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Thunderbird Club

#259,621
Stealth57 said:
I did a sound test on the Probuckers vs SD Custom Shop. First note, though more details below, is the neck SD is really hot. In practice, it wants to have a lower setting on the bass volume and make the adjustment at the amp. I'd love your thoughts.



This is a demonstration of two different sets of pickups in a 2017 Epiphone Thunderbird Vintage Pro. The stock pickups are Probucker 760 and the replacement pickups are Seymour Duncan Custom Shop. All settings were the same and using stainless round wound strings. Recordings were done as a direct input into an audio interface and Waveform 11.

The DC resistance for the Probuckers is 8.4Kohms (neck)/9.4Kohms (bridge).

The DC resistance for the SDs is 7.98Kohms (neck)/9.75Kohms (bridge).

The output for the SD neck pickup appears much hotter than the Probuckers even with slightly lower resistance. Since all recordings were done with volume at 10, the SD neck pickup would do better with a lower volume setting on the bass and an increase in volume at the amp.
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Cool. I hear what you are saying. I'll go with the others and suggest lowering the neck pickup (at least).

GonePlaid said:
FWIW, I put a coupla rolled up towels between the lower bout and the case and another towel over the pickups.
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Is it just me? But I'd expect a coffin case to come with a shroud…
 
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#259,623
Back from our show - went well, good levels thanks to a sound person who knew what he was doing and 45mins on the dot. Being the 1st band of 3, I try to keep us 'on time' to be fair to the other bands. Would have stayed but it was hot and it's a small joint. (stage was tiny) That and I loaded all my gear in my Element so it didn't clutter the little space there was in the bar and I didn't want to risk a potential break-in. (all too common lately) Apparently we played an evening with one of the other bands years ago... no memory of it - the fog of war.

upload_2023-8-26_22-59-50.jpeg
 
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#259,624
GonePlaid said:
No. I only played bass for the trio gigs at the Officer's Club. In the band, I was on tenor sax.

EDIT: Technically, the tenor sax was on me.
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My high-school combo played the officers club at SAC Headquarters in Omaha Nebraska a few times. We had a booking agent that got us gigs. Seems like a lifetime ago. (actually.., it is!) :)
 
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#259,626
GBassNorth said:
The Costco nearest us in Simi Valley has 10 lanes for gas and at any time there are as many as 10 to 15 cars backed up in each lane. I don't even bother getting gas there because of the insanity, but I hear it's cheaper than name brand gas.
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We are pretty much in the middle between two Costcos at 5 miles to each. Gas lines start about 10 minutes before they open.
 
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#259,627
BklynKen said:
On the S800, crank the Volume knob and use Master for volume and you'll get great tone. Sorry if you already know this.
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Miles_ONeal said:
Thanks. I did figure that out, but always check on stuff like this. I liked the S800+ fine, but when I started doing that, I loved it.
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I ran my Musicman HD150 hybrid amp that way, sounded great also. I don't know much about amps, but I'm guessing in the case of the Musicman its maxing the power tubes for nice saturation while lightly using the preamp to keep the volume level within sane territory. Does make a noticeable difference in sound.

Miles_ONeal said:
Sweetwater has a list out of their picks for best bass guitars of the summer. The only Gibson was the Rex Brown Thunderbird, joined by one Epi entry - the Newport. Criteria?
"How did we select the basses for this list? We used a combination of sales data, customer feedback, and the expert opinions of Sweetwater's staff. We also picked bass guitars that cover a range of styles and sounds."
Best Bass Guitars | Summer 2023 - inSync
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:DLOL - Listening in on the Sweetwater criteria discussion…
(Group leader to sales team) We need to create a list of best bass picks. Our first criteria is sales data - so what isn't selling?
(Sales staff) Rex Brown birds.
(Group leader) How's the customer feedback on those?
(Sales staff) We don't have any feedback, we haven't sold any Browns yet.
(Group leader) Perfect, no bad feedback!
(Group leader) So sales staff, what's your expert opinion, should we add the Rex Brown to the top pic list?
(Sales staff) Sure
(Group leader) The Rex is pretty expensive, do we have a cheap bass we can offer up as well?
(Sales staff) Well, the Eppi Newport is about as inexpensive as it gets
(Group leader) Perfect! We'll go with that. We're done, help yourself to some candy.
 
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#259,629
Gonna put the 'Bird through this little booger tonight...
BklynKen said:
And that's why I always gravitate towards GK. With the exception of the Contour feature, I find it really easy to at least get a really good tone.
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Gonna try putting the CP 'Bird through my li'l 200RB tonight at The Earthmen (cover band) rehearsal. I dig that little booger, wish it had more headroom and ran at 4 ohms. It may just kill through the Hartke 4.5 XL (I found for $90) though.
GK won't reply to my emails about it, which was unexpected, and a little disappointed...
And I can't post pix from my phone lately, gdmmt...
 
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#259,632
GBassNorth said:
Mine was a Fender Super Reverb black face reissue from 2002 in mint condition with the reverb/tremolo foot pedal. IIRC GC ended up listing it for $1200 and it sold in a day or two. That means they would have given me about $700 for it, which I figured was a fair deal considering I only paid $600 for it.

Selling big amps and cabs gets kind of problematic. It's a PITA to list something big and heavy like this when it comes to shipping. And local only sales mean putting up with some pretty seedy Craigslist wankers that want to come over and look at it and try it out first, when potentially they're just there to case out the house for things worth stealing at a later date. And meeting at a neutral location like a parking lot is difficult because they'll want to plug it in and make sure everything works. So on stuff like this it really comes down to selling to someone local you know and trust or giving it to Guitar Center for 60 cents on the dollar. Which is what I'll be doing again tomorrow as I sell off more of my guitar stuff I don't use anymore (400 watt Fender Acoustasonic guitar and vocal amp).
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I was pretty lucky when I sold off my last 5 electric guitars 3 years ago. 1 of them was a 1985 MIJ Ibanez artist series AR350. The rest were a Seymour Duncan branded "51 Tele" made by ESP and some more recent Ibanezes. I listed the AR350 on Reverb, was contacted by a serious Ibanez enthusiast, and sold the whole lot to him. He came by the house, didn't want to come in, asked me what else I had, and loaded all 5 into his trunk and drove away leaving me with cash to buy basses.
 
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#259,636
Count Bassie said:
Gonna put the 'Bird through this little booger tonight...

Gonna try putting the CP 'Bird through my li'l 200RB tonight at The Earthmen (cover band) rehearsal. I dig that little booger, wish it had more headroom and ran at 4 ohms. It may just kill through the Hartke 4.5 XL (I found for $90) though.
GK won't reply to my emails about it, which was unexpected, and a little disappointed...
And I can't post pix from my phone lately, gdmmt...
Click to expand...
Oops, tomorrow night...
 
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#259,637
Roger W said:
I was pretty lucky when I sold off my last 5 electric guitars 3 years ago. 1 of them was a 1985 MIJ Ibanez artist series AR350. The rest were a Seymour Duncan branded "51 Tele" made by ESP and some more recent Ibanezes. I listed the AR350 on Reverb, was contacted by a serious Ibanez enthusiast, and sold the whole lot to him. He came by the house, didn't want to come in, asked me what else I had, and loaded all 5 into his trunk and drove away leaving me with cash to buy basses.
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That's like the buyer from heaven. No shipping, no dickering, no multiple buyers, no credit cards, no checks, no PayPal, just cash in hand. :thumbsup:
 
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#259,638
Miles_ONeal said:
I'm playing practically naked tomorrow. Just the CP, the Super 800+, and one Rumble 100. No tuner, no EQ pedal, no nothing. I know, I know, but I haven't played out sans board in a long time. Everyone should play in the raw now and then. It's how I've been practicing since the GTG; it really helps focus on technique.
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Do you usually run the EQ pedal? Always on?
 
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#259,639
GBassNorth said:
I ran my Musicman HD150 hybrid amp that way, sounded great also. I don't know much about amps, but I'm guessing in the case of the Musicman its maxing the power tubes for nice saturation while lightly using the preamp to keep the volume level within sane territory. Does make a noticeable difference in sound.
Click to expand...
In the case of GK, the Volume knob is gain, where Master is actually volume. You can favor one or the other, depending on what you're going for.
 
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