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Thunderbird Club

#338,783
Forward progress at last. Now I can move on with final sanding.

A little precarious getting the head lined up in the engraver.
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...Action shot...
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It worked out excellent. 1.5mm deep and razor sharp.
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(Year, TB Club number, 1 of 1 )

Also got some mahogany blanks so I can experiment with matching the "Bullion Gold" texture under clear effect.
 
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#338,785
dagrev said:
Sounds like it would work just fine with my cabs. :whistle:

Mark knows what he's going. Never thought I find a head that sounds as good as my Ampeg V-4BH Classic (intended to be the little bro of the SVT and not like the 70s V-4B), but I could use the ABMs and be happy. Great heads and under appreciated IMO. I don't see the Classic going anywhere because in a few situations you can really hear the all tube difference, but I could see the V-4B AV leaving at some point. Just doesn't sound as good (to me) as the BH Classic. But is one of the best looking heads ever made.
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one of the beautiful things about tube amps is, there are no thermal issues as in solid state, further, the output tranny isolates the speaker so no need for DC protection schemes to protect them such as fuses, relays etc.....
 
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#338,786
Lammchop93 said:
well this was supposed to be posted earlier today. The outage seemed to have delayed that... hah!


Practice sounded good! Still a lot of zing on these, but I heard more of the bitey growl I was wanting for. Gonna rock these for a few weeks and let them settle in. So far so good!
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Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats (EBCF) are very popular in the Tbird club here. IMHO they bring out just the right amount of zing on the top end yet still retain all that great bottom end you expect from a flat. To my ears, they are the most round wound sounding flat I’ve heard, but still have that unmistakable flat wound sound. I have them on a number of my Tbirds. Besides, how can you go wrong with purple silks!
 
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#338,787
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#338,788
Tonight(Saturday)was the big band [5 saxes, 4 trombones, 4 trumpets, piano, drums, bass, vocalist] gig. First time reading charts since 12/2024. Couple of clams, partly due to awkward writing; partly due to 'rust'. I doubt if anyone-including the band-noticed besides me. Epi Embassy>Rumble 100. No FOH, as usual. Plenty for the gig. Decent chunk of change in my pocket for the effort. Prolly another 14 months 'til another reading gig.
 
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#338,790
Sunday's truss rod cover follies...........

My '64 has needed a new one since I got it, I started really looking at the offerings out there and realized that none of them would actually work on my bass. So what I have here in the first shot is my original '64 TRC with the truncated beak, a Gibson repro of some kind that currently resides on my Orville ( I used this to complete the correct shape of the beak) and a new TRC that I cut from .020 styrene, using the two as templates.

lrITeYZ.jpg


Here we are after some quality time in the spray booth - paint, lacquer, clear gloss, lacquer, wet sand with 2K, black, lacquer, clear gloss, lacquer.

Waterslide logo to follow.

8qYlWG7.jpg
 
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#338,791
Chucky Stiletti said:
that Trace is a great amp, like V says, "baked in" tone resulting from years of Mark Gooday asking bass players what they want as opposed to just giving them a high power amp driven with an EQ.... that thinking went into Ashdown amps as well....V's Trace measures to spec (210W @ 4 Ohm/156W @ 8 Ohm at 1kHz) but unfortunately it doesn't seem to be enough for her needs....it's unintuitive but a much higher power rated cab can actually hurt a smaller amp....in this case, that Goliath 6 x 10 is rated at 1000 Watt at 4 Ohm and it may be a little much for that little amp causing it to go into thermal protection which I think is the case as the larger 300 Watt Ashdown works fine.....some may say, "a big amp will fry a small speaker, why would a big speaker harm a small amp?" and the best way to visualize it is to imagine a small car (spkr) with a big engine (amp) coasting down a hill with no gas applied...the large rotating mass of the motor will slow down the small car to the point the motor will stay under the rated redline and avoid damage.....if on the other the car is much heavier (same motor) going down that same hill may push the motor pass the rated redline damaging it.....an amp under these persisting conditions will go into thermal shutdown and come out of it when the transient disappears making it seem like it's "cutting out".....then again, it could have been anything...a cable, brownout etc etc..... for now, it's my practice amp till the Queen summons it back to the court.....thx V!
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My understanding is the stated impedance of any cab is not a fixed number throughout the frequency range.
If the amp tested good with a 4 ohm load, I would guess that 610 cab is presenting less than a 4 ohm load at some frequencies.
And in real world playing the amp doesn't have enough headroom to work with that 4 ohm cab. It might be fine with another one.
 
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#338,792
Afternoon "Spring Forward" show (2:15) Bond Girl at the Kilowatt SF - SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! Sunny, blue skies, warm... I'm anticipating good attendance as it's on a busy street always populated with people. Let's do this thing!

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Todays axe T2K-MkII - new strings installed yesterday... ZINGY!
1772989472245.jpeg
 
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#338,793
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#338,794
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#338,795
JIO said:
Afternoon "Spring Forward" show (2:15) Bond Girl at the Kilowatt SF - SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! Sunny, blue skies, warm... I'm anticipating good attendance as it's on a busy street always populated with people. Let's do this thing!

View attachment 7448431
View attachment 7448460
Todays axe T2K-MkII - new strings installed yesterday... ZINGY!
View attachment 7448434
Click to expand...
I continue to lust over that bass, even though anymore, I am all Gibson, all the time (2014 Thunderbird, 2014 SG (left at practice), 1969 EB3, 2019 Epiphone Thunderbird (the ones I reach for at home). What an absolute beauty!
 
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#338,796
TBird1958 said:
Sunday's truss rod cover follies...........

My '64 has needed a new one since I got it, I started really looking at the offerings out there and realized that none of them would actually work on my bass. So what I have here in the first shot is my original '64 TRC with the truncated beak, a Gibson repro of some kind that currently resides on my Orville ( I used this to complete the correct shape of the beak) and a new TRC that I cut from .020 styrene, using the two as templates.

lrITeYZ.jpg


Here we are after some quality time in the spray booth - paint, lacquer, clear gloss, lacquer, wet sand with 2K, black, lacquer, clear gloss, lacquer.

Waterslide logo to follow.

8qYlWG7.jpg
Click to expand...
I Like The Way You Think!

Please LMK if you find a good source for gold waterslides that look "right."

I'm currently pingponging between adhesive gold mylar and engraving then filling with gold leaf or paint then spray with clear, but have decided to go with the mylar for now so I can move onto finishing the actual instrument.

Cutting mylar with the laser fuses the edges a bit, which makes for a cool refractive effect at the edge but also makes them thicker & more prone to getting hung up, accumulating lint when cleaning, or peeling.

Bought a cheapy vinyl cutter that does a lot cleaner job.

I wish I could come up with a way to 'hobby-level engineer' replication of Gibson's foil hot-stamp process, but that's too much machinery to build for something I'd likely only use a couple times.

As I'm doing my own logo design instead of using "Gibson,' it's either special-order or DIY. Part of the fun, when time's available.
 
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#338,797
Thumper said:
I continue to lust over that bass, even though anymore, I am all Gibson, all the time (2014 Thunderbird, 2014 SG (left at practice), 1969 EB3, 2019 Epiphone Thunderbird (the ones I reach for at home). What an absolute beauty!
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It 100% walks the walk and talks the talk! :bassist:

Used it on this recording -

 
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#338,798
Thumper said:
I continue to lust over that bass, even though anymore, I am all Gibson, all the time (2014 Thunderbird, 2014 SG (left at practice), 1969 EB3, 2019 Epiphone Thunderbird (the ones I reach for at home). What an absolute beauty!
Click to expand...
Speaking of the 2014s, both satin finish heritage cherry, what would be a good product to spruce up the finishes? AI says Music Nomad Detailer or Taylor Satin Cleaner....
 
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