Thunderbird Club

[MCF]

Used the 06 Gibson today, and as much as I love the VPs, the Gibson just feels much better. Almost custom made for me, you might say--and I can't say anything bad about about the feel of the VPs. One could even say the Gibson plays like..... Barbecue. I love barbecue, so that makes more sense to me than a thick dairy product.

Tried some GHS Balanced Nickles today. Will be putting the Black Beauties back on. Or might try the Dragon Skins, which haven't had a go yet. Seem to the same string construction as the BBs.

I usually don’t say this but (and coming from an Epi lover), told you so...

 

[dagrev]

How does the 2006 compare to your '60s one in feel?

The overall refined smoothness and feel are really close. Amazingly close. The '64 is lighter and has that "been played" feel that makes any edges smoothed out a bit. The 06 is really close to that feel. Neck wise they are also seem the same. I haven't A/B them to get a feel for the similarities, but Gibson did a really good job. I'm so used the metal PUs that the plastic still is a noticeable difference, and that the neck PU is closer to the neck than the '64. The 06 has no neck dive, the '64 will if the strap is slick. They feel so similar that had Gibson used the VP PUs, they would have nailed it and made the best Thunderbird since the 60s, better in some ways. Some reviews have complained about the quality on the newer Thunderbirds, but I have no complaints whatsoever with mine. Put some VP PUs in one and put a little warn and played feel (knock the new perfect finish off a little) and blindfolded I think it would be nearly impossibly to tell the difference. Anyone who has a modern Thunderbird has a really nice instrument!

 

[dagrev]

I usually don’t say this but (and coming from an Epi lover), told you so...

And you were right!

 

[JJR58]

Send my regards to Mr. Fixer. I miss him around here.

 

[MCF]

I've been using an Apogee Jam 96k with GarageBand and it works great. Works with both Mac (USB) and iOS (Lightning).

So looking into these again. The recordings you’ve done with yours sound great. And they’ll work with a dynamic mic using an inexpensive adapter. Pretty sure I’ll go ahead and give it a try. Thanks for the reminder about it Ken.

 

[JJR58]

I haven't been around much, and not sure if you all saw this. No affiliation. Great price.

For Sale/Trade - 2013 Gibson Thunderbird

 

[MCF]

I haven't been around much, and not sure if you all saw this. No affiliation. Great price.

For Sale/Trade - 2013 Gibson Thunderbird

Yeah. And my daughter lives in Boston.... Hipshot. Wonder what PUPs, Chinabuckers? But yeah, with case that is a fair price. It’s likely what the original owner paid for it new; the great GC blowout in ‘15 included some ‘13s and ‘14s. But I’m not even going to think about getting my daughter involved trying to get it with the current shut down there again...

 

[MCF]

The overall refined smoothness and feel are really close. Amazingly close. The '64 is lighter and has that "been played" feel that makes any edges smoothed out a bit. The 06 is really close to that feel. Neck wise they are also seem the same. I haven't A/B them to get a feel for the similarities, but Gibson did a really good job. I'm so used the metal PUs that the plastic still is a noticeable difference, and that the neck PU is closer to the neck than the '64. The 06 has no neck dive, the '64 will if the strap is slick. They feel so similar that had Gibson used the VP PUs, they would have nailed it and made the best Thunderbird since the 60s, better in some ways. Some reviews have complained about the quality on the newer Thunderbirds, but I have no complaints whatsoever with mine. Put some VP PUs in one and put a little warn and played feel (knock the new perfect finish off a little) and blindfolded I think it would be nearly impossibly to tell the difference. Anyone who has a modern Thunderbird has a really nice instrument!

I don’t get the QC things some say about Gibsons. My two are extremely well made.

 

[BklynKen]

Yeah. And my daughter lives in Boston.... Hipshot. Wonder what PUPs, Chinabuckers? But yeah, with case that is a fair price. It’s likely what the original owner paid for it new; the great GC blowout in ‘15 included some ‘13s and ‘14s. But I’m not even going to think about getting my daughter involved trying to get it with the current shut down there again...

The 2013s were $1500 new.

 

[BklynKen]

The overall refined smoothness and feel are really close. Amazingly close. The '64 is lighter and has that "been played" feel that makes any edges smoothed out a bit. The 06 is really close to that feel. Neck wise they are also seem the same. I haven't A/B them to get a feel for the similarities, but Gibson did a really good job. I'm so used the metal PUs that the plastic still is a noticeable difference, and that the neck PU is closer to the neck than the '64. The 06 has no neck dive, the '64 will if the strap is slick. They feel so similar that had Gibson used the VP PUs, they would have nailed it and made the best Thunderbird since the 60s, better in some ways. Some reviews have complained about the quality on the newer Thunderbirds, but I have no complaints whatsoever with mine. Put some VP PUs in one and put a little warn and played feel (knock the new perfect finish off a little) and blindfolded I think it would be nearly impossibly to tell the difference. Anyone who has a modern Thunderbird has a really nice instrument!

That's great to hear. The quality of my 2013 is incredible. It's been my #1 since I got it back then and it still plays perfectly.

From all I've read from you about your experiments, I wonder if you'd be happiest in the end just changing out the TB+ for some Thunderbuckers or something.

 

[MCF]

The 2013s were $1500 new.

They were included in the GC $999.99 couple of week blowout around this time in ‘15. My local GC had the ‘15 that I bought, a ‘14 and a ‘13. They went quick; I went back for the ‘14 a few days later and it was gone. The ‘13 hung on the wall for about two weeks. The story was that Gibson sold a warehouse and discounted them to GC/MF and a couple others to move them.

 

[BklynKen]

They were included in the GC $999.99 couple of week blowout around this time in ‘15. My local GC had the ‘15 that I bought, a ‘14 and a ‘13. They went quick; I went back for the ‘14 a few days later and it was gone. The ‘13 hung on the wall for about two weeks. The story was that Gibson sold a warehouse and discounted them to GC/MF and a couple others to move them.

Oh, interesting. My 2013 was still more than worth to me what I paid. Love love love that thing.

 

[Eddie LeBlanc]

I don’t get the QC things some say about Gibsons. My two are extremely well made.

Same for my 2005, I'd say quality then.

 

[PillO]

ironically, both sets of parents divorced but we’re still happily married. Our marriage is older than both our parents’ made it to. Those were tough to watch.

Adversity brings divorce. During the economic crisis of '07/'08 many marriages broke up. With the current state of emergency and many couples spending more time together than they anticipated, it looks like there is going to be another big round of relationship breakdowns.

 

[PillO]

Something really nice in my FB feed from Geddy Lee and the passing of Pete Way.




Lovely tribute from Geddy Lee of Rush: We're very sorry to hear that the legendary bass player Pete Way has died. Having played in UFO for more than 30 years, Pete also had stints with Ozzy Osbourne and formed the bands Waysted and Fastway. UFO opened for Rush on many dates of the A Farewell To Kings Tour as well as a few of dates on the Hemispheres Tour. Fastway also supported Rush on the Grace Under Pressure Tour. As a result, Rush and Pete became good friends.
Geddy recalls the A Farewell to Kings Tour : "I do remember him falling off the stage on two occasions on that tour. The second time the three of us in Rush were sat talking in our dressing room and Pete’s bass just vanished from the stage. It was like, "Uh-oh, Pete's gone over the edge again." But everybody partied back then; we were all of us younger and making the most of our opportunity to be out on the road.
That tour was my introduction to UFO and their music. They were all very friendly, but you couldn't help but notice that they would all be in their cups, shall we say, and before every show. They would pound a few drinks and then hit the stage flying. That was their thing. I recall us doing one show in a dry county in Texas, which meant there was no alcohol allowed the building. We were backstage and I’d hear the UFO guys bitching and moaning about not having any booze. I looked out of our dressing room window into the car park, and there they were all in their stage gear, brown bagging it out of the boot of their car. Hey, necessity is the mother of adventure.
They were also always insulting each other for the sake of humour. That soon extended to us, which I took to be a good sign and a compliment. We used to play the song Xanadu at the time, and yes, all kinds of dry ice would come on stage. Pete and Phil Mogg would stand at the side of the stage and yell things about honeydew and melons at us, because one of the lines in the song goes "I have dined on honeydew". On one occasion, they even snuck up on stage and nailed a pair of slippers beside my foot pedals. There the slippers were when the dry ice dissipated, I guess to go along with my kimono.
Pete and I spent a lot of time together on the tour and I enjoyed his company a lot. He was, of course, a very different kind of musician to me. He was this guy in skin-tight pants with his shag haircut and playing his big Thunderbird bass. He had a typical Thunderbird sound, too, with a really heavy bottom end. He described it to me once as "three-quarters nice, one quarter not very nice".
Whenever Pete's name comes up between the three of us today we all smile. He was a lot of fun to be around, but also very sweet. He truly was a wouldn't-hurt-a-fly kind of guy and dedicated to his music. And he was very rock and roll. I was on our tour bus one time and listening to the new Bill Bruford solo album, which had just then come out. There was a great bass player on that record named named Jeff Berlin, and it was pretty complex sort of jazz-rock. Pete came stumbling around the bus and was just appalled at the sound of it. He sat down beside me and said, as if in profound pain, "Glee", which he used to call me, "don't listen to this, it isn't rock and roll." You know, Pete's a rocker at heart and he's remained true to that from the music that he's played to the way he's lived his life."
Rock in Peace Pete.



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A wonderful piece.

Has anyone ever heard Geddy, or anyone from Rush make an unkind comment?

 

[MCF]

A wonderful piece.

Has anyone ever heard Geddy, or anyone from Rush make an unkind comment?

Nope.

 

[MCF]

Oh, interesting. My 2013 was still more than worth to me what I paid. Love love love that thing.

Yep. Mine too. Never selling them.

 

[Thumper]

.

I wish, 4-5 weeks, if I have a custom neck, it'll be 12 weeks from Musicraft. I'm going to match the neck to the body maple accent, will have to see it in person first

I was in a hurry when I wrote this. To clarify, I will get the body in 4-5 weeks. If I need to get a neck, and I elect to go with Musikcraft, that could be an additional 12 weeks. I have 3 basses that could provide a donor neck while I wait. The problem is finding an all-maple neck with 7.5 radius, 1.65 nut, and a modern, but shallow (skinny) c-shape. I really dislike the deep, D shape of my '66J, funny how fussy we can be, but as they say, the heart (or in this case, fingers), want what the heart wants.

 

[GonePlaid]

For Sale - Arctic White Epiphone Thunderbird Classic IV Pro neck through Gibson USA TB+ pickups 5 Shipped This is the one I was looking at.
ETA: I have 4 others that aren't being played so I really don't 'need' a fifth(bass, that is).

 

[KaraQ]

For Sale - Arctic White Epiphone Thunderbird Classic IV Pro neck through Gibson USA TB+ pickups 5 Shipped This is the one I was looking at.

Seems like a good price. Clearly, you should buy it!

It's like the one I'm getting in, only with all the parts, and no assembly required!