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Thunderbird Club

#10,666
It depends on what else you are interested in. If your plan was to have a Cataldo bass built, then hold off and get that. Send him a down payment to avoid temptation. You already have a Gibson Bird so the blue is not going to sound dramatically different. On the other hand.....it is a rare specimen and a very cool color and I have only seen a few of these for sale ever. Buuutttttt..........having gone this route before I can speak to my feelings on this type of situation. Whenever I have my heart set on buying something in particular but something else catches my eye and I buy that instead of the original item I'm lusting after, the second item is always a little tainted for me. No clue if anyone else walks thru that field of mental landmines or not, but I enjoy mentally abusing myself so take that into the equation. I have some of Goats demons in my head as well :help:
 
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#10,668
Nocturnal said:
It depends on what else you are interested in. If your plan was to have a Cataldo bass built, then hold off and get that. Send him a down payment to avoid temptation. You already have a Gibson Bird so the blue is not going to sound dramatically different. On the other hand.....it is a rare specimen and a very cool color and I have only seen a few of these for sale ever. Buuutttttt..........having gone this route before I can speak to my feelings on this type of situation. Whenever I have my heart set on buying something in particular but something else catches my eye and I buy that instead of the original item I'm lusting after, the second item is always a little tainted for me. No clue if anyone else walks thru that field of mental landmines or not, but I enjoy mentally abusing myself so take that into the equation. I have some of Goats demons in my head as well :help:
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This rings SO true for me... perfect example. When the Hamer Blitz basses came out, I was GAS'n for one in a bad way but couldn't justify the price tag (I think they were $800 new back then) so I settled and got an Ibanez Destroyer bass (candy apple red) instead for $350 new. NEVER warmed up to it and kept kicking myself soon after bringing it home. Eventually it bugged me so much that I traded it in and got the Hamer Blitz I should have got in the first place! Of course, compulsive me.... within a year I had another one in black (first one was white)! Yeah, I'm 'effed up like that sometimes! ;)
 
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#10,670
Nocturnal said:
It depends on what else you are interested in. If your plan was to have a Cataldo bass built, then hold off and get that. Send him a down payment to avoid temptation. You already have a Gibson Bird so the blue is not going to sound dramatically different. On the other hand.....it is a rare specimen and a very cool color and I have only seen a few of these for sale ever. Buuutttttt..........having gone this route before I can speak to my feelings on this type of situation. Whenever I have my heart set on buying something in particular but something else catches my eye and I buy that instead of the original item I'm lusting after, the second item is always a little tainted for me. No clue if anyone else walks thru that field of mental landmines or not, but I enjoy mentally abusing myself so take that into the equation. I have some of Goats demons in my head as well :help:
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Ya, this exactly. I'm gonna let it simmer a bit. I don't need that blue beauty. I have two Gibson Thunderbirds of the same ilk already.

That said, they are two noticeably different sounding animals six years apart. The white '06 with the ebony board is is louder and cuts way more (far more growly mids) than her burst sister '12 with the rosewood board who tends to be a little softer spoken and certainly deeper in tone. The '12 burst plays way sexier than the '06 white. The necks are fairly similar in taper, but the '06 white is a little more bowed in the upper register and I can't get her to settle flat because of a very high 1st fret.

I'm going to take them both to the guitar tech and have him set them up exactly the same. See if he can work his majicks on them.

As for the cash-in-hand, it's going to get banked for the time being while I decide what to do with it. It's my 40th birthday in 2016, so maybe a trip to Norman's Rare Guitars is in order...
 
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#10,672
mistergoats said:
I've talked to Carlo lots. He's great.
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Judging from this thread, he seems to be an awesome guy. I think luthiers have a certain mibdset, the guy I go to is also superfriendly and loves to talk about instruments and music.

Btw I didn't mean that you don't know him. If it came across like this. Just meaning you have a chance to get one of his basses later on. The blue Gibson might be gone forever.
 
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#10,673
marko57 said:
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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I have used nickel Roto 66s on my 4003 for years and liked them on that.
Funnily enough, I have just bought a few sets a nickel Roto 66s to try on other basses. Haven't put them on yet.
I usually use Fender pure nickel rounds on most things- don't like SS strings generally.
Is the discussion about chewing out frets relating to SS or Nickel Rotos or both? I would expect nickel strings to be kinder to frets. The nickel ones don't seem to have done much to my 4003 over the years, but I wouldn't want to put them on some of my older basses, if they are likely to chew out the vintage frets.
 
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#10,674
Anyone else tried DR Black Beauties on their Alpine White TBird? I wanted to pick up new strings for it today and was planning on a set of DR Hi Beams but while looking through the DR site came across the Black Beauties and
thought they'd look great on the Alpine White, what with all the black hardware. Anxious to re-string it tonight and I'm not usually very anxious for restringing, I'm lazy like that! :)
 
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#10,675
veebass said:
I have used nickel Roto 66s on my 4003 for years and liked them on that.
Funnily enough, I have just bought a few sets a nickel Roto 66s to try on other basses. Haven't put them on yet.
I usually use Fender pure nickel rounds on most things- don't like SS strings generally.
Is the discussion about chewing out frets relating to SS or Nickel Rotos or both? I would expect nickel strings to be kinder to frets. The nickel ones don't seem to have done much to my 4003 over the years, but I wouldn't want to put them on some of my older basses, if they are likely to chew out the vintage frets.
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I can't say for absolute certain, this was back in the 80's mind you, but I want to say they were nickel but again not with absolute certainty.
 
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#10,676
veebass said:
I have used nickel Roto 66s on my 4003 for years and liked them on that.
Funnily enough, I have just bought a few sets a nickel Roto 66s to try on other basses. Haven't put them on yet.
I usually use Fender pure nickel rounds on most things- don't like SS strings generally.
Is the discussion about chewing out frets relating to SS or Nickel Rotos or both? I would expect nickel strings to be kinder to frets. The nickel ones don't seem to have done much to my 4003 over the years, but I wouldn't want to put them on some of my older basses, if they are likely to chew out the vintage frets.
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Uh no it was about gathering overall info on them. The fret chewing caught my eye, though and it seems that not seldom people experience that. DRs were recommended to me by the luthier I go to, too. But actually everytime I ask for spomething I'm more confused in the end. Do the nickels cause less wear on the frets? I mean the material is softer, but how much does this affect the wear? I usually used D'addario, EB nickels or some random Dunlops, because most stores have them in store here. Especially d'addario nickel .45 through 100/105s are the norm over here.
 
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#10,677
Off-Beat said:
Uh no it was about gathering overall info on them. The fret chewing caught my eye, though and it seems that not seldom people experience that. DRs were recommended to me by the luthier I go to, too. But actually everytime I ask for spomething I'm more confused in the end. Do the nickels cause less wear on the frets? I mean the material is softer, but how much does this affect the wear? I usually used D'addario, EB nickels or some random Dunlops, because most stores have them in store here. Especially d'addario nickel .45 through 100/105s are the norm over here.
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I guess I can't say definitively that nickels cause less fret wear than equivalent SS strings, but being softer that is what I would expect.
I don't use SS strings because I find with my playing style they are too noisy for me.
For basses that I really don't want to damage the frets on, like my 56 P Bass and my 74 Ripper, I use TI Jazz Flats which are stated to be nickel alloy outers- even though I really don't like the sound or feel of them very much. For some reason, though, they worked really well with a Grabber that I had.
 
#10,678
mistergoats said:
I could actually pull the trigger on that today.... ACK.
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Please do. That way I will be less tempted.

The different personalities of your Thunderbirds is interesting. Mine is a '91, and it's aggressive. The neck and frets are great, so no problems playing it. Putting a Babicz on it made it even more aggressive and made it sustain even more.

I really like that blue one, but I'm also eyeing a red sparkle bolt-on that's pretty cheap. I don't know what it is about them, but Epiphone got those right. They are completely different, and I like both.
 
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#10,679
veebass said:
I guess I can't say definitively that nickels cause less fret wear than equivalent SS strings, but being softer that is what I would expect.
I don't use SS strings because I find with my playing style they are too noisy for me.
For basses that I really don't want to damage the frets on, like my 56 P Bass and my 74 Ripper, I use TI Jazz Flats which are stated to be nickel alloy outers- even though I really don't like the sound or feel of them very much. For some reason, though, they worked really well with a Grabber that I had.
Click to expand...
I had TI Jazz flats on a Ric. They sounded reasonably good, but I went back to DR rounds on it before parting with it. TIs didn't work for me, either.
 
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#10,680
veebass said:
I guess I can't say definitively that nickels cause less fret wear than equivalent SS strings, but being softer that is what I would expect.
I don't use SS strings because I find with my playing style they are too noisy for me.
For basses that I really don't want to damage the frets on, like my 56 P Bass and my 74 Ripper, I use TI Jazz Flats which are stated to be nickel alloy outers- even though I really don't like the sound or feel of them very much. For some reason, though, they worked really well with a Grabber that I had.
Click to expand...

Flats are no option for me, I really don't enjoy them. Maybe I'll stick to the d'Addarios and EBs no damage so far by them.
 
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