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Thunderbird Club

#186,101
BklynKen said:
Does anyone have an original shipping box for a Gibson Thunderbird who can give me the dimensions? I need to ship one in its hardshell case and am dreading trying to find a box for it.
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You might be able to get a used one from your local Guitar Center.

Dustbin9665 said:
On the topic of strings. What do you guys think about Ernie Ball cobalt? The packaging caught my eye and I might try a 45-100 set.
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Lots here use the flats and love them, me included. The cobalt rounds were deadly on frets, avoid them.

Dustbin9665 said:
Holy balls those pyramids are expensive. They are actually half the cost of my current bass, to be fair it's just a SX VTG but still.
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The pyramids are pricey, about the same cost as my favorite round - Optima Gold Uniques. Except the Optima Golds last a lot longer and step up the bling factor with their gold plating. Before you buy another set of Pyramids give the Optimas a try.
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PillO said:
?……
I didn't know Geddy was ill...
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Oh, I’m sorry, I was talking about Justin Bieber (AKA Miley Cyrus)…
7E2A1886-69F3-460E-AB25-A06494D28CA0.jpeg

…NOT!

dagrev said:
Other's can confirm, but the rounds are horribly rough. The flats sound great--but they make my fingers hurt/ache after some playing. Not from being rough, but it the plutonium waste in them that causes the problem.

Hence the Princess Fingers club. Very top drawer. We don't just let anybody in, in spite of having pretty low standards.
View attachment 4407043
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Confirmed, cobalt rounds are horribly rough! The flats are spectacular and induce zero pain in these callous old kielbasa fingers.
 
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#186,103
BklynKen said:
Thanks! Should be close enough.

If anyone has a Thunderbird shipping box they don't need, my covering shipping might still be cheaper than finding a box for it.
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If you really want an empty-ish box shipped to you, I can go grab one from storage Saturday, and take it with me when I go pick up my packages from UPS.

Shipping from CA tho........:nailbiting:
 
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#186,105
Dustbin9665 said:
Does anyone know of any Thunderbird 5 pickups? I might actually buy one of those instead of the four but the pickups are the 4 string ones so they don't pickup the B string properly.
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I have an Epiphone Pro 5, the pickups are the same size as the 4-string Thunderbirds, but they're different from any but the Pro 4 pickups (which I presume are the same as the Pro 5). EMG 40 series are too wide, unless you want to rout to the edge of the wings.
Never checked on any others.

But, I don't have significant problems with the pickups in mine, B-string comes through fine (imo).


The pre-amp, on the other hand.....not the most awesome. Took a while & a lot of fiddling (and string changes) for me to get it to sound like I want.


I've no experience with the Gibson (passive?) 5-string T-bird, though :(
 
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#186,106
KaraQ said:
I have an Epiphone Pro 5, the pickups are the same size as the 4-string Thunderbirds, but they're different from any but the Pro 4 pickups (which I presume are the same as the Pro 5). EMG 40 series are too wide, unless you want to rout to the edge of the wings.
Never checked on any others.

But, I don't have significant problems with the pickups in mine, B-string comes through fine (imo).


The pre-amp, on the other hand.....not the most awesome. Took a while & a lot of fiddling (and string changes) for me to get it to sound like I want.


I've no experience with the Gibson (passive?) 5-string T-bird, though :(
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Yea those look really cool but they are so friggin rare.
 
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#186,110
KaraQ said:
If you really want an empty-ish box shipped to you, I can go grab one from storage Saturday, and take it with me when I go pick up my packages from UPS.

Shipping from CA tho........:nailbiting:
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Oh my. It looks like it's about $120 to ship the box from there to here. Thanks so much for the offer, but let me see first what I can figure out locally.
 
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#186,111
BklynKen said:
Oh my. It looks like it's about $120 to ship the box from there to here. Thanks so much for the offer, but let me see first what I can figure out locally.
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Check at a ups or fedex store, ask how much they charge to box it for you. then you have a guarantee if it gets damaged, because they boxed it.
 
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#186,112
WillyW said:
Check at a ups or fedex store, ask how much they charge to box it for you. then you have a guarantee if it gets damaged, because they boxed it.
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It's been mentioned b4-a few(10K+/-)posts ago, but check with SHIPBIKES.com[8773234083] for shipping costs. A lotta people have shipped guitars/basses with them. Apparently they get a discount. A bike shop might have a box too. Or a local GC, SA, ??.
 
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#186,115
WillyW said:
Just like Gibson QC, I never knew there was a problem until I read about it on the interwebz…

I been playing my Danelectro with the extra slinky cobalt flats all evening and no noticeable nosebleeds..

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I’ve never noticed any skin issues playing Cobalt flats. It’s only an issue for some people, hence the PFC.
 
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#186,117
Engle said:
I’ve never noticed any skin issues playing Cobalt flats. It’s only an issue for some people, hence the PFC.
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I think it is an allergy/sensitivity to cobalt.

Cobalt allergy is a thing, it is similar in prevalence to nickel allergy. There is medical literature around it (although none in relation to guitar/bass strings). There is medical literature around in relation to nickel allergy with guitar strings. So the theory holds together well.
 
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