So my brother came in last week on vacation...

[Psycho Bass Guy]

... and wanted to do some "touristy" stuff in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg with his wife and stepdaughters, specifically Ripley's Aquarium. I've been there once before and since the place has a new shark exhibit, I gave up a day of sleep and went with them. Since it is the off-season, they're doing some work and the whole place smelled, but not too badly. Afterward, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. I'd never been to one before and was kinda curious about the food and the decor. I didn't care for the food, but this was next to the bar:







...not the way you'd want to see a Bicentennial end up, but it was cool to see. They also had one of the Bill Wyman "endorsement" Vox basses, a Fiesta Red Precision signed by Timothy B Schmidt and a newer Stingray signed by the guy from "Atreyu" (whoopief'n'doo). I have pics of the Vox, but they're pretty bad since I shot them using my phone. If anyone's interested, I'll post them.

[Denis]

Cool bass! Who's signatures are on it? I can't make 'em out.

[godofthunder]

Cheap Trick on the '76 Thunderbird.

[lowend1]

Nylon saddles???

[SGD Lutherie]

Nylon saddles???

My late 60's EB-2DC had nylon saddles (two-point Tip-O-Matic bridge).

[dadagoboi]

Nylon saddles???

At one time I thought I was hallucinating nylon saddles on my long gone '77 white Bicentennial...nice to know I wasn't.  I hated them.  I replaced the nut with a brass one and used a stainless steel pick with Rotosounds, definitely did not want nylon saddles.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Cheap Trick on the '76 Thunderbird.

Correct: the whole band. My phone normally takes much better pictures but it decided to have a bad day. The aquarium pictures were mostly awful, but video shot on the same camera was much better. The glare on the bass is from the little display lights and I didn't have any way to iris down. There was a commemorative brass plaque for the signatures but I couldn't get any of it visible; it was all glare.

Nylon saddles???

Yeah; that's why I took the close-up of the bridge.

Does Hard Rock ever sell off their instruments?

As an aside, the host seated us at a table next to a signed gold Eric Clapton Strat. He didn't know how to handle it when I asked him what he had against us. We were one of two parties in the whole place, and I had to sit next to Slowfoot's toy!

[dadagoboi]

Cheap Trick on the '76 Thunderbird.

White ones didn't ship until mid '77.  Another reason for removing that goofy bird pick guard.

[Denis]

White ones didn't ship until mid '77.  Another reason for removing that goofy bird pick guard.

I'd trade them my Bicentennial pickguard even up for that one since I think my Fenderbird is originally a '76.

[Bionic-Joe]

What a Damn waste of an instrument...Shame Shame Shame......

[TBird1958]

Just what I was gonna say Baz.........

Stuffed and mounted - Not in a good way either 

[SGD Lutherie]

At one time I thought I was hallucinating nylon saddles on my long gone '77 white Bicentennial...nice to know I wasn't.  I hated them.  I replaced the nut with a brass one and used a stainless steel pick with Rotosounds, definitely did not want nylon saddles.

I replaced the saddles on my EB-2 with aluminum saddles I made.

I used to use a stainless steel pick I made with Rotosounds with my Ric.

[Dave W]

As an aside, the host seated us at a table next to a signed gold Eric Clapton Strat. He didn't know how to handle it when I asked him what he had against us...

[Pilgrim]

There's no accounting for the likes and dislikes that musicians have for each other.   

[gearHed289]

Does Hard Rock ever sell off their instruments?

A lot of the stuff is "on loan" from the actual musicians. And a LOT of it has nothing to do with the musicians, they just got them to autograph it. Like the 5 string Guild Pilot signed by Sting in Chicago.