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Thunderbird Club

#213,141
Gaolee said:
Your wife nixed a good thing! I may be biased. And our insurance is Allstate, for what that's worth.
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I Know. My wife has relatives up there and we really like it. I was all for it. But we had family (and still have) obligations in SoCal and on the Central Coast that she couldn’t get past. I would have have had to study and taken the bar exam, which they would have paid for. Washington reciprocity is great throughout the West and I could have become admitted in several other states. California does not have reciprocity with any other states.
 
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#213,144
TBird1958 said:
Mine has the brass part - no felt, I prefer it without.
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Badbird…. just sayin’, this way you don’t have to drill the rivets out…the spring is gnarly sharp….bridge cover helps (imho) acting as a guard…
7FDFE88C-2CE0-45CC-BAE2-128F5ECA0987.jpeg
93A288A0-1C82-4247-B02D-75BE22EC443E.jpeg
 
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#213,145
Nocturnal said:
I live in Phoenix, but I'm not in my right mind so that might explain it.
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I didn’t mean to offend you and I profusely apologize. It’s just that when Ive been to Phoenix, it seems to be just like L.A., Orange County and the Inland Empire. Only 20 to 30 degrees hotter. Similar water issues and growth that never stops in spite of that. My family has been in SoCal for generations, so I shouldn’t talk. But I can’t realistically leave no matter how much I would like to. When will we ever learn.
 
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#213,146
Miles_ONeal said:
You have three of everything except outputs. You need three outputs, one per pickup!
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I’m not sure about that :laugh: fun ti think about though!

but @GBassNorth do you have a favourite combination of pickups? Neck+Middle? Neck+bridge?
I seem to remember you go all 3 but vary the volume on some?

I think if I had a 3 pickup anything I’d like a switch for each pickup like the Bass VI uses (unlike the Strat selector) so I could get any or all of the pickups in any combination.
 
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#213,147
Chucky Stiletti said:
Badbird…. just sayin’, this way you don’t have to drill the rivets out…the spring is gnarly sharp….bridge cover helps (imho) acting as a guard…
View attachment 4744007 View attachment 4744006
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I was thinking that I would need a Bad Bird before mine arrived, but mine actually intonates and I have a bridge cover to keep my hand from snagging the brass. Note the reversed saddles.

C0llbay.jpg
 
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#213,154
RedVee said:
That’s really interesting George. I’ll be interested in what your favourite combinations end up.

Question without notice: so what are better? Goth pups after your pot change Or EY pups after your pot change?
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Well, I got some time in the woodshed with the BlingBird today and I can sum up the sound as - Massive!

The lows are incredible, the mids are rock solid and the highs are smooth not harsh. The overall volume level with all three pups turned up is earth pounding. I’d say the inherent tone curve peak has shifted from mid focused to a low mid or slightly lower focus. The degree of punch in the notes is amazing, a real funk monster if you want it to be.

So far I’m really liking the bridge volume near max and tone on full bright (it’s surprisingly not overly bright) with the neck volume at about 80% and tone completely off (it’s surprisingly not overly muddy) then using the center pup at about half up on both tone and volume. It’s a very multi dimensional hifi sound that way, almost like having two or more bass players tracking together with one focusing on a super thick foundation while the others are delivering gut punching notes and clarity.

Might be the strings (Optima Gold Rounds) or the pups, but every note rings out clear, not harsh, just clear. Absolutely makes me realize I need to improve my playing techniques. I was able to find very useable tones for every genre I tried (Country, classic rock, grunge, jazz, blues, swing, big band) with very little (almost no) knob fiddling.

I won’t get a chance to run it along side the capped Goth (which has EBCF strings) until Sunday for a complete A/B test but what strikes me now about the BlingBird with the EY pups and pot/cap revision is it’s hard pounding HiFi nature. Its not as organic sounding as my Goth or other passive birds. Kinda hard to explain but it’s almost an active sounding bass - maybe because the pup tones aren’t a compromise, this bird can be set to deliver high/med/low tones simultaneously. That can be good and bad. For instance, I didn’t try it with reggae but I suspect if I did I’d need to solo the neck or center pup and even then it might be too crisp. The Goth is more creamy, less defined and the notes on it have a more pillowy feeling, it’s more forgiving and less demanding.

More to come.
 
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#213,156
GBassNorth said:
Well, I got some time in the woodshed with the BlingBird today and I can sum up the sound as - Massive!

The lows are incredible, the mids are rock solid and the highs are smooth not harsh. The overall volume level with all three pups turned up is earth pounding. I’d say the inherent tone curve peak has shifted from mid focused to a low mid or slightly lower focus. The degree of punch in the notes is amazing, a real funk monster if you want it to be.

So far I’m really liking the bridge volume near max and tone on full bright (it’s surprisingly not overly bright) with the neck volume at about 80% and tone completely off (it’s surprisingly not overly muddy) then using the center pup at about half up on both tone and volume. It’s a very multi dimensional hifi sound that way, almost like having two or more bass players tracking together with one focusing on a super thick foundation while the others are delivering gut punching notes and clarity.

Might be the strings (Optima Gold Rounds) or the pups, but every note rings out clear, not harsh, just clear. Absolutely makes me realize I need to improve my playing techniques. I was able to find very useable tones for every genre I tried (Country, classic rock, grunge, jazz, blues, swing, big band) with very little (almost no) knob fiddling.

I won’t get a chance to run it along side the capped Goth (which has EBCF strings) until Sunday for a complete A/B test but what strikes me now about the BlingBird with the EY pups and pot/cap revision is it’s hard pounding HiFi nature. Its not as organic sounding as my Goth or other passive birds. Kinda hard to explain but it’s almost an active sounding bass - maybe because the pup tones aren’t a compromise, this bird can be set to deliver high/med/low tones simultaneously. That can be good and bad. For instance, I didn’t try it with reggae but I suspect if I did I’d need to solo the neck or center pup and even then it might be too crisp. The Goth is more creamy, less defined and the notes on it have a more pillowy feeling, it’s more forgiving and less demanding.

More to come.
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Nice! How do you think it compares now to the TB+ in your 2013?
 
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#213,157
lildrgn said:
View attachment 4743504

T-Bird fam, I have video proof of my T-bird in action. However, I'm gonna ask that you read the accompanying article on the illustrious pages of American Songwriter, where my little band, Planets in the Ocean, got a write up and exclusive premiere of our song, Splinter!

Though the T-bird is what shows in the video, due to me wanting a low-D at the very end of the song, I played my L1K, which has a Hipshot extender on it. The good news is, the T-bird looks great!

Hope you can take a few minutes to read the article and watch the video.
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Excellent! You must join us for the next Seattle GTG.
 
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