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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
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- Tags
- club thunderbird
None of the really nice light tuners seem to be available in nickel. I'm considering the Hipshot Ultralites, even though the ones I've had on my Carvin for well over 10 years I don't consider smooth at all. If I go clovers, is it their mini clovers that work for Thunderbirds? And 3/8" or 1/2"?
I personally found quite a difference in smoothness and accuracy of tuning between the Hipshot Liscensed tuners that I purchased from a parts supplier vs Hipshot tuners that I purchased directly from Hipshot. The ones from Hipshot were more expensive (IIRC about 10% more) but well worth the upcharge.
Thanks, George. That's helpful. It's certainly possible the ones I put on my Carvin way back when are not the official ones. I don't remember where I bought them.
Have you looked at the Schallers? Not sure exactly what type you're looking for, but I think all of their bass tuners are available in nickel.
When I changed the tuners in my CP, I used 14mm tuners - I only had to ream the paint out of the holes, and they fit perfectly. Not sure if Gibson is the same....
This month seems like it will be good for my movie-going (maybe not my bank account); I'm hoping to see suicide squad, jungle cruise, and free guy (maybe the protégé).
going to try to get jungle cruise in tomorrow, after my Suburban's service appt...
I went to see The Suicide Squad with one of my daughters last night. Really enjoyed it. James Gunn! Stellar cast! Comics! The R rating was mainly for violence and (comic book style) gore, though there were brief flashes of body parts. I was impressed with what they did with the B list peeps. Other than the Dark Knight movies. I'd mostly given up on DC some time ago, but this is the 5th one lately I've enjoyed (WW 1 & 2, Aquaman, Birds of Prey, The Suicide Squad).
Let us know about Jungle Cruise. Will they be using THUNDERBIRDS to paddle?
Better than a Mac!
Bite your tongue clean off!
Yeah f*#k that guy. Thunderbirds are the best sounding electric basses ever made. I remember hearing similar comments from some of the surf bands we played with over the years. “You can’t play surf on a Gibson…blah blah blah.” Them and their active G&L/Music Man basses — yeah but mine doesn’t sound like crap when the 9volt battery wears out every other show.
The M4 90 (Light) seem like they'd work, other than maybe being a little wide, as you mentioned. They also don't seem to be easy to find in the US, and shipping from Germany is ridiculously expensive. Lastly, the M4S I have on my BC Rich I don't love the feel of.
You figured out how to open the gate!
Teach me.
That's right, I forgot. The producer always wants a P-bass. Especially for a paddle.
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, who did the theme song for Kids in the Hall, would beg to differ.
Absolutely! They were one of the reasons I got a T-Bird in the first place. That intro with him jamming on the Bird really piqued my interest when I was a kid.
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Isn't that what "P" means?
...
As we say in Engineering - The D string reached its yield point
resulting in a catastrophic failure at the nut,
and rendering the string completely unusable for its intended purpose.
It is, however, an excellent example of suboptimal execution of a plan.
Don't feel bad, I've done the same thing a couple of times, but fortunately never reached the yield point! It's a sick feeling when you realize you've tuned the wrong string way beyond normal......When that happens I want to ask myself, "First time tuning a bass moron?"
Bass moron? How do you tune one of those?
Nice. I saw them play in 2018, opening for Yo La Tengo. Dallas Good was playing Reid Diamond's Thunderbird.
While we’re talking about stupid mistakes we’ve made with basses - not too long ago I was installing a fresh set of cobalts on my Goth. I normally use a headstock tuner but the battery was dead, no problem, I’ll just use my Korg Rack mount with strobe tuning.
So now I’m sitting at my practice bench with the strings on the bass and the slack taken out. The rack tuner is all the way to my far right, of course the tuning keys are 180 degrees away on my far left, well out of my peripheral vision.
I reach over to the E string tuning key and bring the string up to pitch with just a few cranks.
Then without looking back at the headstock I move on to what I thought was the A tuner(it was in fact the D tuner).
I’m watching the strobe and plucking the A string while cranking away on the D tuner and no change in pitch
- then suddenly, SNAP!
I most certainly would not admit that I have done that….
The last incident, I took my mustang to my lesson and I’m chatting with my teacher while I’m tuning…
Keep in mind.. 95% of my inline instruments are reverse headstocks…
I was sharp across the board because she had been sitting in the case for a while and the cooler has been running for the last couple months, so luckily I was detuning.
my E was over a 1/4 step sharp and I keep cranking on the furthest tuner… and it ain’t getting flatter… my teacher sez.. “uhhh, that’s yer G”…
I very quickly employed the the “reverse headstock” defense….
"Just wanted to see if you were paying attention."
