I can get a reasonable approximation of an upright with left hand technique with EBCFs or the original strings, especially on the basic IV and the CP. If I can, most anyone can.
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
Exactly what I did. Then BadBird to the rescue.
We saw a George and Ira Gershwin musical[1] last night. I can totally see them working that into something. Well, other than the fact they're dead.
[1] The local high school theater programs are off the chain.
And that's why I bought this 64. After watching a number of them going for 9k-10k (occasionally more) getting something in the 6k range was a no-brrainer. Especially since my wife had been socking away my bonus checks.And I didn’t have $2,000 to buy a Lull TB4? during covid.
Now I need a deal on a 64 (Ford) Mustang to match my 64 (Gibson) Thunderbird.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
As long as we are having the confessional about getting selected by Thunderbirds, here it goes:
I started on piano at 9. It was fun as far as it went, but it wasn't portable, and I hated having to play what was written. To this day, I still can't read music worth crap. At about 17, I scrounged up a cheap guitar from a pawn shop. My brother still has that guitar. It has had some pretty funky repairs made to it, but it sounds great. It was a cheap Korean knock-off of something or another, probably a Gibson J-45, and it has a big, rich voice. Only problem is that I sucked playing it.
When I got to college, there were a zillion guitarists, all better than me. But no bass players or drummers. So I got a cheap Vantage bass guitar to try out. The bass was awful to play, but it was like a homecoming. It felt like I had found a voice and a technique that made sense to me in a a way guitar and piano just didn't. With hindsight, picking up drums then would have made sense, but the logistics of a drum kit, let alone what a drum kit costs, would have been problematic at best.
About a year later, I bought a bass amp and got the Free Bass, which you have all heard about. Fast forward a few more years and the Free Bass got more or less traded for the EB-2 that was my only bass for many years. Girlfriend, now wife, work, career, and kid all came along, more or less in that order and the bass went on hold for a couple decades.
Then when the kid was in school, a bunch of band dads got together to make some noise. Why let the kids have all the fun, anyway? The EB-2 got dusted off and I started playing it all the time. Then I found out that an undamaged EB-2 was pretty rare. Mine is modified, is missing the pickguard, and isn't exactly a closet queen, but it has its headstock and serial number in 100% intact condition. Plus it rains here a lot. I decided to pick up a solid-body and put the EB-2 into semi-retirement. The solid-body was a bottom of the line Epiphone Thunderbird. I loved it once the strap button got moved to the heel of the neck. But, like a moron, I let it go and bought a Fender Precision. Everyone has to have a Fender sometime or another, I guess.
But, I never quit thinking about Thunderbirds, which led to winning a "losing" bid on an Epiphone Pro IV with the whole active circuit. That's now passive and fretless. Along the way, I bought a mid '90s Rickenbacker that I liked, but ultimately sold in order to buy the 1991 Thunderbird that's now the Flamingo. Thunderbirds let me know I was a Thunderbird player and that's pretty much been the end of that. I play other bass guitars, but always come back to Thunderbirds. Even the cheapo Jackson fiver is shaped like a Thunderbird.
Cheapo is the other recurring theme. Scrounging is what I do. When the end comes, I will be competing with the cockroaches for the scraps of the world. And playing Thunderbirds. Actually, when the end comes, I might actually be able to scrounge up a '64 or a Lull from somewhere. It's unlikely until then.
I started on piano at 9. It was fun as far as it went, but it wasn't portable, and I hated having to play what was written. To this day, I still can't read music worth crap. At about 17, I scrounged up a cheap guitar from a pawn shop. My brother still has that guitar. It has had some pretty funky repairs made to it, but it sounds great. It was a cheap Korean knock-off of something or another, probably a Gibson J-45, and it has a big, rich voice. Only problem is that I sucked playing it.
When I got to college, there were a zillion guitarists, all better than me. But no bass players or drummers. So I got a cheap Vantage bass guitar to try out. The bass was awful to play, but it was like a homecoming. It felt like I had found a voice and a technique that made sense to me in a a way guitar and piano just didn't. With hindsight, picking up drums then would have made sense, but the logistics of a drum kit, let alone what a drum kit costs, would have been problematic at best.
About a year later, I bought a bass amp and got the Free Bass, which you have all heard about. Fast forward a few more years and the Free Bass got more or less traded for the EB-2 that was my only bass for many years. Girlfriend, now wife, work, career, and kid all came along, more or less in that order and the bass went on hold for a couple decades.
Then when the kid was in school, a bunch of band dads got together to make some noise. Why let the kids have all the fun, anyway? The EB-2 got dusted off and I started playing it all the time. Then I found out that an undamaged EB-2 was pretty rare. Mine is modified, is missing the pickguard, and isn't exactly a closet queen, but it has its headstock and serial number in 100% intact condition. Plus it rains here a lot. I decided to pick up a solid-body and put the EB-2 into semi-retirement. The solid-body was a bottom of the line Epiphone Thunderbird. I loved it once the strap button got moved to the heel of the neck. But, like a moron, I let it go and bought a Fender Precision. Everyone has to have a Fender sometime or another, I guess.
But, I never quit thinking about Thunderbirds, which led to winning a "losing" bid on an Epiphone Pro IV with the whole active circuit. That's now passive and fretless. Along the way, I bought a mid '90s Rickenbacker that I liked, but ultimately sold in order to buy the 1991 Thunderbird that's now the Flamingo. Thunderbirds let me know I was a Thunderbird player and that's pretty much been the end of that. I play other bass guitars, but always come back to Thunderbirds. Even the cheapo Jackson fiver is shaped like a Thunderbird.
Cheapo is the other recurring theme. Scrounging is what I do. When the end comes, I will be competing with the cockroaches for the scraps of the world. And playing Thunderbirds. Actually, when the end comes, I might actually be able to scrounge up a '64 or a Lull from somewhere. It's unlikely until then.
That would fit right in with "Wicked Games" era Chris Isaak.
Thanks Scott. It was a big change from this.
To this...
I could have done a better job, but I was running out of time and got the clear on it literally the last day I could have sprayed outside--and it was crazy windy.
This is a well kept secret, but Thunderbirds love flats. Sounds counter intuitive in some ways, but it works great. Benn using flats on (some) of them for well over a decade.
SIT Power Flat on most of the birds. EBCF on the CP. Tried Power Steel, but just not for me...bad technique.
this garage rarely sees a dull moment.....
Marshall is on his way.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I was wondering how much of the sound was effects until he started comparing pickups. Kinda amazing how good those sound in a guitar. I didn't like them all that well in a bass guitar. Putting them in a guitar sure makes me like them a lot. Another reason to finally learn to play guitar someday. I wonder what they would sound like in an SG.
- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,894
- 142,208
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
Please plug your '64 II into the 360 and turn it up some - we need a demo!
You’ll hear it without a recording.
So he’s creating a market for used Probucker 760’s that softened when Gibson released the Vintage Reissues. Cool.
Sad day. Just a few years older than me..
