Thunderbird Club

[JIO]

1971:
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2023:
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With a little hair dye and a wig... you could look 52 years younger

 

[dagrev]

That's a funny gesture Paul is making don't recall what it related to!

I'm going to say Dave raised his shirt and flashed the band in a moment of stout induced exuberation and the guitarist is just flicking a pick his way to the new groupie. I wasn't there, so some details may be off a bit.

 

[dagrev]

The Casady doesn't have a central beam. It has a thick fluted layer on the inside of the top and back. There is a solid section under the bridge.
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Interesting. Unexpected--at least to me.

 

[dagrev]

This morning I played my CP straight into 2xRumble 100s, no pedals. It worked great for this set. It’s also the closest I've gotten to Leon’s tone when I saw Skynyrd in concert. Now if I could just play like him.

Take than win. Be happy the easiest to achieve was accomplished and forget about the impossible of the two. But we can dream.

 

[JIO]

I used the '21 NR and Ashdown today. Vast improvement over the Ampeg tube head. Tighter lows like I was kind of expecting. Not super perfect tone as I still wanted to do EQing, but way, way better and one I think I can live with. The tone by itself was OK, but in the mix it sounded pretty good, and definitely improved. I will have to try it again to know for sure. I'm weird, one time a bass sounds good and the next time I'm not impressed. So it's looking promising but not a guaranteed keeper yet. It definitely was not frustrating or disappointing as is normally the case with that one. I'll try it again Wed or next Sunday. I left the compressor off as I didn't want add too much and not know what was doing what in the limited time I had. Had SIT Power Wounds on the NR.

Very interested in seeing how the '55 Pbass does. It's one I've not been happy with since my old Peavey MkIII. The Ashdown being so light, it's not a hassle to take it on occasion if it's makes a bass sound way better. The '55 may go if the Ashdown doesn't help with that one given I could likely sell it for a little more than what I paid for it around 81/82.


This is a great little head. (Not my pic.)

Ashdown makes great sounding amps. My 550 twin pre-tubed Spyder is perfect for what I want to hear. I have a small, light TC Electronics 250w (all transistor) amp similar to the RM300 EvoII that we use for keys at our rehearsal space. The EvoII definitely has more going on, but the BQ250 is a decent amp and small & light enough that I bring as a back-up.

 

[TBird1958]

speaking of NRs and Ashdowns….let’s do this!!
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Another hot day at Damm

Hit it, Chuck!

This must have been the exact moment I discovered the tack on the seat of my chair.

 

[JIO]

I'm going to say Dave raised his shirt and flashed the band in a moment of stout induced exuberation and the guitarist is just flicking a pick his way to the new groupie. I wasn't there, so some details may be off a bit.

Either that or he was attempting to play his guitar like a Theremin...

 

[JIO]

This must have been the exact moment I discovered the tack on the seat of my chair.

...or you just sat on the metal chair that had been sitting in the 100degree sun that day!

 

[Rickplaysbass]

Nice.

I really want one of these. I'm going to have them do some work at some point, but might lust too much over one of these.
P-Byrd Bass

Those are sweet. I would go to bluesman vintage if I was getting new one.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I'm going to say Dave raised his shirt and flashed the band in a moment of stout induced exuberation and the guitarist is just flicking a pick his way to the new groupie. I wasn't there, so some details may be off a bit.

Probably spot on.

 

[JIO]

Hope it's a great show, my kind of banner there too!

It went well thanks Happy Pride month!

 

[Engle]

So is that fluted layer the whole dimensions of the inside top & bottom? If so that explains the weight.

It's down the middle IIRC maybe 4" wide. You can see the edge in the one shot. Also adding to the weight is a transformer and big headstock/tuners.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

...or you just sat on the metal chair that had been sitting in the 100degree sun that day!

car had been in the sun all. morning yesterday and not thinking went and plopped in……got a good culo roasting……

 

[JIO]

Drums are interesting that way. Even a cheap kit can sound good with new heads and tuning, as long as the bearing edges are flat.

The drummer in the trio that followed us had a unique looking and sounding kit - black & white bands and white & chrome hardware. It was tuned to sound more timbale-esk and he had some serious chops. (including twirling sticks!) Aggressive (loud) original rock w/a bit of metal. Couldn't understand a single word/lyric. Bass-player rocked a J through a Markbass like Chucky's and had it growling. He could have used something a bit beefier to compete with the guitarist's big Marshall rig - did I mention they were loud? Ear plugs were firmly in.

 

[JIO]

It's down the middle IIRC maybe 4" wide. You can see the edge in the one shot. Also adding to the weight is a transformer and big headstock/tuners.

transformer?

 

[Engle]

Lots of choices on the Jack Casady bass. Please feel free to correct me if my research is wrong.

1) There are two separate output jacks. The top is for the original Epi pickup and the side is for the two Dark Stars.
2) The left most (in the photo) knobs are volume and tone for the Epi pickup.
3) The rotary switch (50, 250, 500) are resistor selections. But, I understand that these are connected to the Epi volume pot and, thus, are more of a gain vs. tone change.
4) The right most knobs are for the Dark Stars volume and tone.
5) The three way switch is Dark Star neck, both, bridge.

The last bit of research indicated that this is NOT a semi-hollow body bass as I believed, but a true hollow body. The statement was that the only center block is under the bridge and no center beam. I don't have a scope to look inside to verify.

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The JC pickup is low impedance, so it needs a transformer to match up to the amp input. The switch selects taps on the transformer, it's an impedance selector. To my ears it changes the tone and volume.

Just pop out the JC pickup by taking out the 4 trim screws to see the innards.

 

[JIO]

car had been in the sun all. morning yesterday and not thinking went and plopped in……got a good culo roasting……

~ouch!~ They need to make a remote that starts your car and turns the A/C on full before entering for conditions like that!

 

[Albert Ross]

Interesting, I’ve tried two 2015 birds and they both seemed to operate this way. It’s not a real issue, you just need to be aware of the interaction between the volume and tone knobs when you start adjusting things.

Here’s a test you can run…

Pick a pickup, turn its volume to max and turn the other pickup off.
Now turn the tone knob.
You’ll probably hear very little tone change and no volume change.
It’s as if the volume knob is bypassing the tone knob.

Now turn the tone knob on full bright and turn the pickup volume knob to 7.
Note the volume level.
With that pickup volume set at 7 turn the tone knob down to zero.
You’ll probably hear a significant drop in volume.
It’s as if the tone knob is overriding the volume knob.

I’d be very interested in your results, maybe you’ve got one that’s wired different or has different pots in it.
It’s Gibson, so who knows.

This is exactly what happens on my '18.

 

[JIO]

The JC pickup is low impedance, so it needs a transformer to match up to the amp input. The switch selects taps on the transformer, it's an impedance selector. To my ears it changes the tone and volume.

Just pop out the JC pickup by taking out the 4 trim screws to see the innards.

Interesting. Active EMG's are low impedance as far as I know but don't incorporate a transformer. Are the early Alembics like the JC - I think they were early adopters of low-impedance pu's.

 

[Stealth57]

It's down the middle IIRC maybe 4" wide. You can see the edge in the one shot. Also adding to the weight is a transformer and big headstock/tuners.

Sounds right as I can’t feel the fluting when I finger the f hole.

I’ll just AHEM myself and be done with it.