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Thunderbird Club

All this is a far cry from my gigging days, it was just a case of plugging in and wanging everything up to max (other than gain), no pedals nothing, just go for it. Mind that was mid/late 70s punk
Some of us still do that more or less. Well less now. I'm getting used to having shiny boxes to step on.
 
Aha. I guess the Eminar is probably the same; and the Traynor?

I've seen post about how to set a 'Fender Tone Stack' to flat. So guessing this is in the same pond as that?

Flat confuses me. Why flat? Wouldn't it be better to know how to set it to be how you want it?
Some people find it easier to get the sound they want adjusting from a "straight up" starting point. It's not right or wrong, it's just how some people's brains work. It takes a little while to learn to adjust with ears before eyes...which is really just another way, rather than "the" way.
 
Funny thing about effects: soon as I put them in the band situation they just disappear under the drums and guitar. I still wanna add a chorus for a couple songs, but that's a punch in/punch out thing. My distortion (MXR M85) stays on all the time, but with the distortion cranked way back to more of an overdrive, with a lot of dry signal coming through.
 
Some people find it easier to get the sound they want adjusting from a "straight up" starting point. It's not right or wrong, it's just how some people's brains work. It takes a little while to learn to adjust with ears before eyes...which is really just another way, rather than "the" way.
Yeah I get that. It's the only reason I can see for all 'what's flat' questions.
That and that the tone controls don't work how people think they should.
 
All this is a far cry from my gigging days, it was just a case of plugging in and wanging everything up to max (other than gain), no pedals nothing, just go for it. Mind that was mid/late 70s punk

No, no - gain as well.

I still can't wrap my head around using effects on bass. I spent a LOT of time and money to get it to sound the way I wanted as it is!

Out of three pedals (not counting the tuner) there's only one that's on. I could do without it, but it helps get my sound the way I want it, and could be regarded more as 'tone enhancement', ie it's subtle enough that most people - including many bass players - wouldn't notice it as an effect at all.

Having a (chopping) board and power supply does lower the threshold for pedal proliferation though. A power supply is better than having dead 9V batteries end up in landfill.
 
Approximate only, but this is the sort of response you might expect with the passive tone controls on a Fender amp.

green = mid @ 100%, bass and treble @ 0%
orange = mid and bass @ 100%, treble @ 0%
red = everything @ 100%

Thanks for that Kat.i don't understand it though - more reading for me.
Prob doesn't help that I'm red-green colour blind. (I can only see 2 lines).
 
Thanks for that Kat.i don't understand it though - more reading for me.
Prob doesn't help that I'm red-green colour blind. (I can only see 2 lines).

Sorry about that. If you have windows, download the TSC, set the colour to something you can use and have a play. You will see how the peaks and troughs are not fixed, but shift as you change the different controls.p - it's organic man!
 
This is a neat utility for helping to understand these circuits and the way they interact.

TSC

... all in the interests of getting the very best in angry piano-ness from Thunderbirds, obviously.
It would be interesting to find some kind of utility that would allow a computer to analyze the wave forms of an input from a microphone. It wouldn't be a pure analysis, because microphones have their own response curves, but it would be interesting anyway. The utility would essentially be an oscilloscope, I guess.
 
I still can't wrap my head around using effects on bass. I spent a LOT of time and money to get it to sound the way I wanted as it is!

I can get an slightly overdriven sound out of my amp's pre, but I'm pretty sure it would kill it in the long run. So I first bought a big muff, but it sounds like underwater farts, last week I bought an aguilar pedal and I'm quite content. Usually I enjoy the sounds my amp produces, but sometimes I need a tad more.

Not starting an effects collection, though, because chorus and such are for guitarists imo.

Only other stuff I got is a P90, because Phil Lynott might've used it on "Dancing in the moonlight". I barely use it, just doesn't sound right.
 
Has anybody played around with or heard the IK Modo Bass software? I realize that it kind of defeats the purpose for us bass players. But they argue that it "physically models" bass playing (including a Thunderbird): Invalid Link Removed

I was curious as to what "physically modeling" translates to in terms of the realism that they suggest. @Gaolee's mention of an 80s sounding keyboard bass made me think of this; although, this software would only seem to have application to recording (I "think" - but maybe a keyboard player could midi it live?).
 
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I didn't get it at first either. Bumper as in fender on a car.
Then I call you all out.

A bumper on a car is not the same as a fender. Car 101! The bumper is the thing in the front and back, we all know what the bumpers on a car are so I shouldn't have to explain. The fenders are the body parts on the side over the front wheels, the hood is between the fenders and behind the front bumper for instance.

A metaphoric fail on whoever started that and those who continued the trend.

Soap box off. I won't go any further than simply explaining that fender and bumper are 2 separate parts of the car, not synonymous unless a degree of irony was intended, and @Stevis explanation did not explain that part.
 
Then I call you all out.

A bumper on a car is not the same as a fender. Car 101! The bumper is the thing in the front and back, we all know what the bumpers on a car are so I shouldn't have to explain. The fenders are the body parts on the side over the front wheels, the hood is between the fenders and behind the front bumper for instance.

A metaphoric fail on whoever started that and those who continued the trend.

Soap box off. I won't go any further than simply explaining that fender and bumper are 2 separate parts of the car, not synonymous unless a degree of irony was intended, and @Stevis explanation did not explain that part.
I probably should have deferred that to the more veteran members of the TB club. That was my inference. Although, there are several Fender and Squier owners on the list, I think "Bumper" is a playful jab at the hegemony of Fender players and opinions in the Gen-Pop (all other lists) on Talkbass. Again, me and my user-list pith helmet could be wrong here. @kat888, @Gaolee, Bueller, can you help a brother out here?
 
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I probably should have deferred that to the more veteran members of the TB club. That was my inference. Although, there are several Fender and Squier owners on the list, I think "Bumper" is a playful jab at the hegemony of Fender players and opinions in the Gen-Pop (all other lists) on Talkbass. Again, me and my user-list pith helmet could be wrong here. @kat888, @Gaolee, Bueller, can you help a brother out here?
In Ben Stein voice: "Bueller? ... Bueller? ... Bueller?"