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Gibson Thunderbird Question
- Thread starter toddLURR
- Start date
Start with everthing flat & selectively add or subtract from there. Tbirds have plenty of everything, tone wise, and don't need much boost, if any. When I 1st got my Tbird it sat for awhile, because I couldn't figure out how to get decent tone from it. The more stuff I added, the worse it got, it seemed. After setting everything flat, pulling away all the pedals, eq's, & other stuff, it turned out it sounded great.
dukeplaysbass
Supporting Member
This is good advice for pretty much every amp and bass. Everything piece of gear has it's own voice, and you should take the time, even if it's just a minute or two, to figure that out first. Otherwise you're just making a bigger mess of everything.
- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,908
- 142,347
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
It's probably important to realize that a T Bird isn't going to produce sound sound like many other basses, it's construction and pickups aren't going to give the same tone as something like a Fender Jazz. They are actually pretty midrange like a Rickenbacker but the pups can produce a lot of sub too, which will "muddy" your overall tone.
I use a GK 1001RBII and various vintages of 'Birds exclusively and have no trouble getting a nice articulate growly tone when using a pick or fingerstyle with round wound strings(I use Ken Smith and DR's).
On the amp I eq the bass @ 11:00, low-mids @ 1:30, hi-mids and treble @ 12, the boost @ 1:00 - input and woofer volume are usually around 10:00 but that can vary.
Stand 10-15 feet away in a larger space ( not a bedroom!) and tweak, I found that a tight, articulate tone that rides in the mix didn't need too much bass and was definately not good "bedroom" tone.
I use a GK 1001RBII and various vintages of 'Birds exclusively and have no trouble getting a nice articulate growly tone when using a pick or fingerstyle with round wound strings(I use Ken Smith and DR's).
On the amp I eq the bass @ 11:00, low-mids @ 1:30, hi-mids and treble @ 12, the boost @ 1:00 - input and woofer volume are usually around 10:00 but that can vary.
Stand 10-15 feet away in a larger space ( not a bedroom!) and tweak, I found that a tight, articulate tone that rides in the mix didn't need too much bass and was definately not good "bedroom" tone.
Like TBird was saying i think the most important thing to do is to think about the mids!
When i got my Tbird i tried to EQ it like i EQ my Jazz basses which is cutting the mids a bit, that really didnt work out and for a while i wasnt happy with that bass!
Its only when i realised that i should almost be boosting the mids a bit that i started to get a sound i was happy with! The Tbird gets a lot of its tone from the mids!
When i got my Tbird i tried to EQ it like i EQ my Jazz basses which is cutting the mids a bit, that really didnt work out and for a while i wasnt happy with that bass!
Its only when i realised that i should almost be boosting the mids a bit that i started to get a sound i was happy with! The Tbird gets a lot of its tone from the mids!
That's the problem with people that try Gibson basses, they try Fender settings on them expecting them to sound the same, but you need to tailor the sound to the bass to get the best tone from it.
