Mini Thunderbird - Mandobird

[Basvarken]

Way back in the Dudepit MkI era someone in the Gibson forum bought an Epi Mandobird for his (then) little son and put on heavy strings.
A mini Thunderbird!




Does anyone of you guys remember this?
And do you know if this works? Does the poor litle neck survive the tension? And what about the tuners?

[lowend1]

The pickup is too close to the neck - I think it would sound muddy

[uwe]

Considering the micro scale of this thing, string tension would not be the issue unless you used perhaps a 140 string as an E. I don't think you could tune this down to a bass EADG (it is not even made for a guitar EADGBE, I think it is supposed to be tuned even higher than a guitar at GDAE, tuning steps in fifths rather than fourths) and still hear an intonated note when fretting.

But to be honest: I've played with the idea too ...

Uwe

[OldManC]

It needs a chrome pickup.














 

[Chris P.]

I also played with the idea when i first saw it. i have this picture of JAE with a Thunderbird and this mini=-Thunderbird underneath it! Like a doubleneck. Of course a joke. This mini-Bird was made for his son Christopher when it got born.

[ramone57]

[Chris P.]

I have one in a book, where the small one hangs under the big one!! Both on Entwistle's body:)

There are some nice pics of the little bass with six pole Burns pick up in the Bass Culture book.