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Thunderbird Club

#188,541
dagrev said:
Not trying to cut in, but I'll step in and answer while here. They were brass in the pic. That's why I thought they might be older if they were Rotos. Or, possibly Roto does things differently for the Europe market. Do you know when they changed to the colored ball ends?
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Glad you did. I should've looked at the original post. Seems Rotos did have brass ball ends not that long ago, so they must be RS66.

For long-time users of these, how did you tell the strings apart before they start coloring the ball ends? @godofthunder59 ?
 
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#188,542
WillyW said:
I have liked my reverse, but it wasn’t in my top 3 favorite bass styles.

I mostly bought the NR because it was available and NOT shaging sunburst.

The NR is definitely now in my top 3, I think I have had it just over a week at this point.

By the way my top 3 are:

in no particular order…

BC Rich Eagle (except it is #1)

Rickenbacker 4003/4004 (because I don’t want a top 4)

Gibson Non-Reverse Thunder-shaging-Bird

honorable mention to my TelExplorer and reverse TeleBird…

by the way I didn’t like my NR TeleBird…
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Another kind of bird!
4FA20945-E45B-49E9-8FB7-A0DA2A3F582C.jpeg
 
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#188,544
BklynKen said:
Glad you did. I should've looked at the original post. Seems Rotos did have brass ball ends not that long ago, so they must be RS66.

For long-time users of these, how did you tell the strings apart before they start coloring the ball ends? @godofthunder59 ?
Click to expand...


Feel and sight, it's easy. I take strings off and on and just wrap them in a ball and you can see the different gauges. Most of them aren't color coded, that's comparatively new with strings. They used to come in paper packets with the letters printed on the pack E, A, etc.
 
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#188,545
bobyoung53 said:
Feel and sight, it's easy. I take strings off and on and just wrap them in a ball and you can see the different gauges. Most of them aren' color coded, that's comparatively new with strings.
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That's cool, but all string companies that I've seen have their own ways for differentiating them. They can't rely on people being able to tell visually. Could be as simple as individual paper envelopes. I guess Roto went to colored ball ends when they started using the sealed packaging with all the strings together.
 
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#188,546
BklynKen said:
That's cool, but all string companies that I've seen have their own ways for differentiating them. They can't rely on people being able to tell visually. Could be as simple as individual paper envelopes. I guess Roto went to colored ball ends when they started using the sealed packaging with all the strings together.
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I'm a geezer, years ago the only way you could tell if you couldn't feel or see the difference was to make sure you put the right one on right out of the package that was lettered. I'm going to guess and say they started putting different ball ends within the last twenty years. La Bella for example used to put little plastic squares with a hole in the middle with the letter name on it, and put the string right through it, I've got a bunch of them at home. There are still a lot of makers who don't differentiate their strings by color.


La Bella dice: I think they just changed to colored ends within the last year or so. These have numbers instead of letters.

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRqrVbTCSFCzNxvwjaqqD0y2sAcrZ32_bMtOw&usqp=CAU.jpg
 
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#188,547
BklynKen said:
Glad you did. I should've looked at the original post. Seems Rotos did have brass ball ends not that long ago, so they must be RS66.

For long-time users of these, how did you tell the strings apart before they start coloring the ball ends? @godofthunder59 ?
Click to expand...
They came in individual paper envelopes marked with the gauge. I wish thry would go back to the brass ends I can't stand the painted ones.
 
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#188,551
dagrev said:
If they have a rougher than Nickle plated feel they are likely Rotos, if not they could be Infelds. They are great strings. Not supper bright but clear, and lots of good mids and lows. Well balanced and last forever.

Infeld Bass Guitar | Guitar Strings | Products | Thomastik-Infeld Vienna
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The Thomastiks never felt rough to me.
In fact, way smoother feeling then CB flats. But then again, I am not of human nature when it comes to these sort of things.

Rotos, those are rough.
Even an alien such as me won’t touch em.

Im a string killer.
But strings that’ll try and kill me first.
Nah.
 
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#188,557
Spent a fair amount of time noodling around on the 2021 NR. Was somewhat convinced it might not be a keeper for me. Decided to try a couple things. Put a strap pin behind the neck and it instantly felt a whole lot better to me. Also had new a set of EBCF’s laying around, so I threw em on and liked it a lot better than the stock strings. Only ‘issue’ is with that bridge, the silks go over the bridge saddles. It sounded fine to me, but I’m gonna trim the silks back tomorrow and go get another set of strap locks. Now that the strap pin is at the neck heel, the awesome leather strap I got from Gibson is a bit short, I think. I tend to prefer nylon straps anyway. Did a quick recording with the bass and it sounded pretty dang nice to me. So I think I’ll just keep the NR and the Fano strung with flats, and the Cataldo and ‘02 Gibson will keep rounds. Probably going to sell the Greco reverse, though is a killer bass. I just have too many basses now and a couple gotta go. Maybe the Greco and my MusicMan Sabre. Can’t see me selling my Gretsch SpectraSonic, Drake or ‘67 Hofner. Will hang on to the Pbass for the occasional producer who’s just gotta have that
 
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#188,559
bobyoung53 said:
Do you remember when the first string maker started using colored ends? To me it seems fairly recently.
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Define recently. I know it's been over a decade. I *think* I recall such strings back in the late 70s or early 80s, but not catching on at the time. But I can't swear to that.
 
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