Thunderbird Club

[bobyoung53]

That´s my table

Sometimes I set up a temporary, collapsible work table; in the morning I used it, in the afternoon, when I decided to change the strings, I had already taken it apart; sorry for bad pic:

When I was a teenager I hitched Rt 66 from Chicago to.......have no idea where I got off.

 

[bobyoung53]

I am at 2.5 years of self imposed sobriety. I’ve tried every NA beer available to me. My observations:

the IPA and amber lager from Athletic Brewing are the best I’ve found. Their hazy IPA is ok

Lagunitas IPA is decent

Sam Adams hazy IPA is ok

Guiness’s NA stoudt is….ok….kind of

the rest that I have tried I cant recommend

Self imposed is torture, it works a lot easier with the club.

 

[PhR75]

Just saw a
Squier Paranormal Rascal Bass HH

Shouldn't have looked...
Even the current thing about shortscales being in vogue didn't kill my gas. Even this font enlargened because of the G.A.S.

 

[PhR75]

Looks like this:
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[bobyoung53]

I used to alternate with a pick and fingers back in the the day depending on the song. A I was was actually “ok.” When I stopped playing bass and dabbled with acoustic guitar over the years (life happened) I only used fingers. When I started playing bass again seriously, now going on ten years or so, my pick skills (to the extent I had any) were gone. I’m getting serious again and really need to add pick skills to my playing.

I'm a guitar player also and started playing bass with a pick when I was a kid and then ditched it years ago, I realized that was a stupid mistake also years ago but was too lazy to try to get decent with a pick again. Covid hit and I decided to start using them again. I'll probably never be as good with a pick as I am with my fingers (50+ years) but in the past few years I've gotten pretty good with picks, with me it was just getting the gumption to start again and to go through the painful period where I sounded like a beginner again. With certain basses I like fingers, others, I like a pick but will use either on any bass depending on what sound I'm after. Watching Tony Franklin play with a pick was a very good motivator for me also. He primarily plays fretless but he's a monster on whatever he plays and he's one of the only real rock bassists I know who plays fretless. He's by far my favorite fretless player......because I'm a rockah!

Funky!

 

[JIO]

Matons, yes. But not the vintage ones, few and far between. The “Jumbuck” JB IV are around both 70s and reissue. That would likely have been my target but then I was introduced to Thunderbirds.
The JB IV is a PJ style with:

The original DiMarzio passive pickups (P-bass neck pickup and J-bass bridge pickup) are wonderfully powerful yet warm, and allow a very useful blending of Precision and Jazz bass tones. Factory-fitted brass nut and Badass bridge on a Rock Maple/Black African Ebony neck-through construction with an Australian Sassafrass body give great sustain and tone.
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BTW I don’t think it is neck through but set neck. Some of the originals had a mic style output on them. For studio work I assume.

I’d still have one if I tripped over one at the right price.

The 2010 reissue has some changes.

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Sorry for the Maton mis-spelling - have you ever played one of them? Interesting about them being made of Sassafras, which from the sound of it is a good tone-wood but heavy. (maybe like maple?) Also, their describing a brass nut as a "tone-sink" (never heard that term) is curious. I have brass & brass/ebony composite nuts on a few basses and they all sound great. Like all the various nut materials - it depends on the specific bass how it will sound. Years ago I put a brass nut on a bass and it didn't sound better, so I replaced it with bone and it sounded right. It's like 'high-mass' bridges... on one bass they are an improvement and on another bass a simple bent-plate bridge sounds best. Bottom line is there's no one across-the-board part/aspect of any bass that will always make it sound better.

 

[JIO]

Looks like this:
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That looks kind'a cool. Is it medium-scale or short-scale? The Original short-lived Fender Rascal had 3 lipstick pu's.

 

[bobyoung53]

I loved Heineken when I drank way back when. It had a very unique taste that just clicked with me. I'm sure there are "better" brands that I may like better now that there are more brands than stars in the sky. I don't think I ever had a Guinness, but always wanted to try one. They just look good!

Way back when I was pounding them down I used to really like Bass Ale, Guinness was good too although it was a little too dark for me, all foreign beers were better than American beers. But after visiting Germany in 1981 I realized that all or at least most mass produced American beers at that time tasted like liquid human waste product.

 

[Gaolee]

Luan mahogany was indigenous to Japan and the (Far) East so was the wood of choice in the '60s for all wooden instruments, including drums and guitars. My Teiscobird Teisco Del Rey body from '65 is luan mahogany and it rocks. Luan was considered 'cheap' then but tone-wood is tone-wood and the older it is the better it sounds. (not myth-fact) Your drums stay in tune and project because the once living organic wood has stabilized and dried-out over 50+ yrs.

Absolutely. Wood crystalizes over time and gets harder and harder as well as drying out. It's why older instruments are much more stable. It's also why driving a nail into the framing of my 1906 house is an exercise in futility. The wood is more brittle as well, not that it matters all that much for musical instruments. On the flip side, there was a test at one point that had concert violinists doing blind tests of real Stradivarius and new carbon fiber violins. They unfailingly chose the new carbon fiber violins.

 

[bobyoung53]

Yeah, Bobby Vega is another one who inspired to pick the pick back up again, he's REALLY good. I think he's the king of the pick players.

 

[JIO]

Yeah, Bobby Vega is another one who inspired to pick the pick back up again, he's REALLY good.

...and a cool dude!

 

[Ringhammer]

I’m using a pick more and more when I practice alone with no amp, however I realize, for me at least, if I want to use a pick with the band, I HAVE to be good at palm muting.

 

[JIO]

Absolutely. Wood crystalizes over time and gets harder and harder as well as drying out. It's why older instruments are much more stable. It's also why driving a nail into the framing of my 1906 house is an exercise in futility. The wood is more brittle as well, not that it matters all that much for musical instruments. On the flip side, there was a test at one point that had concert violinists doing blind tests of real Stradivarius and new carbon fiber violins. They unfailingly chose the new carbon fiber violins.

I mean, that's actually good news that new material can sound so good because there are only so many Stradivarius violins out there.

 

[Gaolee]

I have been learning to play with a pick lately. Sometimes, the pick sound is what you want. Who knows, maybe learning to slap will happen someday.

 

[JIO]

I’m using a pick more and more when I practice alone with no amp, however I realize, for me at least, if I want to use a pick with the band, I HAVE to be good at palm muting.

Palm muting is the real deal. It's pretty easy to do and better than a full-time mute because you can vary your attack/tone within the same song. Bobby Vega uses it but also has many sophisticated right-hand techniques that create his signature sound.

 

[dagrev]

Way back when I was pounding them down I used to really like Bass Ale, Guinness was good too although it was a little too dark for me, all foreign beers were better than American beers. But after visiting Germany in 1981 I realized that all or at least most mass produced American beers at that time tasted like liquid human waste product.

Not helping me refrain from beer.....

 

[dagrev]

Absolutely. Wood crystalizes over time and gets harder and harder as well as drying out....It's also why driving a nail into the framing of my 1906 house is an exercise in futility. The wood is more brittle as well....

Word.

A man who knows his stuff and why!

I just thought they made better wood back then!

 

[dagrev]

...and a cool dude!

View attachment 5035083

Two of 'em!

 

[Syd Rayne]

When I was a teenager I hitched Rt 66 from Chicago to.......have no idea where I got off.

Just where do you get off telling us that?



That's a l-o-n-g highway. What did you do when you got out? Get another ride later on...?

 

[bobyoung53]

The 1st time I tasted gin I thought it tasted like perfume... not that I ever drank perfume!

The first time I got hammered it was on gin, hated the taste so mixed it with root beer, not recommended, I still don't much like root beer, never drank gin again, tasted like ground up pine needles.