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Thunderbird Club

#277,902
Ringhammer said:
From this:

View attachment 5340238 View attachment 5340239

To this:

View attachment 5340240
View attachment 5340241

I just love the nickel pickup covers, rings and hardware instead of the black on black look. And I prefer the black pickguards (thanks @Engle ) This is the ‘99 I just got a few weeks ago.

It’s twin, a black ‘97 with the chrome Gibson re-issues, chrome hardware, and PG and TRC from Engle with shiny silver logos, is getting a lot of playing time, in Eb tuning.

This new one is for E standard.

First impressions on the Dunable D-birds is good, and although I won’t know for sure until I play it in the studio at rehearsal. I think they are going to be what I was hoping for. They seem like a bit less dark version of the TB+. Same character, but different. 8k neck and 11.1k bridge. Ceramic magnets. Different than my other ‘birds vintage style pickups with A5 mags in the various flavors.

This one’s going to the shop first, I can’t quite get it set up to my liking. It had high action when I got it and I did a quickie adjustment on the stock bridge to lower as much as possible, but it was still high. But it was playable without a lot of fret buzz. Now that I have swapped the bridge with the Babicz, I have the intonation set but the E saddle is almost max, still with high action, but slightly less than before, and the E is buzzy. Neck relief is typical, maybe a pulling a touch more forward than necessary. I’d like to avoid putting a spacer under the bridge, and I’m thinking it’s in need of at minimum, a fret leveling. I can get lower action on the other strings without buzz. So I’ll have that done first. All of the pre-‘01’s I have, have had less than flat neck/frets. Hoping to avoid an refret, so hopefully a good leveling and pro setup will get it. Also gonna get a brass nut on this one.
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Very nice! I love the dark fretboard. Yeah, probably start with a level and crown.
 
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#277,903
ectoflanger said:
Having note that there are Firebird fans in the club, I wanted to share one of the unlikeliest Firebird players- a long time fan, I had known him to play SG's in the early-70's and Strats upgraded with humbuckers in the mid-70's and custom Strat shaped Charvels with humbuckers in the bridge position- but never knew of a Firebird until I saw this video-

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These Bruford videos are pretty cool with his commentary in the notes. I really liked that first album, but I didn’t get to see them tour it. I saw U.K. with Tull after Bruford and Holdsworth left and was very disappointed. Not a great show. Two bands struggling for relevancy in the New Wave era. They just sounded tired.
 
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#277,905
JIO said:
When I did cross-country snow/blizzard drives many years ago, a jackknifed semi-rig was a common sight. There was also those uphill gravel-lined run-offs after a long decent for semi-rigs that lost their brakes. I was always respectful of semi-drivers and did the 'flashing lights' thing when passing to show I was clear. I haven't done a night-time cross country drive for many years now, but I used to do them a lot when I was younger. It was another world and it always felt that I was traveling though space - watching tail-lights up the road and guessing what type of car/truck it was to stay alert.
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We had one jackknife up at the mountain a few weeks ago. The community is accessed by one east/west two lane county road. It really isn’t suitable for big rigs. There are some pretty sharp curves and steep inclines. It can be treacherous in snow and ice. An unfortunate trucker, who had never been on that road before, was trying to take a shortcut to the coast and got in way over their head. Had traffic messed up for hours.
 
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#277,906
JIO said:
When I did cross-country snow/blizzard drives many years ago, a jackknifed semi-rig was a common sight. There was also those uphill gravel-lined run-offs after a long decent for semi-rigs that lost their brakes. I was always respectful of semi-drivers and did the 'flashing lights' thing when passing to show I was clear. I haven't done a night-time cross country drive for many years now, but I used to do them a lot when I was younger. It was another world and it always felt that I was traveling though space - watching tail-lights up the road and guessing what type of car/truck it was to stay alert.
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The Hollister to Seattle run with a 2:00AM departure was fun! :woot:
 
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#277,908
MCF said:
Try tackling I Want You from Abbey Road. That one is pretty tough.
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Hah, that might be the only Beatles song I have tried to learn. I got halfway through, then, um, wait, look something shiny. I need to get back on that. That song is a great example of what I like in music that I like the most, it’s very heavy (it even says so in the lyrics), and while I am definitely a heavy music fan, it’s that heavy plodding dark feeling song that is what I like in songs. Heavy rock bands obviously do it, but some other bands, to my ears, have a lot of songs with that heavy dark feeling vibe. Throwing Muses, PJ Harvey, Bauhaus/Peter Murphy, some older REM, Mazzy Star(! super dark and atmospheric) are a few that come to mind.
Look up LA Witch, also great band, Mazzy Star sounding vox with a lot of Fender Super Reverb guitar tone. Surf tones but not surf music.
 
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#277,910
MCF said:
Yeah. I do my best to try and keep who has what straight. But at my age, the memory isn’t what it used to be.
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And neither is the memory.;)

I first saw an EpiBird 5er in ~'88, didn't get "mine" 'til around 2008. I don't regret buying and trying it 'cos if I hadn't, I always woulda wondered. I didn't hate it; played it on a few gigs, and effed with it at home-a lot-but finally figgered I'd hafta to put a lotta $$$ I didn't have into it and still not necessarily get what I wanted(which was the same tone as the 67, but with a B string). [Mahogany forever.] I had no complaints from the buyer-somewhere in AZ-I think.
 
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#277,911
MCF said:
You’ll get there with Help. Most of the lines up to Revolver are fun, but not so difficult that you can’t pick them up pretty quickly. I think maybe because he had to perform them live while singing and he was still developing as a player. Try tackling I Want You from Abbey Road. That one is pretty tough.
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Thanks. I know there are some I’m never going to duplicate. I was just happy to realize there are some I can!
 
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#277,912
Someone mentioned Paraguay and Uruguay-

Had a girlfriend from Paraguay while in grad school- ‘nuff said-

Regarding Uruguay-

A cool pair of songs the, first a tribute to the Uruguayan tragedy when a twin turboprop Fairchild carrying their rugby crashed in the Andes in the 70’s that segues into the second about a European dissident with a radio- has my favorite bass comp of a vocal line-

I used to play both on bass but could never find a full band who wanted to cover them-

 
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#277,914
Miles_ONeal said:
Thanks. I know there are some I’m never going to duplicate. I was just happy to realize there are some I can!
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I guess(OK, know)I'm the oddball here: I've never had any real problem with any of Sir Paul's bass lines on any songs we tried to do. I'm guessing it has at least something to do with some of the sax lines I played in big band arrangements and the way I learned bass, applying my piano background.
We occasionally do "Birthday" if we get a request to help celebrate someone's party. I went back and listened to it closely and discovered Paul "answers" himself on the bass line each time. I only have a slight problem with that 'cos I gots to be singing it at the same time and we only do it maybe 6x a year.
 
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#277,916
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#277,917
This amp is completely amazing, best 350.00 EVER! Played it loud with the band last night, so impressive, lots of good grind and warmth yet very articulate through the SWR. The bird sounds fantastic too, the SD Custom Shop pickups are well worth considering! Huge props to @ godofthunder59 Scott Dasson for the tip!

XG4W4NJ.jpg
 
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#277,918
TBird1958 said:
This amp is completely amazing, best 350.00 EVER! Played it loud with the band last night, so impressive, lots of good grind and warmth yet very articulate through the SWR. The bird sounds fantastic too, the SD Custom Shop pickups are well worth considering! Huge props to @ godofthunder59 Scott Dasson for the tip!

XG4W4NJ.jpg
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That amp is like a secret weapon.
So looking forward to trying it out.
 
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#277,920
Wow, that's a long one!

I like good weight distribution and chose two straps based on width first, then quality, and finally color- the first of which would meet your criteria with an available strap extension-

One strap I got for an Explorer being refinished in Alpine White and will have gold hardware and for an Aria Pro II Explorer in classic white- probably would look pretty good with the black one sporting gold hardware-

The Richter Spring Break III Nappa in yellow to match those instruments- 4.33 inches wide, available in five other colors to match your bass-
  • Length adjustable: 38.6 - 62.2 inches
    (98 - 158 cm)
They do offer a strap extension that adds another 4.75 inches for this model-

Extension End Piece Black #1761 - RICHTER

Guitar Strap Springbreak III Nappa Yellow / White Stitches Richter

Then there's the Levy Signature Legacy series in a 4.5 inch width to accommodate a heavy Warwick Thumb NT5-

Length adjustable from 38 to 52 inches- shorter than your criteria I know, but it sure helps take the load off with some five string basses- there used to be an extender but not available at this time-

Signature Legacy Series

If you're wondering about the Kleenex- the prices made me cry, LOL!! Though not bad for real hand-crafted leather, at least the first one-

tempImageZlLynt.png
 
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