Thunderbird Club

[ectoflanger]

The original release looks like this:

View attachment 7334589

That's the one I got in the early-2000's on CD which is pretty cool but the one below is my favorite -

And though I've had both versions- this is my favorite "Measure for Measure" cover-

 

[Miles_ONeal]

What about alternate tunings? Not esoteric things but going down to Eb. Because a recent post on Trower brought to mind that he tuned to Eb for his solo albums to allow easier bends on 11 gauge strings. Now that he's nearly 80, he tunes to D and uses 12 or 13 gauge strings.

I played with guitarists who love Trower and they always use standard tuning but I used to keep at least one bass tuned to Eb to learn and play Trower 70's material. I'm also inclined to cover ti in that way, but there aren't many people who want do dedicate a guitar to that tuning-- and you know it is a pain to change tunings in a gig because sometimes it takes a bit for the instrument to adapt and stay true to the new tuning.

Myself I don't like dedicating an instrument to a different tuning because I love them all and may want to play in standard tuning with it-

How do you guys feel about the alternate tunings? In some cases I feel that one should maintain the original recorded one because it sounds better, for example the 70's Trower material. And truth be told, in my humble opinion some songs sound better in certain tunings-

All my basses are in D (DGCF) (except one dedicated to BEAD). If I need something odd for a specific song, I'll have a bass tuned for that just for that set. I mainly only have to do that to practice a song with a version online that's in a different key than we'll be doing it in. I can switch back to E easily enough if playing someone else's bass.

I had played around with truly alternate tunings (not just shifted wholesale) on guitar but never really gelled with anything. I haven't messed with those on bass at all.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Very cool - the '80s were a heady time for guitars like G&L, Kubicki, Steinberger etc. I was turned on to G&L by my good friend Reid back in the '90s. He's a hard-core G&L guy who owns a number of their vintage guitars & an L-1000 bass. The L-2000 9v pre is my favorite active harness. There's not a bad setting on it.

My Tele L2K is one bass that can do it all. It started out as an '06 Fender '51P RI that was one of the few basses I've bought new.

View attachment 7334497

Just think -- if the rumor of Fender buying them is true, we'll see online bickering about whether the pre-Fender or post-Fender (meaning pre-post-CBS-Fender or post-post-CBS-Fender) G&Ls are better.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Gotta love White Wednesday…

View attachment 7334496

That never gets old.

 

[GonePlaid]

Just think -- if the rumor of Fender buying them is true, we'll see online bickering about whether the pre-Fender or post-Fender (meaning pre-post-CBS-Fender or post-post-CBS-Fender) G&Ls are better.

How 'bout D-none of the above?

 

[ectoflanger]

I hate to belabor a point but it just occurred that what makes this cover so poignant is that its from the viewpoint of the protagonist in the title track "Icehouse"

Iva Davies was inspired to write the lyrics because at the time, when money was scarce, he was living in a place that got cold during the winter months because of inadequate heating. I believe he was on the second or higher floor where he could see down the street a halfway house for people with emotional and/or substance abuse problems, And there was this girl he used to see walking in the courtyard, hence the lyrics-

t's always cold inside the icehouse
Though the rivers never freeze
There's a girl outside the icehouse
I can see her clearly though the trees
And now she's dreaming of a new love
And she hopes he'll be there soon
But she's got so long to wait for him
Because he needs another year to get there
There's no love inside the icehouse

The devil lives inside the icehouse
At least that's what the old ones say
He came along time ago
He came here in the winter snow
Bow it's colder every day
But she's still dreaming through the summer
And she's hoping through the spring
She says she's got no time for winter nights
She doesn't notice as the days grow colder
She can't remember getting any older
There's no love inside the icehouse

And now she's dreaming of a new love
And she hopes he'll be there soon
She says she's got no time for winter nights
She doesn't notice as the days grow colder
She can't remember getting any older
There's no love inside the icehouse
There's no love inside the icehouse
The icehouse..

So on this particular cover, it is her hand that is opening on the window and it's what she sees as she peers outward into the world, waiting for her ship to come ...

Very poignant to me ...

 

[Miles_ONeal]

loading the pickup less hence less attenuation on the output...,not just high frequencies but ALL frequencies...resistors (pots) are not frequency dependent....,

But the pot is not alone (unless the pickup blows up). The pot and pickup form an RL circuit, and so a change in resistance does impact frequency response.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

It’ll take some talking to get V to go all the way out there. But I’m certainly game! We have five or six within a few hours, and we could maybe get Andy over from AZ. Get Chucky, Dave, and Geo down from NoCal and it could work. And I think Ontario may have flights to Vancouver so we can get Irv down? And Will is a Jet Jockey, so we could maybe entice him to join? Who knows about Jeff; he might just decide to pop in as well.

I'm in if at all possible.

 

[Stealth57]

Forgot to tell you all to stop posting while I was in transit. Greetings from Chicago. Only 4 pages behind.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

You’ve been reading (and writing) too many fantasy books.

There's no such thing!
Also, I learned to aim high.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Crap, grabbed the wrong file.
View attachment 7334575

There ya go!
100K pots!
I never understood how the pickups ended up getting called "back" and "front". The only way it makes sense to me is if you rest the instrument on your hip. Assuming the bridge is the "back".

 

[JIO]

Just think -- if the rumor of Fender buying them is true, we'll see online bickering about whether the pre-Fender or post-Fender (meaning pre-post-CBS-Fender or post-post-CBS-Fender) G&Ls are better.

As usual a lot of people seem to have nothing better to do. Leo Fender was quoted saying G&L's were his best offering. I have no reason to disagree with him.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Forgot to tell you all to stop posting while I was in transit. Greetings from Chicago. Only 4 pages behind.

That's because we never listen. Except to the music.

 

[JIO]

There ya go!
100K pots!
I never understood how the pickups ended up getting called "back" and "front". The only way it makes sense to me is if you rest the instrument on your hip. Assuming the bridge is the "back".

Yah, me neither Miles - I never refer to them like that. B-pu / N-pu is simple, concise and clear. Then there's a 3-pu bass; N-pu, M(iddle)-pu, and B-pu.

 

[Stealth57]

There's no such thing!
Also, I learned to aim high.

Volume 5. Stop slacking.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

But the pot is not alone (unless the pickup blows up). The pot and pickup form an RL circuit, and so a change in resistance does impact frequency response.

don't think so when wired like this imho....

you would end up with three tone controls....

 

[RedVee]

That's the one I got in the early-2000's on CD which is pretty cool but the one below is my favorite -

View attachment 7334597

And though I've had both versions- this is my favorite "Measure for Measure" cover-

View attachment 7334599

Man of Colours was an enormous success for Iva. I got the CD and played the snot out of it.

Trivia: Iva studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music as an Oboe-ist.

 

[Nocturnal]

It’ll take some talking to get V to go all the way out there. But I’m certainly game! We have five or six within a few hours, and we could maybe get Andy over from AZ. Get Chucky, Dave, and Geo down from NoCal and it could work. And I think Ontario may have flights to Vancouver so we can get Irv down? And Will is a Jet Jockey, so we could maybe entice him to join? Who knows about Jeff; he might just decide to pop in as well.

I would be happy to attend again depending on when it would be scheduled.

 

[Engle]

The planned next step if it still drops out in the mix is to check the pot values. If they aren’t already 500k volume pots they’ll be swapped out for some. The good news is, even though they are really nice sounding pickups they are Gibson Tbird sized so plenty of PU options available if desired. The other great thing is the overall build, design and hardware far exceeds Gibson standards, so she’s a keeper.

I didn't bother to check, but I'll probably put in 500K full size pots anyway.

 

[Engle]

You called it Irv!

I checked both my Burny Birds and both are wired from the factory as single coils. Whodathunk, a new design feature - single coil humbuckers.

Original wiring was about 3.3KOhms, now with the red wires capped off and the whites connected its about 6.6KOhms. But I kinda see why they did what they did. The pickups are fairly dark in the full humbucker orientation with the stock .022uf cap. So I installed a variable cap chip in place of the stock one and found the .016uf setting to be best for my amp/cab and tone preference.
Here’s a pic of the finished product…
View attachment 7334448

Cool! I'm not finding it too dark so far.