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Thunderbird Club

#10,641
Shut up and take my money!

Unfortunately I don't have any, otherwise I would be all over this rare Gibson 2001 Sapphire Blue Thunderbird... :)

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#10,642
I think in all honesty about my preference for epiphone over gibson thunderbirds, lies in the neck & headstock. The slim neck for me is very off putting & the headstock doesnt have much "definition" as opposed to epiphones where the sides are slanted & create the slope effect. Gibson just looks machined, epiphone looks hand crafted (headstock anyway, maybe nothing much else on it is hand built). I really can't wait to finish the Ghost & then tackle the tiger afterwards. I'll have an genuine epiphone bird & an unofficial bc rich bird :P
 
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#10,643
Dadagoboi said:
Nice! '64 hardware is nickel instead of chrome and the two point bridge is machined instead of cast pot metal. I wish I could afford a natural '60. Black plastic pickup cover and banjo tuners. That's the grail.

It was impossible to get the action low enough on my '67 without removing the mute.
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I would like a '60 as well. That's the year I was born, aside from everything else about those. The mute makes for a mile high action. You have to wonder what they were thinking!

By the way, I'm amused by the picture of you and Steve. He's making a bridge cover for my 'Bird that will make it over the Babicz. I don't know how long it will take, but I'm pretty excited about putting it on the bass when it gets here. Now I know for sure that he's as nuts as the rest of us!

[edit] The 'Bird left it's mark last night at the cover band's rehearsal. Last night was the first night anybody mentioned how good the bass sounded, and it clearly has more powerful pickups than anything else I own. I kept turning down and dialing it back to keep from overwhelming everything else. I think the Babicz made a difference, since it wasn't like that before I installed it. Gotta love it!
 
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#10,644
hillerup said:
Shut up and take my money!

Unfortunately I don't have any, otherwise I would be all over this rare Gibson 2001 Sapphire Blue Thunderbird... :)

View attachment 733739

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Gibson's Custom shop did a small run of about 10pcs for a Japanese dealer, that is one of them.
 
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#10,648
Dadagoboi said:
From the knobs, pickguard, paint scheme, evertiltt bridge, and cover it looks like a late '67 to me.

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I paid $1800 USD for mine delivered with a brand new Starfire case three years ago.
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Thanks for that, I was just going on what the seller said. Yeah the one over here is way overpriced, I think he has no chance getting what he is asking.
Yours is truly lovely and a bargain at that price.
 
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#10,651
Off-Beat said:
Has anyone got any experience with Rotosound 66s?
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I'm pretty sure lots of us have...

They are very bright and metallic sounding in the beginning with lots of zing and clank (think big bright angry piano), which dies off relatively fast - After that they tend to mellow a bit, but not too much, tough...

The strings themselves can be quite rough on the finger-tips, unless you already have calluces, and do add a significent bit of string noise when doing slides.

The "older" 66 Swing Bass strings (orange cardboard package) have quite a bit of silk at the ball-end, which may need to be stripped off, when used with a 3-point bridge, in order to clear the saddles. The "newer" (orange airtight plastic package) strings are suppoosedly made with less silk at the ball-end, and can be used as they are with a 3-point bridge - I'm sure some other group member can confirm this, as I haven't bought any of these yet...

Check out their website for a video showcasing them:

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#10,653
hillerup said:
I'm pretty sure lots of us have...

They are very bright and metallic sounding in the beginning with lots of zing and clank (think big bright angry piano), which dies off relatively fast - After that they tend to mellow a bit, but not too much, tough...

The strings themselves can be quite rough on the finger-tips, unless you already have calluces, and do add a significent bit of string noise when doing slides.

The "older" 66 Swing Bass strings (orange cardboard package) have quite a bit of silk at the ball-end, which may need to be stripped off, when used with a 3-point bridge, in order to clear the saddles. The "newer" (orange airtight plastic package) strings are suppoosedly made with less silk at the ball-end, and can be used as they are with a 3-point bridge - I'm sure some other group member can confirm this, as I haven't bought any of these yet...

Check out their website for a video showcasing them:

Invalid Link Removed
Click to expand...

I've used Roto 66 Swings for years but in the past couple years am moving over to DR Hi Beams. I would agree with everything Michael said about the Rotos and would add that in my case they also tend to chew the piss out of frets over time. That being said, I'm not anti-Rotos, just finding I like the DR's more these days. In fact, I just put my last set of new Roto 66 Swingers on my cheap Squire Affinity P that I use at work for our work band, saving the DR's for my regular band gigging basses.
 
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#10,654
Off-Beat said:
Has anyone got any experience with Rotosound 66s?
Click to expand...

My thoughts are pretty much like Michael's, I really don't care for them on most of my basses, but they totally kill on my Greco and the Jackson. Both of these currently have DRs and I'll switch them back when the come due for a string change.
 
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