Thunderbird Club

[ubernator]

I want a TV silver... I want a TV silver. Would be my poor mans shavo sig (which I don't think is ever coming out anyway). For now the goth is what I use and my olp stingray is the backup. I would rather have TV silver as #1, goth as backup, and put the olp back in standard and install the basslines preamp I have been holding off on because the MEC pickup and 250k VT pots happen to be a similar output to the bird.

This is for the band I pretend to be shavo in, the Thunderbird slung low is ideal for that. I would like to have the stingray for more slappy stuff in standard rather than being dedicated to a soad tribute in drop c

 

[Dadagoboi]

Bogus.... They are all 500k stock...

...most Asian basses are.

 

[veebass]

You guys all hung out with the cool kids.

No, the cool kids didn't like the bands I liked and used rubbish them and me. They liked Santana, Buddy Miles, Osibisa, Yes etc.
I was the weird guy who liked that simple music. Funny thing was none of the cool kids could play a note.

 

[bylar13]

So, I saw a nice Pelham blue, TB on Reverb and was wondering (since I am new to Thunderbirds) if the NR feels significantly different than the reverse body stylefrom a playing perspective? There is nothing wrong with one of each....right?

 

[TBird1958]

So, I saw a nice Pelham blue, TB on Reverb and was wondering (since I am new to Thunderbirds) if the NR feels significantly different than the reverse body stylefrom a playing perspective? There is nothing wrong with one of each....right?

There's everything right about having one of each - you only live once!

 

[kat888]

There is nothing wrong with one of each....right?

The other week the general population were telling a starter that the only decision she really needed to make was whether she was going to play a P or a J.

There are no such binary decisions in Thunderbird world.

I would suggest you need at least one of each ... and an EB3 ('SG') or LP or whatever.

 

[Gaolee]

So, I saw a nice Pelham blue, TB on Reverb and was wondering (since I am new to Thunderbirds) if the NR feels significantly different than the reverse body stylefrom a playing perspective? There is nothing wrong with one of each....right?

It is a virtue. Not something wrong.

 

[Gaolee]

No, the cool kids didn't like the bands I liked and used rubbish them and me. They liked Santana, Buddy Miles, Osibisa, Yes etc.
I was the weird guy who liked that simple music. Funny thing was none of the cool kids could play a note.

I went down all kinds of musical rabbit holes, from avaunt garde jazz to reggae to obscure acoustic blues to you name it. I could usually clear a room pretty fast with my record collection, especially cranked up. I don't do mainstream very well.

 

[Larry V]

So, I saw a nice Pelham blue, TB on Reverb and was wondering (since I am new to Thunderbirds) if the NR feels significantly different than the reverse body stylefrom a playing perspective? There is nothing wrong with one of each....right?

$1,200 shipped without a case and it looks like it was dropped. It is nice that it was chromed out but his description says it has a tailpiece and from the pictures it's obvious it doesn't.

I only have one NR and it's an Epiphone but I do like the way it plays and the way it feels. It is heavier than the standard reverse though.

 

[Count Bassie]

I went down all kinds of musical rabbit holes, from avaunt garde jazz to reggae to obscure acoustic blues to you name it. I could usually clear a room pretty fast with my record collection, especially cranked up. I don't do mainstream very well.

Finding rock n roll was stumbling upon fire from the gods... But eventually I found it was also a fun, fast vehicle to more involved endeavors. The music I moved on to I did so for more of the same mojo I'd gotten from rock n roll- I even lent an interested ear to disco, and of course her funky, soulful r&b cousins... then on to Return to Forever, Stanley, Mahavishnu and Zappa.

Then I heard Mötorhead. I love the core of music, and a healthy spectrum of its manifestation: the simple urgency of The Ramones, to the cerebral hemorrhaging of King Crimson, to the instrument-like voice of (especially early) Alpha Blondy.

And, you can do it all on an Epiphone Nikki Sixx Blackbird!

 

[Klondike]

Santa came this morning dressed as a FedEx guy! Damn this this has some awesome tones, spent practically the whole day in my music room playing around

 

[Gaolee]

Being a kid in Ohio in the '70s meant being subjected to a whole lot of arena rock and lots more Fleetwood Mac. There was an undercurrent of country music and the occasional southern rock. And endless Eagles on the radio. I hate having to listen to the Eagles now. And, I hated it then. I was listening to all kinds of jazz, from Ellington to Ahmad Jamaal. I hadn't discovered Charles Mingus or Thelonious Monk yet, but that was coming. When I got to college, I was in the radio station on air when the news of Sid Vicious' death came over the ticker- they had a ticker. That led to listening to all things punk for a while. The harder, faster, and more anti-social the better. And I went off on a couple funk and reggae directions while that was all going on. And obscure blues from the 1950s. Which then led back to jazz. If you really want to clear a room, crank up the World Saxophone Quartet or the Art Ensemble of Chicago. That will do it. Except I'll stick around and enjoy it even if I can only figure out what's going on a little off and on. There's no way I could ever tell you what the top 40 was, what a no. 1 hit was at any time, or anything like that. My parents restricted television when I was a kid, and so I got used to not caring about pop culture very much. My wife and I did the same thing. Our son is the same about pop culture as I am. So, now I play in a rock and roll cover band playing "iconic" songs I may or may not have ever heard before. Another band is nominally a rockabilly band, but we take songs and twist them around and turn them inside out to the point I'm not sure what we are exactly. We don't care. Then there's a trio with no drummer. I probably wouldn't have agreed to play in that one, except the singer has an amazing voice and I had to do it. The last one is playing drums in a band that started out as a more or less jam band and has progressed into a band that plays originals most of the time. None of it is exactly mainstream, not that I would know what that means anyway. The only one a 'Bird comes out for is the cover band. Two use the upright and the last one I play drums.

I couldn't tell very much about who was popular when, what songs anybody wrote, who sounded like what, or how old any specific song is. Pretty bad, eh?

 

[Count Bassie]

I couldn't tell very much about who was popular when, what songs anybody wrote, who sounded like what, or how old any specific song is. Pretty bad, eh?

No, pretty good. Lucky, really.

 

[BadBassDrummer]

So, I saw a nice Pelham blue, TB on Reverb and was wondering (since I am new to Thunderbirds) if the NR feels significantly different than the reverse body stylefrom a playing perspective? There is nothing wrong with one of each....right?

I suppose it depends on where the strap buttons are located but I don't notice any real difference except when playing seated (which I rarely do) and even then it isn't a big deal

 

[Stevis]

. . . The last one is playing drums in a band that started out as a more or less jam band and has progressed into a band that plays originals most of the time. None of it is exactly mainstream, not that I would know what that means anyway. The only one a 'Bird comes out for is the cover band. Two use the upright and the last one I play drums.

That sounds like a fun mix. Do you find that your drumming informs your bass playing or vice versa? You get to experience both parts of the rhythm section. I would love to have played the drums but the coordination required is/was beyond me.

 

[Gaolee]

That sounds like a fun mix. Do you find that your drumming informs your bass playing or vice versa? You get to experience both parts of the rhythm section. I would love to have played the drums but the coordination required is/was beyond me.

I was surprised that I could do it, because I'm not the world's best coordinated person. Playing both helps both. I probably play bass like a drummer and drums like a bass player.

 

[Haji]

I grew up in the 80's. In the 70s I was hearing Motown from one sister, baroque period classical from the other, and rock from my brother. When the 80s hit I found all that in a little pop (INXS, DuranDuran, U2 and the Fixx) and a lot of rock and metal. Around 86 I quit trombone, as there were no gigs for it anyway, and started playing bass. I loved, and still love, pointy basses like the Explorers and anything that said BC Rich on the headstock. After a dozen years of it, I was sick of guitar players and singers and gave it up, selling off all my gear. Fast forward to 2014, and I decided I needed a more productive use for my spare time, and got a prawn shop bass and crappy little amp. Later that year I sold off the Ibanez Gio and Peavey practice amp and replaced it with a Sterling SUB SB4 and my brother sent me a Carvin Pro Bass 100-10. It was at this point I was hooked on getting a TBird because the shape was so dang rock. I got a used Goth and used that to audition for my band, through a Hartke 410 and Ampeg SVT-3 Pro. They said I got the gig partly because they could actually hear me. I've since added a second Hartke cab and another TB IV, as well as an 88 Charvel 4B to scratch the pointy itch. I still want an Ironbird bad, and a vintage Aria Explorer....and one of the new Epi Vintage Pros when they hit the market.

 

[Mike A]

I'm an 80's kid too, but really fell in love with music in the late 80's/early 90's. First album (on cassette) was Metallica's black album, but grew up on bluegrass and 80's country & rock. Grunge hit and I was swept away on the sappy, angsty power chord rock that grew into much more. I never got into the pointy geetars, but those smooth sweeping curves of a Thunderbird really grab me, and I love that they're just different enough to get attention, although I'm not a spotlight hog at all. I like to be the underdog. The lesser-known. The support guy. The bass player.

 

[hillerup]

I want a TV silver... I want a TV silver. Would be my poor mans shavo sig (which I don't think is ever coming out anyway). For now the goth is what I use and my olp stingray is the backup. I would rather have TV silver as #1, goth as backup, and put the olp back in standard and install the basslines preamp I have been holding off on because the MEC pickup and 250k VT pots happen to be a similar output to the bird.

This is for the band I pretend to be shavo in, the Thunderbird slung low is ideal for that. I would like to have the stingray for more slappy stuff in standard rather than being dedicated to a soad tribute in drop c

So, how are those OLP Stingrays compared to the real stuff and a Thunderbird?

 

[Drestakil]

Hi all. "New to me" T-Bird owner here. It is a 2006, I picked up on this forum. It has a Babicz bridge and Lollar pick ups. I love the sound and the feel of the neck.

My question is on the strap button placement. I have been playing a 1973 Jazz bass for the last 22 years and the T-bird neck feels a bit longer. I was wondering if I moved the strap button from the neck heel to the top of the body (strap locks of course) say where a vintage t-bird would have one, would the bass hang differently and thus sit further back? Might this make the feel closer to a jazz bass dimension?

I know this post was from a few days back but I wasn't comfortable posting this response then. I wanted to make sure my idea would work first and even now, my only claim is that it works for me. In the ten's of thousand's of posts that have been made on here, this idea has probably been posted before.

This is not the best picture but I didn't want to bother taking another one. The strap really doesn't sit on my neck. I just didn't bother to adjust it first.

It took about 30 minutes of playing to get used to it and maybe another 30 minutes to know I wouldn't be going back. Rigging the strap like this not only totally gets rid of neck dive (I know, it's just a myth) it brings the headstock a few inches closer to my body for an easier reach to the first position. It also seems to keep my right wrist straighter and more relaxed since I'm not fighting the mythical neck dive. I am going to redo my strap (again) and add a Magpul quick release for a straplock.