Thunderbird Club

[RedVee]

I have definitely been looking for a short scale bird. My custom shop version just wasn't happening so, now Im back in the market. The neck dive and long reach of a regular bird has pushed me in the direction of the shortscale, which is supposed to be better on both counts. If you feel like passing it on, please pm me. Thanks!

I guess you may be a little shy on getting a build after your last effort failed, or maybe you really want the Gibson.

But I thought maybe someone like Cataldo could do you a short scale Bird?

 

[PillO]

This morning, around 14 hours ago, I saw a Facebook post from Alice Coopers bassist asking if he should take his Thunderbirds on tour with Alice. Pictures were a Gibson and an Epiphone VP.

I voted yes.

Link?

 

[Count Bassie]

I guess you may be a little shy on getting a build after your last effort failed, or maybe you really want the Gibson.

But I thought maybe someone like Cataldo could do you a short scale Bird?

Carlo seems to have a reasonable and pragmatic approach to instruments, and you've probably got some little leeway for customization.

 

[kringle77]

I really wanted a short scale but, just noticed the dingwall D Birds. No neck dive, great, tones and looks. Pretty tempting, but there is a wait and Im working on an all motley crue gig for halloween this year so, I newd a bass and would rather not use my epiphone, the neck dive just sucks. Its worse than my buddies gibson. A bit.

 

[Goatrope]

Not to pick on either of you specifically, but people get this wrong.
From the outside, the course of events is - product disappears from website with note that it is due to Gibson cease and desist. Gibson are bastards.

From the inside, the process is much more involved. The first thing that happens is a cease and desist letter. That gets shown to corporate counsel who present what the options are. Options include: choose to negotiate a license, choose to fight it out in court, choose to ignore it and hope it all goes away (but be prepared to go to court), choose to discontinue product.

None of us (unless someone here is counsel to Reverend or Gibson, and if so is probably bound by confidentiality) know what decisions were made internally. I can bet that the process took at least 3 months and probably took a year or more. An assessment of the ability to fight (cost as well as likely outcome) indicated that it was a poor option for any number of reasons including that perhaps they don't sell many. An assessment of the license negotiation process indicated that they could not raise the price of the item enough to compensate for the added cost. So the decision was to let the product line go thereby complying with the cease and desist.

On the inside, both sides made a series of decisions that resulted in a business decision to stop production.

Thank you. What you described is exactly what is happening all the time, between countless companies. We just don’t hear much about the others.

Where some companies fall short is in communications and public relations. Gibson could have done a better job there, but I don’t fault them for aggressively protecting their rights.

 

[Engle]

View attachment 3458195 View attachment 3458196 So..... My friend and I grew up together, and we formed and have been in the same band for over 20 years is an amazing artist. Not only an incredible musician, but he paints, draws, sculpts, etc. I’ve known him since I was about 10 years old, and we have had a lot of good times, especially in our band. Well, I was about to mow the lawn this afternoon, and I get a text. It’s his wife, asking if I’m home and if they can stop by for a minute. I said, “Of course, I’m out in the yard”. They roll in, and give me this.




I was speechless. It’s a priceless gift, and I just wanted to share it with you guys in the Tbird club.

Wow! That’s pretty cool!

 

[PillO]

Thank you. What you described is exactly what is happening all the time, between countless companies. We just don’t hear much about the others.

Where some companies fall short is in communications and public relations. Gibson could have done a better job there, but I don’t fault them for aggressively protecting their rights.

Until you have had a seat at the senior management table, you don't know very much of what is going on. Everything is done as a team, and each member of that team has a role to play. And sometimes, that role is to be the public bastard. Sometimes that role is being the helpful insider. But make no mistake, it is all Kabuki theater. And it is called Kabuki because Japanese companies are particularly good at it. This is both for external and internal consumption.

By way of personal example (and necessarily, many details are omitted and identities are changed to protect the guilty). I had a company that desperately wanted to do a deal with my company. I ignored them at a trade show and went out of my way to snub them and make sure they saw me meeting other companies. The CEO was not to take their calls. The CMO would take calls and agreed to try to sway us. Four months later we were in their board room with them having acquiesced to a number of conditions (some of which were contrived so that we could judge their seriousness). I was playing the bad guy, the CMO was playing the good guy and the boss was playing the peacemaker. But it was all Kabuki.

In another case, I was the hard seller, the CMO was the peacemaker and the boss was the one who was hard on the breaks. It is always Kabuki and team members playing their role.

 

[Goatrope]

Until you have had a seat at the senior management table, you don't know very much of what is going on. Everything is done as a team, and each member of that team has a role to play. And sometimes, that role is to be the public bastard. Sometimes that role is being the helpful insider. But make no mistake, it is all Kabuki theater. And it is called Kabuki because Japanese companies are particularly good at it. This is both for external and internal consumption.

By way of personal example (and necessarily, many details are omitted and identities are changed to protect the guilty). I had a company that desperately wanted to do a deal with my company. I ignored them at a trade show and went out of my way to snub them and make sure they saw me meeting other companies. The CEO was not to take their calls. The CMO would take calls and agreed to try to sway us. Four months later we were in their board room with them having acquiesced to a number of conditions (some of which were contrived so that we could judge their seriousness). I was playing the bad guy, the CMO was playing the good guy and the boss was playing the peacemaker. But it was all Kabuki.

In another case, I was the hard seller, the CMO was the peacemaker and the boss was the one who was hard on the breaks. It is always Kabuki and team members playing their role.

Ha! Lived that life. The other dynamic for our company was new leadership in a particular role. That new leader was given about 90 days to shake things up, make changes, with the support of the leadership team, but without many of the corporate or HR entanglements.

Sometimes this manifested itself as an aggressive marketing campaign, supply chain play, legal maneuvers, or staffing action.

I don’t know what’s going on inside Gibson, but it smells a lot like new leadership, new direction to tighten up leaky profits.

 

[Gaolee]

I really wanted a short scale but, just noticed the dingwall D Birds. No neck dive, great, tones and looks. Pretty tempting, but there is a wait and Im working on an all motley crue gig for halloween this year so, I newd a bass and would rather not use my epiphone, the neck dive just sucks. Its worse than my buddies gibson. A bit.

I haven't played a D-Bird, but from what people around here who have and at least one who has one says, they are everything they look like they should be.

 

[PillO]

Ha! Lived that life. The other dynamic for our company was new leadership in a particular role. That new leader was given about 90 days to shake things up, make changes, with the support of the leadership team, but without many of the corporate or HR entanglements.

Sometimes this manifested itself as an aggressive marketing campaign, supply chain play, legal maneuvers, or staffing action.

I don’t know what’s going on inside Gibson, but it smells a lot like new leadership, new direction to tighten up leaky profits.

Been there, done that. I was part of a new management team that radically changed the direction of a failing company. One person I know, when doing a turn around, had a large calendar put outside his office. Day one it would be blank except for dates and day numbers from day 1 to day 100 (it would slowly be filled in with items). Day 100 had a big red C written in. Eventually someone would ask what the big red C was for. And he would smile and just say "That. Is change day..."

 

[Gaolee]

We haven't discussed ribbon microphones for a while. So, it's time. I made a lowball offer on a weird French one that looks like a green bullet, only bigger and squashed. It sounds all quacky and awful, so it's going to get repaired. But, in the interest in reviving the fact that this is sometimes the Thunderbird and Ribbon Mic and Muscle Car and Subaru Club, here are some pictures of the mic. The ribbon appears saggy, which might be the reason it sounds awful. It may also be due to a crappy transformer or who knows what all else that can go wrong in a ribbon microphone. I like ribbon mics, as you all know, but I especially like cardioid ribbon mics. They are oddities, which means I can't resist when something like this comes along for cheap enough.

I cannot find any internet information about it at all, which means it probably doesn't exist. I bought a hologram of a mic! If anybody has an inkling of what it is, say so. Or make up a bunch of stuff and I'll believe it's all true.

 

[PillO]

We haven't discussed ribbon microphones for a while. So, it's time. I made a lowball offer on a weird French one that looks like a green bullet, only bigger and squashed. It sounds all quacky and awful, so it's going to get repaired. But, in the interest in reviving the fact that this is sometimes the Thunderbird and Ribbon Mic and Muscle Car and Subaru Club, here are some pictures of the mic.

I think we also do minute details in pictures and outdoor activities.

I cannot find any internet information about it at all, which means it probably doesn't exist. I bought a hologram of a mic! If anybody has an inkling of what it is, say so. Or make up a bunch of stuff and I'll believe it's all true.

Maybe it is a custom one off. Make up a good backstory and we will generate corroborators.

I will open the bidding with it being Liane Foly's harmonica mike.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

my T-Bird Thursday date...

 

[PillO]

my T-Bird Thursday date...
View attachment 3458489

That looks like an AMX interior (it is the steering wheel that is a dead giveaway, it looks very AMC), not a 7ord Thunderbird...

 

[Gaolee]

That looks like an AMX interior (it is the steering wheel that is a dead giveaway, it looks very AMC), not a 7ord Thunderbird...

My brother had an AMX, and the dash is a dead giveaway, too. That car was a beast. It also had teeth, so you didn't want to do the wrong thing when you were driving it. It sure was fun.

 

[Gaolee]

Maybe it is a custom one off. Make up a good backstory and we will generate corroborators.

I will open the bidding with it being Liane Foly's harmonica mike.

It's says it was made by or for L'Industrielle Des Telephones. The French phone company? More likely, it was a microphone that lived in the control room of a secret facility in the Pyrenees. Jacques Bond used it to communicate with informants in the 1950s before he changed his name and moved to London and greater accomplishments.

 

[GonePlaid]

Lili Von Shtupp ?

Brooks got away with so much in that-and most of his-movie(s)by doing lines in Yiddish, etc,

 

[GonePlaid]

I really wanted a short scale but, just noticed the dingwall D Birds. No neck dive, great, tones and looks. Pretty tempting, but there is a wait and Im working on an all motley crue gig for halloween this year so, I newd a bass and would rather not use my epiphone, the neck dive just sucks. Its worse than my buddies gibson. A bit.

I'm certain you've heard this b4, but you can't 'sling' them high. Put the body low offa yer right thigh/hip area with the neck/headstock at about 1 or 2 o'clock.

 

[PillO]

It's says it was made by or for L'Industrielle Des Telephones. The French phone company? More likely, it was a microphone that lived in the control room of a secret facility in the Pyrenees. Jacques Bond used it to communicate with informants in the 1950s before he changed his name and moved to London and greater accomplishments.

James Bond played harmonica... Who knew...

 

[PillO]

I'm certain you've heard this b4, but you can't 'sling' them high. Put the body low offa yer right thigh/hip area with the neck/headstock at about 1 or 2 o'clock.

I think 1:18pm is the optimal position. Unless you are left handed in which case, just use a digital watch.