Thunderbird Club

[JIO]

Paul's playing is some of my favorite, maybe because it's the closest to my early musical experience, from childhood.
And he's got some of the most unexpected approaches to playing a line- he almost *leaves the realm of bass playing* with his forays- but an interesting thing happens: what he plays redefines the term "bass line" in real time- as you're listening. You say, "Oh, yeah of course..." The dude invents playing bass again for the song he's playing. He's the only one who does that, seems to me.
I don't do that. But maybe the influence was profound enough to make itself evident somehow?
Only Paul is Paul... But it's fun to consider that a positive influence could express itself in your own art, that some of these characteristics could be shared among us all, here and there.
We've all got our own evidence of shared influence, for sure.

Totally agree - all of us are made up of our influences filtered through our own approach developed over many years. I don't think I ever tried to sound like/play like any one famous bass player, but I have always studied how a bass-line is structured within a song/composition. MacCartney's bass-lines are definitely one's I've studied, as well as James Jamerson, Carol Kaye, Bob Babbitt and more recently Colin Greenwood (Radiohead) and a number of well crafted pop songs of the '60s.

 

[TBird1958]

triple whammy this weekend…..Gardinos with JMB tomorrow night and two on Sat, 2 setter at Pacific Grove and a 3 setter here in Hol at 7 with this guy….
https://youtube.com/shorts/gz7mtMuH27w?si=EdxM7H5hhUVJjDux

learned Steely Dan’s Black Cow for tomorrow…..seems like that song visits all 12 positions on the neck in typical Steely Dan fashion lol…..this one is pretty popular too….

Nice! Like I said "you're a bass playin' machine!"

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Nice! Hopefully you have some good players and singer(s) for the Steely Dan stuff!

thx Irv! these guys….pretty audacious without keys imho….

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Unless you're carrying a huge goat. (A pic a friend living abroad took recently.)

I don't have plans to try that on a bicycle. If I had a motorcycle, maybe. But maybe not.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

My source says no basses at all for the foreseeable future.

No basses at all?!?!?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Love the finish on those.

It's quite pretty - even if they did call it a "cherry sunburst". Flash photography burst is about it.

 

[Engle]

thx Irv! these guys….pretty audacious without keys imho….

Agreed, the thing about covering Steely Dan is getting it to sound good is more difficult than you think.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Way over priced, I took a moment and looked at the others listed on Reverb, they were all less than this one. Honestly, they are good basses, just not that kind of $$$ good.

Aim high, then negotiate the final shot ; that's how people are taught to do. Personally, I'd much rather just offer a reasonable and fair price. But some wheeler-dealers will refuse to pay asking price even if it's a steal.

 

[Engle]

Macca always sounds like Macca whether he's playing a Hofner, a Ric, or a Fender. He would probably sound like Macca playing a Thunderbird. Even if you play a Hofner, good luck sounding like Macca. It's one of those things I never worry about when playing Beatles songs. Nobody sounds like him, even if you play with a pick up by the fretboard.

I just try to cop some of the signature bass licks - sort of.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

You have taken up the Duke0Frock deal finding habit. Well done!

Now he just needs a fan throwing free basses at hom!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Using everything up is a goal. Only issue is making sure it all lasts the same length of time. I seem to be failing with the timing part of it. It's a first world problem, though. With the steriod injection, it feels great. For how long? Who knows, but I'm planning on enjoying it while it lasts. Then however many rounds of that it will take, and then comes a metal knee. It is pretty routine these days, so if you are going to have some kind of physical problem, it's not a bad one to have. It was unpleasant for a few months until my wife got me to go see the doc. I figured they would want to trim the meniscus again, and I would just live with it for a month or two while waiting for that to happen. What did happen is a really pleasant surprise.

Titanium? Unobtanium? Metallicum?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I’m in the Macrae clan, Scottish highlands in the Kintail area. According to wiki…

“Clan Macrae of Kintail were famous throughout Scotland for cooking high quality moonshine, or "peatreek" in Scots, from illegal pot stills”

In hindsight, I guess it made perfect sense that I lived in Kentucky for nearly 40 years.

"Pot still" might have different connotations now...

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Jury duty day…in jury room at 8:30, plea deal at 9:00. Spent 3x more time traveling to the court and back.

The only time I got called for potential duty, I think 20% max of the pool got selected.Well over half the trials on the list were postponed or settled with a deal.

 

[JIO]

"Not a Thunderbird Thursday"

... not a Fender either, but a J-clone I recently created inspired by George's generous gifting of a fine ebony-boarded J neck to me at our last GTG. It instigated me to go through my various parts and assemble what turned out to be a great playing/sounding bass. Only thing I had to add/buy was a body, and pg. I found an okoume (pronounced oh-kuh-mey) body for very cheap ($45) which is a mahogany-like hard-wood and the pg cost $12.25. Oh, I bought D'Addario strings ($19) also and cut a brass nut from material I had. I had everything else. (Fender Super 55 split-coil pu's, Schaller 3D roller-saddle bridge, Gotoh vintage-style tuners, Dunlop strap-loks, and Audere 9v pre harness/plate. Really surprised by how great it ended up sounding - really impressed. I did the finish which was totally unplanned/free-form but I dig the way it turned out. It sounds the way it looks if that makes sense which also wasn't planned. I'll now add okoume to my list of favorite tone-woods. FTR, although Fender didn't commonly produce bass bodies using mahogany, there are rare factory examples of early '60s P basses made of mahogany. Possible special orders.

 

[godofthunder59]

No basses at all?!?!?

They don't have enough production space to keep up with the demand for guitars. All thier efforts are being focused on core business, that means guitars.

 

[RedVee]

I’m in the Macrae clan, Scottish highlands in the Kintail area. According to wiki…

“Clan Macrae of Kintail were famous throughout Scotland for cooking high quality moonshine, or "peatreek" in Scots, from illegal pot stills”

In hindsight, I guess it made perfect sense that I lived in Kentucky for nearly 40 years.

You should like Nascar!

 

[JIO]

Unless you're carrying a huge goat. (A pic a friend living abroad took recently.)

Yowsa! Talk about exceeding factory weight load requirements!

 

[Roger W]

Nah.., not likely. And I never bought Pete Townshend's adolescent proclamation.

I wasn’t necessarily hoping to die before I got old, I just thought it would happen. And it did not.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

coolest customer……

 

[Stealth57]

coolest customer……
View attachment 5238755

Jeff is the cool kid on the block. Just on the wrong block