is dead ... TMZ has confirmed.

www.tmz.com

 

[Engle]

I am constantly searching for the right string, bass, tuning combination. Since I have 34”, 32”, and 30” scale basses, and I tune them E standard (and drop D), Eb standard (and drop Db), and D standard (and Drop C) it’s ongoing.

For instance I recently took a P bass that I had tuned to Eb, which had DR DDT 110-50’s and although it sounded and felt OK (how a set of strings feels under my fingers also plays a role), I wasn’t necessarily excited about it. So, I put on a set of LaBella DT54 “Drop Tune” strings, .054, .075, .090, .111 and tuned to D standard. These strings claim to have slightly larger cores. I can say, although they are super bright, I am much happier with that bass using those strings in that tuning. I think once a bit of the brightness tapers off, these will be the strings and the tuning for this bass. Once I have the right combination, I note it and, for the most part, the search is done for that bass…

Finding the right combination for my 32” scales for lower tunings is my biggest challenge right now. I WIDH ENCF’s came in medium scale. They make short sake sets and they are great. I have a short scale tuned to D standard and can drop to C using an 110-50 set of SS EBCF’s and have no fret buzz.

Just an idea that may or may not make sense on your basses: Add a tailpiece or neck through string ferrules to a 32" scale bass and any 34" strings will work.

 

[Engle]

Well I had put mine away for nearly ten years until this past summer in favor of my Warwicks - then I suddenly found myself appreciating it.

Kind of like one’s taste in food can change over time-

That happens to me regularly. I fall in love with a bass, play it for months/years and then something else catches my attention and I move on. Later I rediscover the one I loved before.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

That's the first '67 I have seen with a single pickup and an intonable tilt-o-matic bridge. I think they started putting that bridge on two pickkup models in 1967, but mostly that was a feature in 1968 and later. I suppose it was whatever was in the parts bin when they assembled it. That one doesn't appear to have ever have had a cover anywhere. Most of them, including mine, did have that. Consistency wasn't a Gibson thing back then, if it even is now.

That one appears to have had a mute, based on the shadow in the finish. I have a mute for mine, but it makes the action sky high. It came with a mute, based upon the holes in the top, but there's no way to use it if you play anything more than open strings. Some of them, the mute works fine. Some of them, like mine, it doesn't. Even neck angle wasn't consistent. I guess they never heard of things like jigs back then. Go figure.

 

[ectoflanger]

LOL - That’s quite an amazing sound coming from that Jazz bass in the Lovich video - considering the bass isn’t plugged in.

That said, lots of people can get amazing sounds from their Jazz basses with or without tone twisting pedals, I’m just not one of them. My Tbirds give me all the sounds I’m looking for with a couple of exceptions.

Notably - Warwick thumbs very unique sound (which I hope to capture in a Tbird build I’m completing in the next couple weeks), Fender Telecaster Modern Player very unique sound (which I captured in a Tbird build I finished about a year ago), Stingray very unique sound (which should be easy and cheap to capture in a future build) and Alembic Series unique sound (which may be prohibitively expensive to capture in a Tbird build). G&L and Ric could probably be added to that list but so far I haven’t bonded with either, so no immediate desire to make a Tbird inspired version of those at this time.

This one was plugged in, although like many bassist sidemen, he gets little footage, and what footage he gets is mostly in the shadows-



The bonus is Lene looks a lot cuter and winsome in this actual live clip than in the previous one.

Whereas the other was indeed a mime of the actual studio recording. But Mark is credited for the bass on the audio recording of "New Toy" that was written and produced by Thomas Dolby. And the tone on that track is very similar to the one on "Airwaves" from Dolby's Age of Wireless album.

There are some Bryan Ferry videos featuring bassists who did not even play on that given track, though they had worked with Bryan Ferry- so you are correct in asserting that what you see in a video is not necessarily what actually happened-

But I believe I made a reasonable assumption-

 

[ectoflanger]

I’m old enough to remember the ad “I’ll paint any cay for $19.95. No ups. No extras.”

No masking and no prep (except for covering the windows with newspaper). They didn’t even wash it before spraying.

Back in 1978 when I was 16, I took my birthday gift , a 1968 Olds Cutlass Supreme, the hand me down family car, to Earl Scheib in Ft. Worth, Texas to have it painted an aqua blue and the vinyl top dyed from black to white.

 

[dagrev]

I’m old enough to remember the ad “I’ll paint any cay for $19.95. No ups. No extras.”

No masking and no prep (except for covering the windows with newspaper). They didn’t even wash it before spraying.

Good heavens, you're older than Mike? You're not that much older than me and all I recall around here was $99.

 

[dagrev]

Inflation. Tariffs. Investors. The internet. Video games. Big Pharma.

Taxes. You forgot taxes.