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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
Contribution to the Friends of 'Birds photo carpet bomb session...
The ThunderJ does indeed sound fantastic, and kept me in the Thunderbird family. Squier alder body, 1.6 vintage spec Hefner neck (since given way to a 1 piece FCS '57P 1.75 neck), Gotoh Res-O-Lights, Hipshot Drop D, CTS 500k volumes, 250k tone, switchcraft, .047uf orange drop, Sunbeams, and preferred-by-me Chinabuckers. I never got on with 1.5 necks or Tbird ergonomics or the Embassy flat (to me necks, I need 7.25 radius, or close to). I have since made a similar equipped ThunderP with mahogany Warmoth lightweight body, and roasted vintage spec 1.65 Musikraft neck which is my #1. I also now have a featherweight Droc, but the ThunderJ and P reign Supreme.
RE the Fender Modern Player Telecaster, you are 100% correct, tone to die for, but it came in at just over 10 lbs, so gets very little use, so I mounted the Harley buckle my Dad wore the last 25 years of his life, and it brings warm memories. I thought about using the PUPs elsewhere, but unlike most here, I LOVE Chinabuckers.
RE the Fender Modern Player Telecaster, you are 100% correct, tone to die for, but it came in at just over 10 lbs, so gets very little use, so I mounted the Harley buckle my Dad wore the last 25 years of his life, and it brings warm memories. I thought about using the PUPs elsewhere, but unlike most here, I LOVE Chinabuckers.
That ThunderJ build sounds fantastic!
If you’re ever in the market to sell the Modern Player Tele (minus the buckle of course) I might be interested in buying, PM me if interested.
“In a white room with black curtains”….
My cover band does that one. And I'm singing the verses. Lol, of course we do, and of course I am...
That's why I said allegedly
EMG:
"Robert Trujillo has been using the EMG J Set since before his days in Metallica. And now he is truly metal, trusting his original tone combined with a modern look. Because of these custom stainless steel caps, these pickups maintain their original sound used in the industry for decades."
It could be just the way the metal housing affects the pickups, but I suspect that EMG has made....changes.
The only thing different I could spot in the posted specs between the RT set and the standard J set is "Battery Life (hours)".
The Rip Tides have battery life spec'd at 1000 hours - the regular J set (as well as JA, JCS, JX, JAX, JCSX, JV, JVX, J5, and J5X sets - all (posted, active) J variants except for JHZ, which are passive) are spec'd for 3000 hours.
So....what cuts battery life by that much, but leaves the other specs the same? The stainless covers? A different internal pre-amp? (The one spec sheet that has a mis-print?
)I don't know, but I suspect that whatever does, is where the difference in tone is.
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Where the shadows run from themselves…
No electric wiz here - but could it be a different Op Amp that runs at a higher voltage draw? And could that different op amp (which isn’t identical to their normal op amps) be voiced slightly different?That's why I said allegedly
EMG:
"Robert Trujillo has been using the EMG J Set since before his days in Metallica. And now he is truly metal, trusting his original tone combined with a modern look. Because of these custom stainless steel caps, these pickups maintain their original sound used in the industry for decades."
It could be just the way the metal housing affects the pickups, but I suspect that EMG has made....changes.
The only thing different I could spot in the posted specs between the RT set and the standard J set is "Battery Life (hours)".
The Rip Tides have battery life spec'd at 1000 hours - the regular J set (as well as JA, JCS, JX, JAX, JCSX, JV, JVX, J5, and J5X sets - all (posted, active) J variants except for JHZ, which are passive) are spec'd for 3000 hours.
So....what cuts battery life by that much, but leaves the other specs the same? The stainless covers? A different internal pre-amp? (The one spec sheet that has a mis-print?
I don't know, but I suspect that whatever does, is where the difference in tone is.
Also, I’ve been told by others in this club that installing a metal cover on a pickup does change the voicing a bit, IIRC it tones down some of the top end.
All that begs the question - so just how different do these metal covered Jazz pups sound from their plastic cover siblings? Less top end, smoother, more mellow? Or is it the opposite - brighter, gritty, bark, snarl and bite?
Just as a goofy side note - for whatever reason I can rarely ever pick out Robert Trujillo‘s bass lines in a Metallica mix. He’s usually buried so deep behind a wall of screaming guitar riffs that I wouldn’t even notice if his amp was turned off.That's why I said allegedly
EMG:
"Robert Trujillo has been using the EMG J Set since before his days in Metallica. And now he is truly metal, trusting his original tone combined with a modern look. Because of these custom stainless steel caps, these pickups maintain their original sound used in the industry for decades."
It could be just the way the metal housing affects the pickups, but I suspect that EMG has made....changes.
The only thing different I could spot in the posted specs between the RT set and the standard J set is "Battery Life (hours)".
The Rip Tides have battery life spec'd at 1000 hours - the regular J set (as well as JA, JCS, JX, JAX, JCSX, JV, JVX, J5, and J5X sets - all (posted, active) J variants except for JHZ, which are passive) are spec'd for 3000 hours.
So....what cuts battery life by that much, but leaves the other specs the same? The stainless covers? A different internal pre-amp? (The one spec sheet that has a mis-print?
I don't know, but I suspect that whatever does, is where the difference in tone is.
That’s not to take anything away from him, he’s a fantastic player with much more talent than his band let’s him show, he even plays Spanish guitar better than his guitarists do.
Point being, listening to most of his Metallica music, I couldn’t tell you if he was playing a stingray, Jazz or upright bass, much less the subtle nuances of one jazz pup vs another.
Those are the things I'm curious about - I think it could be a combo of different? internal pre-amp and the stainless covers.......unfortunately, I don't currently have a set of EMG standard J pickups to compare against
If I run my Ibanez with the RTs eq-flat, through the standard, non-pad input on my amps, it sounds pretty nice & clean, even with a pick, if I don't get too aggro with it.
But, boost the bass, just about the equivalent of one, maybe 1 1/2, knob-mark, and it adds in a lovely amount of grit to go with the added bottom end. Love it!
OK, I'll contribute here too. '70 and a '65, the '65 looks better now, that photo was from the seller.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Sounds very nice! Maybe they will get a real drummer one day. This guy clearly doesn't know you have to have 38 piece kit and beat them with great ferocity to be the real deal.
really good drummer - when I'm fortunate enough to play with a drummer of that caliber I play better
Isn't that pretty normal for Metallica bassists? Even Cliff, unless he was doing show-y, solo-y stuff got pretty buried under the guitars, imo.
Sounds nice. I kinda swore off single coils a while back, but these have peaked my interest.Those are the things I'm curious about - I think it could be a combo of different? internal pre-amp and the stainless covers.......unfortunately, I don't currently have a set of EMG standard J pickups to compare against
If I run my Ibanez with the RTs eq-flat, through the standard, non-pad input on my amps, it sounds pretty nice & clean, even with a pick, if I don't get too aggro with it.
But, boost the bass, just about the equivalent of one, maybe 1 1/2, knob-mark, and it adds in a lovely amount of grit to go with the added bottom end. Love it!
They made a much bigger difference in the old two prong plug days, it was like reversing the plug I believe.
