Thunderbird Club

[PillO]

I usually ship some every year (shh!) but crossing borders might be problematic.

Chemical weapons by mail...

 

[Thumper]

So I'm thinking of looking for an Epiphone Vintage Pro to compliment my Lull T5, sometimes the 5er gets to be a bit much for some of the more technical Hard Rock songs (or surprisingly, Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo or I Ain't the One).

Looking at Sweetwater, they have one at 11 lbs, and one at 9 lbs 13 oz, is this heavy weight typical? If so, they're not for me. I need 9 lbs or less, especially in a 4 string.

 

[BklynKen]

Seriously? You are a brave man. They’re not ghosts or reapers, but they still bring the hurt.

Yeah. I have an extremely high tolerance. If I'm not mistaken, anything hotter than the habanero is genetically engineered?

But as Pillow said, they're really great pickled.

 

[BklynKen]

So I'm thinking of looking for an Epiphone Vintage Pro to compliment my Lull T5, sometimes the 5er gets to be a bit much for some of the more technical Hard Rock songs (or surprisingly, Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo or I Ain't the One).

Looking at Sweetwater, they have one at 11 lbs, and one at 9 lbs 13 oz, is this heavy weight typical? If so, they're not for me. I need 9 lbs or less, especially in a 4 string.

11 lbs?! What's that, a 7ucking 7ender?

 

[Gaolee]

View attachment 3553293 Had a bumper crop of Habaneros peppers this year.
I’m trying to find good homes for them but no takers.
They’re giving me angry looks and I’m getting a wee bit nervous.

Dry them. Dried Habaneros are different from fresh ones, but just as good. The only problem is that they do not stay Thunderbird red-orange.

 

[BklynKen]

So I'm thinking of looking for an Epiphone Vintage Pro to compliment my Lull T5, sometimes the 5er gets to be a bit much for some of the more technical Hard Rock songs (or surprisingly, Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo or I Ain't the One).

Looking at Sweetwater, they have one at 11 lbs, and one at 9 lbs 13 oz, is this heavy weight typical? If so, they're not for me. I need 9 lbs or less, especially in a 4 string.

But seriously, I'd wait if you want lighter. I remember seeing ones up there at sub-9 lbs. My Gibson is 8.5.

 

[Gaolee]

So I'm thinking of looking for an Epiphone Vintage Pro to compliment my Lull T5, sometimes the 5er gets to be a bit much for some of the more technical Hard Rock songs (or surprisingly, Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo or I Ain't the One).

Looking at Sweetwater, they have one at 11 lbs, and one at 9 lbs 13 oz, is this heavy weight typical? If so, they're not for me. I need 9 lbs or less, especially in a 4 string.

I believe Scott just landed one that was insanely light. Something like 8 pounds or less.

 

[Inky13]

Yeah. I have an extremely high tolerance. If I'm not mistaken, anything hotter than the habanero is genetically engineered?

But as Pillow said, they're really great pickled.

I believe you are correct. There was a nuclear arms race to engineer a pepper with an insanely high Scoville count.
My Habs are in the 350-575 K range. Last years Reapers clocked in at 2,200,000. They were mind altering.

 

[TBird1958]

I'll take them! I can eat those raw.

What the HE Double Hockey sticks? Raw?


Ingesting them is bad enough, the exit is equally fearsome - No, no thank you.

 

[TBird1958]

So I'm thinking of looking for an Epiphone Vintage Pro to compliment my Lull T5, sometimes the 5er gets to be a bit much for some of the more technical Hard Rock songs (or surprisingly, Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo or I Ain't the One).

Looking at Sweetwater, they have one at 11 lbs, and one at 9 lbs 13 oz, is this heavy weight typical? If so, they're not for me. I need 9 lbs or less, especially in a 4 string.

11lbs...….Whoa! None of my Gibsons with all their metal on them weighs that much, can't be right. The 9lbs range is typical - and it's a nice bass!

 

[MCF]

11lbs...….Whoa! None of my Gibsons with all their metal on them weighs that much, can't be right. The 9lbs range is typical - and it's a nice bass!

Before I lucked into the blue Epi a few weeks back, I was about ready to go ahead and do a VP. When last I looked on SW, there was one around 8 lbs 6oz. There were two 10 +.

 

[Thumper]

Wanted white, or maybe black. They have 2 tobacco at 9 lbs 3 oz, one at 8.13, the other 10 plus. This is a want, not a need, I can be patient.

 

[RedVee]

@JJR58 you get first dibs....
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

It’d suck to buy @ all those $ only to find you didn’t like it when it arrived

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

It’d suck to buy @ all those $ only to find you didn’t like it when it arrived

if you like Ps, pretty sure you'd like how it plays...not that i would ever gig something like that...

 

[BklynKen]

What the HE Double Hockey sticks? Raw?


Ingesting them is bad enough, the exit is equally fearsome - No, no thank you.

One time we had some peppers that were supposed to be scotch bonnets and my wife asked me to chop one up. I ate a little piece. Nothing. Ate more. Nothing. I told her I didn't think it was a scotch bonnet. She took a little bite and a few seconds later stuck her tongue in a container of ice cream. It was a scotch bonnet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[GBassNorth]

You won't need Lulls in a VP, the pickups are fantastic.

Spot on!

I can't speak to the Lulls, but I am sure they are fantastic. Agreed with @godofthunder59. The pickups in the VP are amazing!

Good Luck!

This

Just saw this - no affiliation - Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage Pro Bass in Vintage White. with Hard Case | eBay

That's not a bad price considering it comes with the case.

Here's a set of Probucker 760s for about $250.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Epiphone-Thunderbird-Vintage-PRO-Bass-Antique-White/264464231879

Plus you get the neat VP bridge with it.

So I'm thinking of looking for an Epiphone Vintage Pro to compliment my Lull T5, sometimes the 5er gets to be a bit much for some of the more technical Hard Rock songs (or surprisingly, Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo or I Ain't the One).

Looking at Sweetwater, they have one at 11 lbs, and one at 9 lbs 13 oz, is this heavy weight typical? If so, they're not for me. I need 9 lbs or less, especially in a 4 string.

I might be wrong but IIRC my VP weighs in at or just under 8 pounds (I'll need to confirm that). I also recall some mentioning that they felt the lighter ones played better. I think anything at or less than 8.5 pounds would be considered light.

Edit: correction, I just looked up my original post from when I bought the VP from Sweetwater. She's 9 pounds even. I had planned on removing the stock tuners and installing some light weight ones ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed]) which will drop the weight a bit but for now she's just fine as is.

 

[gidbass]

So I'm thinking of looking for an Epiphone Vintage Pro to compliment my Lull T5, sometimes the 5er gets to be a bit much for some of the more technical Hard Rock songs (or surprisingly, Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo or I Ain't the One).

Looking at Sweetwater, they have one at 11 lbs, and one at 9 lbs 13 oz, is this heavy weight typical? If so, they're not for me. I need 9 lbs or less, especially in a 4 string.

I got my VP as an open box (mint) from Sam Ash for a great price and it weighs 8.7 lbs.

Good Luck!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Not really. Running all the power tubes in parallel as push pull pairs, the output transformer would not need to change. The contemplated design would be power section always running at full, but power tubes being pulled out of the circuit when reduced volume is desired (although under what circumstances you might want less volume currently escapes me). In effect, the OT steps the voltage down from ~250v at the plate to ~20v at the speaker (depending on output tap)* regardless of how many tubes are pushing that signal through 250v. The limiting factor would be that the OT can handle the maximum power being pushed by the amp.

Put another way, imagine a 300W SVT. If a 6550 fails, you can pull that pair of tubes and the amp will still run albeit at reduced volume. The idea would be to virtually pull pairs of tubes by disconnecting the plates of those pairs.

* I haven't checked specs nor checked any math, just working from memory and that could be suspect.

Yes, I understood what you were suggesting. But a good rule of thumb with a solid OT and tubes not running at the ragged edge is to never go more than double[1] the nominal load, or less than half the nominal load (although tube amps are more tolerant of the latter). If you pull half the output pairs, your plate impedance is now double what it was, while the speaker load remains the same, effectively giving you a 2:1 ratio instead of the 1:1 the OT had provided before. Pulling half the remaining tubes does the same again. And so on.

What were you discussing in terms of how the switches would remove or add tubes? (Pulling tubes, whether literally or effectively, can unload the power supply and cause the plate voltage to rise.)

[1] With over-engineered OTs, you can certainly go higher, especially if you are not driving the amp hard for more than a few seconds. I built amps with a 100 ohm or 200 ohm resistor across the output jack as a protection against a blown speaker. IIRC, Victoria used a 470 ohm resistor.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Yes, I understood what you were suggesting. But a good rule of thumb with a solid OT and tubes not running at the ragged edge is to never go more than double[1] the nominal load, or less than half the nominal load (although tube amps are more tolerant of the latter). If you pull half the output pairs, your plate impedance is now double what it was, while the speaker load remains the same, effectively giving you a 2:1 ratio instead of the 1:1 the OT had provided before. Pulling half the remaining tubes does the same again. And so on.

What were you discussing in terms of how the switches would remove or add tubes? (Pulling tubes, whether literally or effectively, can unload the power supply and cause the plate voltage to rise.)

Also, kids, I don't recommend plugging a THUNDERBIRD into an amp's output jack.

[1] With over-engineered OTs, you can certainly go higher, especially if you are not driving the amp hard for more than a few seconds. I built amps with a 100 ohm or 200 ohm resistor across the output jack as a protection against a blown speaker. IIRC, Victoria used a 470 ohm resistor.

 

[fasterpussycat]

One time we had some peppers that were supposed to be scotch bonnets and my wife asked me to chop one up. I ate a little piece. Nothing. Ate more. Nothing. I told her I didn't think it was a scotch bonnet. She took a little bite and a few seconds later stuck her tongue in a container of ice cream. It was a scotch bonnet. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't mean to be indelicate Ken, but are they equally benign on the way out?