Thunderbird Club

[BklynKen]

…the pick guard screws, don’t forget the pick guard screws!

So THAT'S why this one sounds terrible.

 

[MCF]

May y'all have a happy and blessed New Year/ 2023. Full of New gear and old friends . I know I'm blessed to be a member of the Thunderbird Club.

And we’re very glad to have you!

 

[JIO]

…the pick guard screws, don’t forget the pick guard screws!

Tharz tone in them thar screws!

 

[GBassNorth]

All this constant focus on pup locations and pup types has me wanting to try something on the next build, most likely an NR bird…
I have a set of VP pickups. I’m leaning on placing the neck pup on the NR build at the same location as the stock VP bird. However, the bridge pup (which I rarely ever solo, but do blend in to a small degree for bite or definition) I’m thinking I might bump that a tad closer to the neck to thicken up the mids and still keep the majority of the grit and grind. Might be an interesting sound.
Anyone try that yet or have any thoughts on it?

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

dig this view….cold and rainy…
rear end DONE….

 

[MCF]

Wow. What is this, Macys?

Our local Macys isn’t busy enough for that. I’m amazed it didn’t close by now.

 

[BklynKen]

All this constant focus on pup locations and pup types has me wanting to try something on the next build, most likely an NR bird…
I have a set of VP pickups. I’m leaning on placing the neck pup on the NR build at the same location as the stock VP bird. However, the bridge pup (which I rarely ever solo, but do blend in to a small degree for bite or definition) I’m thinking I might bump that a tad closer to the neck to thicken up the mids and still keep the majority of the grit and grind. Might be an interesting sound.
Anyone try that yet or have any thoughts on it?

Why not make it moveable, like a Grabber?

 

[dagrev]

View attachment 4918836

A given.

 

[GBassNorth]

So THAT'S why this one sounds terrible.


View attachment 4919022

I’m sure half the reason it sounds terrible is because there’s no pickguard screws to drive the upper mid high nuances that most of us enjoy in the Tbird (especially with the chrome screws, the black screws sound darker to my ear). But the other and possibly bigger reason is that you’ve installed the strings in the wrong order. I bet you have a devil of a time getting an open G to ring out on that thick string, and I’m sure the open E sounds thin and underwhelming.

I think you need to ship that bass to me so I can fix it for you, it should only take a couple of years to get it all sorted out.

 

[GBassNorth]

Why not make it moveable, like a Grabber?

Funny thing is, I did a moveable build (Stingray bass) a long time ago.

What I found is that it had one position that sounded best, so that’s where I left it. Learned my lesson, moveable pups are a fantastic idea on a mule to fine tune where you want the routes for a finished build, but not that necessary or useful on a finished bass.

I ran into the same learning on series/parallel switching, where 95% of the time I just left it in series because it sounded the way I liked it there, so I don’t do that anymore either.

I do however find split coil very useful, especially if using pedals which react very differently to single coils vs humbuckers.

 

[JJR58]

Tharz tone in them thar screws!

See!!!, i knew it!
Was always in the screws.

 

[JIO]

It seems our Thunderbird brother Scott has been busy with a new bass, just found this earlier today!
Pretty cool bass!

Always liked those basses and for the cost of admission - that one looks/sounds pretty decent. I like it being 24 fret also. Aside from the originals being very pricy these days, and also being boat-anchors, they are iconic basses.

The background story about Geezer Butler playing one; Black Sabbath was touring the US and his bass (not sure what brand - he played a lot of different basses over the years) was stollen, in Michigan (Detroit?) I seem to recall. He went to a local music store to buy a replacement and they didn't have a very good selection. They did have a Dan Armstrong Ampeg lucite bass, which he bought. He hated the way it sounded and how heavy it was and replaced it as soon as he could. It's possible these MIC knock-offs are better sounding basses. I'm tempted to buy one... like I need another bass. (but probably won't! )

 

[JJR58]

I'm pretty hip on that MIC DA.
I'd rock that bass.

Just needs a Tbird pick up.

 

[JIO]

All this constant focus on pup locations and pup types has me wanting to try something on the next build, most likely an NR bird…
I have a set of VP pickups. I’m leaning on placing the neck pup on the NR build at the same location as the stock VP bird. However, the bridge pup (which I rarely ever solo, but do blend in to a small degree for bite or definition) I’m thinking I might bump that a tad closer to the neck to thicken up the mids and still keep the majority of the grit and grind. Might be an interesting sound.
Anyone try that yet or have any thoughts on it?

I've followed a variety of classic pu position on my custom basses, but have developed my own formula for a one pu bass which sounds really good. (on my Teiscobird) It was based on finding where the natural harmonic were and getting the poles as close to that as possible. Pat Wilkins developed a P/J combo where the J pu is closer to the P-pu than a Fender P/J. I've yet to play one but it sounds interesting. Most of the time Fender Jazz owners are fussing over '60s spacing vs '70s spacing, which is very minimally different. There is a difference, but to what extent I feel is generally over-hyped. (many other things were different on those two J's, including how they were played)

So positioning yes - but based on the specific pu used also. Standards we all know are about producing the best sound for a mass produced instrument.

 

[PhR75]

All this constant focus on pup locations and pup types has me wanting to try something on the next build, most likely an NR bird…
I have a set of VP pickups. I’m leaning on placing the neck pup on the NR build at the same location as the stock VP bird. However, the bridge pup (which I rarely ever solo, but do blend in to a small degree for bite or definition) I’m thinking I might bump that a tad closer to the neck to thicken up the mids and still keep the majority of the grit and grind. Might be an interesting sound.
Anyone try that yet or have any thoughts on it?

Why not. And in VP the bridge pickup is indeed closer to the bridge than on an original. Also some of the Fenderbirds look like the pickups are even closer together, also on some Greco's.

Anyway, I wouldn't put them back to back 'though. A bit closer only. Ask the owners of the originals the exact locations and work from there.

 

[JIO]

I'm pretty hip on that MIC DA.
I'd rock that bass.

Just needs a Tbird pick up.

They made a brown 'smoke' RI in 1998 which has the slide-in pu - pretty cool. I just saw this and noticed they up-graded the classic Dano bridge with brass saddles...

...I did the same thing in my '68 Coral (Dano) Deluxe Bass -

 

[PhR75]

Always liked those basses and for the cost of admission - that one looks/sounds pretty decent. I like it being 24 fret also. Aside from the originals being very pricy these days, and also being boat-anchors, they are iconic basses.

The background story about Geezer Butler playing one; Black Sabbath was touring the US and his bass (not sure what brand - he played a lot of different basses over the years) was stollen, in Michigan (Detroit?) I seem to recall. He went to a local music store to buy a replacement and they didn't have a very good selection. They did have a Dan Armstrong Ampeg lucite bass, which he bought. He hated the way it sounded and how heavy it was and replaced it as soon as he could. It's possible these MIC knock-offs are better sounding basses. I'm tempted to buy one... like I need another bass. (but probably won't! )

View attachment 4919055 View attachment 4919056 View attachment 4919057 View attachment 4919059

It was the P-bass that was stolen (or broken, another version I've heard). He played the P-bass on the first three albums and it must have been quite a jump to a short scale bass since they had started to use a C# tuning (1 and a half steps down) on the third album and continued with that until "Technical Ecstasy" where they went to standard tuning for whatever reason.
Geezer is terribly undermixed on "Vol.4" but one can hear the Dan Armstrong basses sound at times on the album.
He then went on to use John Birch basses and the first of those was the white kinda odd looking short scale with the infamous "Enjoy Cocaine" sticker. I believe the Birch basses had the same pickups that were on their guitars too.

One of my fav Sabbath albums bass-wise (or should I say "bassically"...) is "Sabotage". "Hole In The Sky" has a crunching distortion and a wah too (Tycobrahe Parapedal) and the bass sounds like the giant stoneater Alex Harvey sang about. Thrill Of It All" features his 8-string John Birch on its The Who -like last section, there's wah bass again on "Am I Going Insane" and an 8-string wah bass on "The Writ". It's a cracking album songwise too.
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[Nocturnal]

Our local Macys isn’t busy enough for that. I’m amazed it didn’t close by now.

Same for the Macy's stores around here. They are ghost towns.

 

[GBassNorth]

Always liked those basses and for the cost of admission - that one looks/sounds pretty decent. I like it being 24 fret also. Aside from the originals being very pricy these days, and also being boat-anchors, they are iconic basses.

The background story about Geezer Butler playing one; Black Sabbath was touring the US and his bass (not sure what brand - he played a lot of different basses over the years) was stollen, in Michigan (Detroit?) I seem to recall. He went to a local music store to buy a replacement and they didn't have a very good selection. They did have a Dan Armstrong Ampeg lucite bass, which he bought. He hated the way it sounded and how heavy it was and replaced it as soon as he could. It's possible these MIC knock-offs are better sounding basses. I'm tempted to buy one... like I need another bass. (but probably won't! )

View attachment 4919055 View attachment 4919056 View attachment 4919057 View attachment 4919059

I’ve always thought the lucite basses would be the perfect axe for a good old bar fight. You could smash someone in the face with one and still get to enjoy seeing the look on their face (thru the clear bass) at the moment of impact!

 

[JIO]

It was the P-bass that was stolen (or broken, another version I've heard). He played the P-bass on the first three albums and it must have been quite a jump to a short scale bass since they had started to use a C# tuning (1 and a half steps down) on the third album and continued with that until "Technical Ecstasy" where they went to standard tuning for whatever reason.
Geezer is terribly undermixed on "Vol.4" but one can hear the Dan Armstrong basses sound at times on the album.
He then went on to use John Birch basses and the first of those was the white kinda odd looking short scale with the infamous "Enjoy Cocaine" sticker. I believe the Birch basses had the same pickups that were on their guitars too.

One of my fav Sabbath albums bass-wise (or should I say "bassically"...) is "Sabotage". "Hole In The Sky" has a crunching distortion and a wah too (Tycobrahe Parapedal) and the bass sounds like the giant stoneater Alex Harvey sang about. Thrill Of It All" features his 8-string John Birch on its The Who -like last section, there's wah bass again on "Am I Going Insane" and an 8-string wah bass on "The Writ". It's a cracking album songwise too.
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Here's a site that covers the late '90s RI's which also were offered in basswood with exotic veneers and finishes. Dan Armstrong - Man & Guitars