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The official "Show your basses" thread part 19!
- Thread starter smperry
- Start date
nailed it! yes. got it new in 80, and it's (as you can see) been altered somewhat...
....plays and sounds like a dream...
Most recent family photo. Had them all out to try and find a sweetspot on my EQ/filters that would more or less accommodate all of them with minimal tweaking. Started with the ol' Starfire as that is my go-to #1, so the bias is definitely a little in her favor. The Hartke's switchable graphic EQ helps. Anyway, no need to go of on a tone tangent in the photo thread 
With a diverse collection such as yours, I'm sure any aspect of them would be welcome.
Makes me miss my explorer! Or maybe it's just the western juju of that skull that's influencing my nostalgia
Awesome basses! Like the Guild and Bird. Swapping pups on the Bird?Most recent family photo. Had them all out to try and find a sweetspot on my EQ/filters that would more or less accommodate all of them with minimal tweaking. Started with the ol' Starfire as that is my go-to #1, so the bias is definitely a little in her favor. The Hartke's switchable graphic EQ helps. Anyway, no need to go of on a tone tangent in the photo thread
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How do you like that Hartke? I only like it with the tube side if the preamp cranked up. I found that amp hard to get along with. It always sounded a bit dark and compressed to me.Most recent family photo. Had them all out to try and find a sweetspot on my EQ/filters that would more or less accommodate all of them with minimal tweaking. Started with the ol' Starfire as that is my go-to #1, so the bias is definitely a little in her favor. The Hartke's switchable graphic EQ helps. Anyway, no need to go of on a tone tangent in the photo thread
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Recently discovered a seller on Ebay that seemed reasonable for their stuff and saw this body for sale. Their ad said they are a company that is ran and products crafted by military veterans so I thought being a Army vet myself I'd give them a go and help fellow service members. The body is said to be ash which I can neither verify or deny but the wood grain looks quiet nice and the finish was done very well. Overall was pleased with the work done and price so thought I would make a tribute to the great James Jamerson. I had parts from previous builds around and neck so figured why not.
Sure brother and Thanks its a awesome body for the price. Thank you for your service. Its listed under Supra-Tone on Ebay and Supra-tone.com on the web. They also do custom bodies, necks and parts I believe.
I wish I'd have known about them 2 weeks ago as I ordered a slab p body 2 weeks ago from a different Ebay seller for a Dusty Hill P bass I'm currently putting together.
Thank you for your service also.
**Peace**
My latest, a Fodera Monarch Standard 4 Fretless. One of the best that I've found. The F Bass AC5 is a close second.
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Yup, I love the tone of thunderbird pickups but only in an aggressive hard rock kind of context. My current band is more in the direction of folk-rock though, so they don't really fit in. Plus I'm basically a flatwounds player. Still I love the aesthetic of a thunderbird bass, so I decided to pull the pickups, give it a '51 precision style single coil and put flats on it. Sounds great and works in the context of my band now.
Mine is the early Model 3500, not the more common HA3500. The older ones are a lot more responsive somehow, but I do only use the tube preamp. The solid state preamp does sound pretty sterile. Also, pairing it with the Alembic Superfilter opens up a whole new spectrum of tones.
The slab bodies P basses are awesome. I built one earlier this year with a body from Rosser guitars. Excellent quality and service if you're ever looking for another fine individual to do business with. Answers emails promptly and is good guy to work with. Jammed on that bass last night and again this morning before work. It has that unmistakable P bass sound that's you're looking for. Entire body resonates with each note.
Basically, I broke the stable down into two main categories 1.)hollow/semi-hollow with two fat single coils and 2.) solid precision pickup (even though the thunderbird is a bit of an outlier). The latter have considerably more mids so I dialed in a slight mid-scoop on the graphic EQ for that half of the group. The nice thing about the hartke is that it has an engage/disengage switch, so then the Starfire and the Orlik are essentially run flat with some low band-pass and high-pass filter subtly blended in on the SF-2 (which also serves to enhance the other 3 basses, so the SF-2 is always engaged). That's more or less the simplified version. The whole process took probably 4 hours and I couldn't recall all the trial and error ground I covered along the way if I wanted to
My newly acquired Ken Smith BT5, a dream bass for me and I'm super grateful for the opportunity to own it. I'll do a more detailed thread once I have spent some more time with it.
