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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
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- Tags
- club thunderbird
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Aah, what's a coupla years and $1K.(pricing it as a 'collector's item' doesn't make it one)
It's a rare duck no question, and it probably sounds pretty cool if it sounds anything like my Coral. So it is going to be priced accordingly - just not to that degree.
..
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Yep. I have them in the PinkBird. The hot one was in the neck position, with the neck pickup down at the bridge. I swapped them back and don't like it as much that way. They are decent pickups - fantastic for the price.
A friend or his sister (I forget which) built a 1MV Tesla coil for our HS science fair. They ran out of corona dope so the discharges (a.k.a., "lightning bolts") were coming from about 70% up the coil, so only about 700kV. These were several feet long, frequent, and would send you flying. (That's called foreshadowing. Found in the best posts and comic strips.)
The teacher, Col. Dailey (US Army, ret.) plugged the 10 foot cord into an outlet *one foot below where he placed the project*. He walked away, waited for things to charge up and get exciting. It started throwing sparks all over the place. A kid said, "Watch this!" and held up a short neon light to show that it would fluoresce. He carelessly had his fingers across the prongs at his end, and was wearing leather soled shoes. The bulb exploded and he was thrown into the desk he was standing in front of. Col. Dailey went to shut the coil off and got zapped really good and bounced off the concrete wall. He reached back to steady himself against the wall and of course got zapped again!
Someone ran for the teacher next door, who brought a broom to unplug it.
I missed all of this, it being the class before mine, but got all the skinny from friends.
Best science fair project that year.
Trivia: Even as serious as those sparks were, they didn't make THUNDER. A THUNDERBIRD is even more fun, but needs a really loud amplifier to knock you on your butt as thoroughly as even a wimpy 700kV spark.
I was already seriously into electronics and electricity and thought I was pretty cool playing around with 25kV TV picture tube voltages. In reality the stuff I was learning about amplifiers was far cooler, and is the reason I have a tube practice amp to play my THUNDERBIRD through- even if it's a measly 450V or so on the output tube plates.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
The dates you come up with are consistent with what little I could find out about the Freebass back in the times BG (Before Google). Having had one, I think $1500 is wildly overpriced, too. I may be jaded. It was OK, but it wasn't great. The crazy pickguard and control plate were the best parts, and the quasi-NR Thunderbird shape was good. But, it was not all that inspiring unless you liked a neck that was microscopic. I don't recall it being all that well balanced, in spite of being a short scale. Non-adjustable neck and minimal intonation adjustment meant that you got what you got. Shimming the neck was what you did to adjust it at all. It was more than 35 years ago now, so I don't remember a lot of details about it. I played it through an Acoustic 126 combo, which is a pretty good amp. A low note, cranked, probably an E, caused a beer stein to explode. Its owner wasn't happy but I thought that was cool. It sounded like a bass. Beyond that, I just flat don't remember much. The details I do remember say it wasn't worth a whole lot for just the visuals. There are better ways to make bass noises, like a real Thunderbird.
The Chinabuckers of local reknown are from Eric Yu at EY Guitar Parts. Can't see what those are. I bought a pair of the 9k off him. They were out of phase with each other, which he said was unprecedented (and I have no reason to doubt him). He sent a new pair which were fine. They were both in my Epi PRO IV briefly, ie before the superfluous pickup was removed, then again when I was selling it.
They are good pickups, but the Thunderbuckers are better.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
I agree - these were strange instruments made cheaply. (Dano-technology) but as these basses/guitars were only made for a few years they are in the antique collectable area. Not necessarily 'players' basses at this point - more unique oddities that have a certain allure. My Coral was aquired cheaply enough that I was able to do a number on it to make it a players bass. I'll be rocking it tonight at The Milk Bar on Haight St in SF. It's a 34" scale with a sorta P-neck but of flatter [D] profile - I love playing it and it sounds great! I should have some pics and will post if anything looks good.
It may look quasi-NR but I very much doubt their design was derivative. Dano seemed to see the world of guitars differently that the big companies like Fender, Gibson, Guild et al - more distinctively their own thing. Their most direct comparison would have been Burns as there too was a design sense that seemed to exist apart from the main-stream.
sometimes. More than anything, I miss having the knowledge. And time.
A silver dollar?What's that in pennyweight?
Thunderbird
Go get it! But if you decide to sell it down the line, gimme the first shot!
Yeah, THUNDERBIRD Mail was terrible. I still have a 10+ year-old bugzilla report open about splitting newsgroup threads for when people reply to an existing thread, change the subject, and send as an entirely new message/thread. Nothing's changed, but it still gets updated.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
That was stoneage Wikipedia. Not sure if there was an entry on THUNDERBIRDS
Maybe it's time for a new calendar.
Dates BT and AT, 10 x 34 day months, with 25 days of intercalary Bird festivals.
Dates BT and AT, 10 x 34 day months, with 25 days of intercalary Bird festivals.
Stay safe brother!Yeah, I've got all but the last few panels up. About 20 more minutes of work once this thing decides where it's going so I can decide if the cat and I are going. Hopefully THUNDERBIRDS, LPB25, amps, and house survive.
