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Thunderbird Club

From the archives...

Beer Thursday! With a Thunderbird!
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And fraternal twins with a relative desperately trying to be in the photo
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What’s the black one...TRC says Gibson?
All stock truss rod covers on my birds - the gloss black on the left is an Eppi VP, and the satin Black towards the right is an Eppi Goth. Right now I only have two Gibby birds, the Gold one and the Burst 2015. The multi color is a Spector Rex5 Pro and was the gateway drug to my now uncontrollable TBird addiction. Hopefully by Monday I'll have a new addition to the aviary, a vintage Greco TBird II in burst finish. After that I really only see one additional bird needed, a NR variety, that "might" be the last bird acquisition for me.
 
On the LP - are those a full 34" scale or are they shorter? How does it sound compared to your Thunderbird? I've been kicking around the idea to buy a LP Gold Top someday.
They're 34". Because the bridge is close to the end, it looks shorter. And obviously the overall length is less, remembering too that the 67 is ~52" oal. Also the 2+3 on the headstock gives the same illusion. I have EB Cobalt flats on both basses, but with the factory applied Barts on the LPB2/5, it sounds totally different from the 'Bird. If I had a set of 'Bird pups to f---* with, a swap would be interesting.

*ool
 
As I recall, there were mostly old beaters of various kinds in the kids' parking lot when I was in high school. There were a couple kids whose families had a Chevy dealership. They had mid '60s Stingrays. There were a couple others who had semi-hot rodded cars, but most were rusty '50s and '60s heaps. It was the mid '70s, so there were still plenty of '50s cars on the road in awful shape. It's a miracle we all survived.
Yeah. And many of us didn’t always wear seatbelts. Times change.
 
Flip side - I had a 1966 Mini that had been a C Sedan racing car. It was seriously built and seriously fast. It would surprise GTOs and the like at stop lights. IT would flat fly, and because it weighed nothing, it was quick off the line. While the big, heavy car with gobs of torque was turning that torque into smoke, that car was turning what torque it had into velocity in a big way. I never ran it on a drag strip, because that's not what I was interested in, so I don't know what that means in numbers. What I do know is that it was an amazing stop light warrior and would irritate the crap out of muscle car drivers.

My favourite story like this is the one about one of the prop cars for The Love Bug, it was a Porsche chassis and engine with the VW bodywork dropped on top. Won quite a few impromptu drag races before the local muscle car guys wised up.

My lead guitarist’s first car was a Mini, just a stock one but even they feel incredibly fast because you’re sitting so close to the road, I bet every time you floored it in your race-tuned one it was like “engage hyperdrive!”
 
Three beautiful NR birds!
Of the three which one is your "go to" for live performances?
Thanks GB, the BaCH is the least "risky" one to take, it's got TBuckers, strung with RS66 and just plain sounds massive...the 13 is strung with Chrome flats and prior to the COVID thing was getting the most gig time, partly because it's strap is setup higher (more challenging for me to play with fingers when the bass is worn low) so it's more comfortable to play with fingers as well. Sounds phenomenal too, lotsa snarl and bark. The 68 (also strung with RS66) has gotten use but the stock bridge with the mute spring gets in the way and although intonation isn't a problem I won't gig it until I install the Badbird bridge and new PG.
Funnily, I prefer each one for one of three different ensembles I work with...it just worked out like that..
 
My favourite story like this is the one about one of the prop cars for The Love Bug, it was a Porsche chassis and engine with the VW bodywork dropped on top. Won quite a few impromptu drag races before the local muscle car guys wised up.

My lead guitarist’s first car was a Mini, just a stock one but even they feel incredibly fast because you’re sitting so close to the road, I bet every time you floored it in your race-tuned one it was like “engage hyperdrive!”
It pretty much was. It started life as a 1275 Cooper with a pneumatic suspension. The suspension was deflated, so it sat on the pavement mostly. Suspension was tire sidewall flex and not much else. There were no side windows, no interior, no passenger seat, no carpet, nothing inside. It had an enormous Webber carb that poked into the passenger compartment. There was supposed to be some kind of enclosure around it for racing, but it wasn't there. Backfires would shoot flames three feet past your right arm while you were shifting gears. It was absolute hooligan heaven and utterly useless as a street car for just about anything except getting into (and back out of) trouble. It wasn't just a straight line car, either. It was far faster in corners than anything I have driven or ridden since. If you got it to slide at all, you were doing something utterly insane. It sure was fun. It went to a guy who rebuilt it back to stock condition. Oh, well.
 
Thanks GB, the BaCH is the least "risky" one to take, it's got TBuckers, strung with RS66 and just plain sounds massive...the 13 is strung with Chrome flats and prior to the COVID thing was getting the most gig time, partly because it's strap is setup higher (more challenging for me to play with fingers when the bass is worn low) so it's more comfortable to play with fingers as well. Sounds phenomenal too, lotsa snarl and bark. The 68 (also strung with RS66) has gotten use but the stock bridge with the mute spring gets in the way and although intonation isn't a problem I won't gig it until I install the Badbird bridge and new PG.
Funnily, I prefer each one for one of three different ensembles I work with...it just worked out like that..
The funny thing is that I can play with fingers low but have to raise the bass a bit to play with a pick.
 
Thanks GB, the BaCH is the least "risky" one to take, it's got TBuckers, strung with RS66 and just plain sounds massive...the 13 is strung with Chrome flats and prior to the COVID thing was getting the most gig time, partly because it's strap is setup higher (more challenging for me to play with fingers when the bass is worn low) so it's more comfortable to play with fingers as well. Sounds phenomenal too, lotsa snarl and bark. The 68 (also strung with RS66) has gotten use but the stock bridge with the mute spring gets in the way and although intonation isn't a problem I won't gig it until I install the Badbird bridge and new PG.
Funnily, I prefer each one for one of three different ensembles I work with...it just worked out like that..
What pickups are in the 2013?
 
It wasn't just a straight line car, either. It was far faster in corners than anything I have driven or ridden since.

Yeah, I love watching Minis on the historic racing from Goodwood and places like that, there are all kinds of cars on the start line but it usually comes down to a Mini and a Mustang by the end.

To un-derail the thread a bit, has anyone here built a T-Bird kit from Pitbull? Looks interesting...

https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/guitars/pit-bull-guitars-tb-4-electric-bass-guitar-kit/
 
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