Read Time 2 Minutes
The Thunderhorse Mark II
Perhaps some of you remember some time ago when Brendon Small of Metalocalypse and Dethklok fame had worked with Gibson to make and release a limited edition accurate recreation of the cartoon Explorer used by fictitious guitarist Skwisgaar Skwigelf in the aforementioned show and band. The guitar was dubbed the Gibson Thunderhorse and much like everything else with that band’s name on it it sold like hotcakes.
This new limited edition of the Thunderhorse stems from Epiphone’s interest in recreating the guitar in a more affordable design and naturally when Small caught wind of this he was game provided the guitar had new features to differentiate it from the original.
The Build
The Thunderhorse has a set neck and body made out of mahogany with a ebony fretboard, all wrapped up in a 1-ply cream binding. The neck features a 60s Slim Taper D profile and the guitar has a scale length of 24.75 inches. A set of Grover 14:1 Mini-Rotomatic tuners are lodged in the headstock while a LockTone Tune-o-Matic bridge and stopbar are crammed into the body. The guitar is given the same silverburst finish as the original.
The controls include a three-way pickup selector, two volume knobs, and a master tone. As far as the pickups are concerned the Thunderhorse uses a pair of Gibson USA humbuckers with a BurstBucker 1 in the neck position and a BurstBucker 2 in the bridge, but what makes these pickups all fancy pants is the new coil tapping feature.
Therein lies what sets this model apart from the Gibson version. Both volume knobs feature push/pull coil-tapping to give you the choice between the standard humbuckers or splitting them into single-coils.
Pricing, Shipping, and More
The Epiphone Thunderhorse can be yours for the asking price $599 which is a modest step down from the $1,670 the original ran for. It is currently available for preorder at a number of retailers. As far as the shipping date is concerned I’m not entirely sure what to say. At Zzounds it looks like it’s available on April 8th, while Musicians Friend is advertising an available date of July 22nd.
Plus the Thunderhorse comes with a custom gig bag with the Metalocalypse logo emblazoned across it as well as three Dethklok stickers. Isn’t that just snappy?
Video Time
For an idea of what the Epi Thunderhorse will be like observe this video. It’s also worth a good laugh as Brendon Small is one odd dude. It starts off normal, but it’s like he gets bored halfway through and just does what he has to to keep himself amused.
Brendon Small
Brendon Small is easily most famous for the band Dethklok that blew up to fame pretty much instantly when his cartoon Metalocalypse began airing. Since then the band has had three official full length albums and has been on a great number of world wide tours. Since then Small has also started a new band Galaktikon which he describes as an audio comic book with a ridiculous premise that takes itself way too seriously. In short it’s an alternate avenue for Small to express his eccentricities.
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