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Thunderbird Club

#308,681
TBird1958 said:
I think it's a little under value at 4k, I'd be at 5.
It's simply stunning in person.

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Yeah. I was surprised at how fair the ask is.
 
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#308,682
TBird1958 said:
I did have a 5 string Epi Non Reverse for awhile, couldn't get on with it, string spacing was obscenely narrow to the point of being almost
unplayable. I did borrow Dave Dickerson's (RWB 7enderbird guy) Gibson Studio 5 for a week as well, he was selling and I thought about it, but
it just wasn't a good fit for my left hand.
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I only have one 5 string and it’s the Rickenbacker 4003S/5. I had tried a few over the years and never cared for them much, and since I’m very comfortable with the use of a Hipshot extender, and have them on almost every 4 string bass I own, I didn’t see the need. Most of them had a dead sounding B anyway. The Ric 5 has what feels to me is a perfect size neck and the string spacing is really close to my ‘70 Jazz, so it works for me. Also with fresh rounds on it, it sounds close to what you would expect a typical 4003 to sound like and even the .130 B has a good ring to it.

All that being said, I rarely use it. lol.

The last time I used it was to record parts in a yet to be completed recording of a new Bad Lemon song. Just playing part of the main riff at the lower octave to add a cool effect, naturally, instead of using a pedal.

I’ll likely keep it as a tool, but if I ever actually find the need for the low B in a song that would be played out regularly, I would probably just make a 65-125 set up, put them on my ‘bird that is normally used for D-Standard and drop C and tune it to BEAD.
 
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#308,685
Chucky Stiletti said:
apparently in his later years he didn't even take a guitar on tour and favored renting the axe he would play that eve from a local music store....loved his Les Paul tone with BBA...
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There were stories about him, I think it was him, who would come to the US for a tour without a guitar or amp. He would go to a pawn shop and buy a guitar and amp for the tour. Even if that's not true, it is a great story. He would be able to make whatever he picked up sound good.
 
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#308,686
PhR75 said:
Same here...
The Stingray 5 was great, as was the fretless Wal 5 I tried a few months ago (and which made me lose my sleep for weeks...).
My friend has two old Yamaha BB5000 basses and while great, the string spacing is too tight for me. His Nathan East model 5-string is much better in that department but to me the BB5000 is a much better looking instrument.
His Modulus Quantum 5 felt great playing wise.


Still I've managed without the 5. Drop-D tuning is handy and I sometimes dabble with the Jannick Top cello tuning (C-G-D-A) but that of course makes things so different I wouldn't dare to take it to a normal gig.
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DGCF has worked great for me. I wanted to go lower, but standard strings said, “Nope!”
 
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#308,689
dagrev said:
I really should try it at some point. Yet I've never been playing a song and thought I needed a drop D and or concluded, "Well, that didn't sound good on a 4 stringer." My lack of understanding for sure. They exist for a reason. For playing written music as written, I can see it. I did like the B on my 5er at times. Just not enough to justify keeping it which kept me buying another bass. I really do need to watch some videos on it though.
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There are songs I’ve wanted to go lower but had to go up instead. It worked, just not as well as down would have.
 
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#308,693
Gaolee said:
There were stories about him, I think it was him, who would come to the US for a tour without a guitar or amp. He would go to a pawn shop and buy a guitar and amp for the tour. Even if that's not true, it is a great story. He would be able to make whatever he picked up sound good.
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Nels Kline did that with amps for awhile and posted a blog somewhere about it. He would just try whatever was at a venue or borrow something. He learned a lot with that experiment. He probably got the idea from Beck.
 
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