Thunderbird Club

[MCF]

Anchor your pinky and play with your thumb. Called a tug bar.

No thank you.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

George will no doubt confirm, but I believe he said they are horribly rough.

Not too bad, they sound GOOD....these are 100s on the E and it seems bigger (was going for smaller) than the E from the Black Beauties you sent me.....you wouldn't by chance happen to remember the gauge of that set of BB you sent a couple of years ago?....

 

[dagrev]

No, Mexican Coke.

 

[dagrev]

Not too bad, they sound GOOD....these are 100s on the E and it seems bigger (was going for smaller) than the E from the Black Beauties you sent me.....you wouldn't by chance happen to remember the gauge of that set of BB you sent a couple of years ago?....

Oh, that's a big ask! I would get 105, but can't be sure. Could have been 100. It was one or the other. Nothing weird. Sorry.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Leo thought (and some players actually did) that a lot of players would prefer playing with the thumb.

some never grew out of it.....

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Mkay, so I remembered to meter these P/U's after all.

View attachment 7140180View attachment 7140181

Looks to be slightly different to the 6-string pickups, but with a sample size of one it's hard to say. This is fairly close to the Alnico Classic and Classic Plus set. Maybe they're wound the same, in the same package, but with rails instead of 6 poles?

12.9k for the bridge isn't insane or anything, but it would probably be hotter than vintage TB pickups right?

Nice setup, did you use the output jack to connect the VOM?

 

[MCF]

ACC 360 with an extremely deceptive 200 1968 solid state watts. That works for me.

When we do a GTG at the mountain, drive it down in the van.

 

[MCF]

some never grew out of it.....

Just can't do it. Doesn't work for me.

 

[AllieCat]

Nice setup, did you use the output jack to connect the VOM?

Yeah, just clipped my leads to the other end of a little patch cable. If I had some spare banana leads I might have soldered up a dedicated test lead for guitars but that'll have to wait for another day I guess.

 

[AllieCat]

Just can't do it. Doesn't work for me.

I mainly play with a pick. Sitting here noodling around, it's not as unfamiliar as I might have initially thought, but I find I only really want to down-strum. Alternate strumming has me raking my nail back over the string and that feels awful.

Maybe an interesting thing to add to the toolbox.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Yeah, just clipped my leads to the other end of a little patch cable. If I had some spare banana leads I might have soldered up a dedicated test lead for guitars but that'll have to wait for another day I guess.

so you selected the pup under test with the pots?

 

[AllieCat]

so you selected the pup under test with the pots?

Yeah I mean without opening up the back and probing the solder joints directly, I'm not sure how else I'd select the P/U, and even then I'd probably want to desolder it since the pot is still in the circuit.

I feel like this is a reasonable method for measuring since it's what the amp is gonna be "seeing" in any case.

I just put the volume pot on 10 for the one I'm measuring and on 0 for the other. If I put both volume pots at 10 it cuts overall resistance down to 5k~Ω, which tracks.

 

[MCF]

I mainly play with a pick. Sitting here noodling around, it's not as unfamiliar as I might have initially thought, but I find I only really want to down-strum. Alternate strumming has me raking my nail back over the string and that feels awful.

Maybe an interesting thing to add to the toolbox.

I could play ok with a pick when I was a kid. Took a long sabbatical until about a decade or so ago. Came back finger style only. I work on getting into a pick groove again in fits and starts. I probably ought to to find a teacher to get good at it. If Chucky wasn't three hours away, I'd con him into giving me some lessons. Once I do my Johnny paycheck, that is top on the list to work on. Two of my favorite players, Nikki Monninger and Sir Paul, are why I want to get really good at it.

 

[Gaolee]

DR Dragon Skins feel good. Bought a bass with them on it once. Still have them. I'm almost certain I would not have known they were coated unless the package was in with the bass.

Black Beauties feel and sound good, too.

 

[MCF]

Black Beauties feel and sound good, too.

They did not work for me on the '15. The Dunlop Marcus Miller Stainless Steel Superbrights do. But they are really good on the Sparkling Red LE CS Epi with the standard Epi pickups that @KaraQ passed on to me.

I really wish Kara would regularly engage with us again. And @PillO. And Willy too. And so many others who I really miss.

 

[MCF]

Not too bad, they sound GOOD....these are 100s on the E and it seems bigger (was going for smaller) than the E from the Black Beauties you sent me.....you wouldn't by chance happen to remember the gauge of that set of BB you sent a couple of years ago?....

I like nickel Slinkies. Heck. That's what Nikki plays. But they die a quick and painful death. I should think the coated ones last longer.

 

[AllieCat]

I could play ok with a pick when I was a kid. Took a long sabbatical until about a decade or so ago. Came back finger style only. I work on getting into a pick groove again in fits and starts. I probably ought to to find a teacher to get good at it. If Chucky wasn't three hours away, I'd con him into giving me some lessons. Once I do my Johnny paycheck, that is top on the list to work on. Two of my favorite players, Nikki Monninger and Sir Paul, are why I want to get really good at it.

Most of my influences were pick players as a kid, and I had several people I didn't care for tell me you're not supposed to play bass with a pick, so that's all I did hahah!

Now I'm in a place where I need to work on fingerstyle because that's what feels clunky for me.

 

[Ringhammer]

Most of my influences were pick players as a kid, and I had several people I didn't care for tell me you're not supposed to play bass with a pick, so that's all I did hahah!

Now I'm in a place where I need to work on fingerstyle because that's what feels clunky for me.

I've always been a finger player, but after a 13year hiatus from playing at all between '98 and '11, when I got back into a band situation I decided to make myself play pick only. I did that for about a year and got "OK" at it. Then I went back to fingerstyle. My trouble is string muting. I naturally can keep the open / unplayed strings quiet when playing fingerstyle but not always when using a pick. Palm muting is terribly awkward for me. In an effort to improve my pick playing, a generally always use a pick when I'm quietly playing my short scale basses (which I do often) at home in the living room. But still palm muting is just plain difficult for me.

 

[Count Bassie]

I've always been a finger player, but after a 13year hiatus from playing at all between '98 and '11, when I got back into a band situation I decided to make myself play pick only. I did that for about a year and got "OK" at it. Then I went back to fingerstyle. My trouble is string muting. I naturally can keep the open / unplayed strings quiet when playing fingerstyle but not always when using a pick. Palm muting is terribly awkward for me. In an effort to improve my pick playing, a generally always use a pick when I'm quietly playing my short scale basses (which I do often) at home in the living room. But still palm muting is just plain difficult for me.

I have fits with a pick, but it's one of the things I should "just do." Even if I'm screwing up a few notes, what counts is your note *choice*, phrasing and timing, for me anyway. So missing a note, having to make it work anyway doesn't necessarily affect the outcome of a song or a band performance. The mistakes I make ding up my ego a bit, but don't really ruin anything else. I can take that, even though I don't necessarily like it... And when it does go well, it's gratifying, and fun to do something new that works.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Most of my influences were pick players as a kid, and I had several people I didn't care for tell me you're not supposed to play bass with a pick, so that's all I did hahah!

Now I'm in a place where I need to work on fingerstyle because that's what feels clunky for me.

At first I only played with a pick. Then I only played finger. I'm working on pick again, but without dropping finger. Both have their place.