Thunderbird Club

[MCF]

I love old Al Stewart, I saw him at Pacific Lutheran Univ. (in Tacoma) in '78 or so, he and his band were very good.

His band of that era was fabulous. We saw them on a small tour to promote Modern Times and a year or so later on the Year of the Cat Tour in SLO. George Ford was on bass and Tim Renwick was the lead guitarist.

We saw him a few other times over the years, but not with a full band. He is a great solo or as a duo with another guitarist. He lives in NoCal and I think is calling it quits after more than sixty years of touring. A super nice guy.

 

[ectoflanger]

It was one of those - No wonder I procrastinated moments-

Yesterday late-afternoon I resumed work on the lead guitar intro for "Paradigms" that I had been working on back in Florida. But with a different interface- IK Multimedia's AXE I/O which Is an excellent interface tailored for guitars and bass featuring inputs for two different real-time expression pedals.

The week previously I had spent an hour or more trying to figure why I was getting static and my tracks would intermittently stop and stutter during playback. In some cases, as with the Apogee DUET 2 I was using in Florida, static may result in the I/O buffer audio setting being too small. This I corrected by setting it to 128. It's a balance because too big a buffer will result in excess latency.

So after researching about the issue and appropriate buffer sizes and trying them with no solution here with the AXE I/O, I came across an answer on Reddit stating that you should plug the USB straight into the computer instead of a hub and that was what solved it.

But the Apogee DUET was plugged into a hub with no issue though I did use the supplemental external power supply in case the USB voltage got thin. The AXE I/O external power supply is not option and must always be used for it to function.

So I finally sat down to complete the lead intro, which mind you is nothing blind blowing, just an introductory bit of melody to set the mood in the first few bars of the song. Nevertheless for me it's similar to those old book reports or papers you occasionally had to write for class in high school- a bit of a drudgery until you finally get a toehold, then it hopefully flows.

I was going through the ascending chord progression at the end of the intro when I noted how the final D major triad at the twelfth fret (Drop D tuning) sounded sour. I checked the open D versus the 12 th fret and the latter was 10-15 cents sharp. I suppose the difference in humidity between a house in the backwoods of Florida and a high rise south of Houston, TX was enough to cause a difference in the two weeks I had returned.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a time for an intonation issue to raise its head after steeling myself to start up again when I was finally ready to work out this piece!

So got my #0 Phillips and started adjusting while the tuner in Logic Pro. I made a couple of turns - 10 cents sharp, and few more turns 15 cents sharp- mind you this moving the bridge saddle back. Finally had the saddle about as far back as it could go with it still 10 cents sharp.

Got to reading online and heard that it could either be bad strings or action too high. Come to think of it, a visiting guitar bro did remark how the action was high on Strat Ultra Plus. I had not noticed it given I was more accustomed to playing bass, and even though I have low actions on my basses, the thicker strings are a lot more to depress than much smaller guitar strings and so I didn't notice it like my buddy did.

So I tightened the trussrod some and lowered the low E string from having a 3 mm space between it and the 17th fret down to more like 2.25 and the intonation issue was corrected, except I had to move the bridge saddle back to its original position since it was now flat at the 12 th fret relative to the open string or harmonics.

This may have taken an hour or so before I actually went to work!

But I got the rest of the lead written. Now I just have to practice it a bit for attempting to get it properly recorded.

 

[ectoflanger]

Some of the gear I mentioned-

IK Multimedia AXE I/O one of the best, if not the best guitar/bass interfaces on the market-

A more detailed pic from the website-

So I have a Moog expression pedal that can operate a virtual wah pedal or other parameters in Logic Pro and a Boss FS-6 where I can turn effects on and off in real time. The AXE I/O control utility allows you to set up your expression pedals as well-

It all fits pretty nicely at my work station -

The only thing I'm not using at the moment is the Two Notes Torpedo Reload on the left because my guitar tube amps are too loud, even when attenuated to use in the condo, although the only complaints I received was when I was playing through my TC Electronics RH450 and 2 x 10 cab even at what I thought was a modest volume - bass notes carry -

 

[Engle]

Brought this to mind.

Nice bass playing!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Anti-rotation design; nice!

More to counter the bit of neck dive it has.

 

[JIO]

More to counter the bit of neck dive it has.

I even do it playing my headless Factorbird fretless which has zero neck-dive. (no headstock, heavy solid Koa body) Aside from aiding neck-dive (at whatever level) on a standard T-bird, overlapping the jutting lower bout with your strap draws the guitar body to your body and stabilizes it so focused playing isn't being compromised/distracted by fighting the instruments ergonomics. Many T-bird players ride their basses lower which works for them, but playing one in a less R&R position benefits from this simple functional solution. I am well aware that playing a T-bird is all about how badass they look and sound, (and I 100% agree with that) so my addressing that particular design shortfall is only to offer advice to help make playing one more comfortable/enjoyable. Not slagging T-birds, why would I as a "dyed in the wool" T-bird player since 1974 when it was my only instrument? I would have to say I am one of the T-birds' greatest advocate, and as a designer/builder of basses I am keenly aware of how to make an instrument that makes playing it effortless. Most production basses have design compromises - as proof there is no one design that everyone uses. Add to that the very active "modding" community which reinforces players making their chosen basses uniquely their own.

 

[ectoflanger]

I even do it playing my headless Factorbird fretless which has zero neck-dive. (no headstock, heavy solid Koa body) Aside from aiding neck-dive (at whatever level) on a standard T-bird, overlapping the jutting lower bout with your strap draws the guitar body to your body and stabilizes it so focused playing isn't being compromised/distracted by fighting the instruments ergonomics. Many T-bird players ride their basses lower which works for them, but playing one in a less R&R position benefits from this simple functional solution. I am well aware that playing a T-bird is all about how badass they look and sound, (and I 100% agree with that) so my addressing that particular design shortfall is only to offer advice to help make playing one more comfortable/enjoyable. Not slagging T-birds, why would I as a "dyed in the wool" T-bird player since 1974 when it was my only instrument? I would have to say I am one of the T-birds' greatest advocate, and as a designer/builder of basses I am keenly aware of how to make an instrument that makes playing it effortless. Most production basses have design compromises - as proof there is no one design that everyone uses. Add to that the very active "modding" community which reinforces players making their chosen basses uniquely their own.

View attachment 7429101

For the Warwick Thumb NT5 neck dive tendency I was advised to use a wide strap so I got one of those Leviy’s 4.5 or 5 inch wide ones that does the job-

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Baja rules.....

 

[JJR58]

Baja rules.....
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Mmmmm, this looks very inviting.

 

[ectoflanger]

Lyrical, that first sentence. There's a song waiting to be writ, hiding in "sustain disdain."

Was just thinking about how the only complaints I got at the high-rise was from playing bass but not guitar, and I thought of a song parody of ‘Til Tuesday’s 80’s hit “Voices Carry”

“Oh, oh hush! keep it down now, bass notes carry”.

After all Aimee Mann was their bassist -

 

[ectoflanger]

this garage rarely sees a dull moment.....
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Is the Acoustic the one with 18 inch speaker and the amp at the bottom? My luthier had one from the early-70’s he eventually sold to a punk rocker-

 

[TBird1958]

Baja rules.....
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Hey, the Sun actually made an appearence here in Seattle today, so I got that going for me ( How about the Seahawks!), Baja sounds really good.

 

[ectoflanger]

I'd expect the earliest Thunderbirds were shipped from the factory with flats.

I thought they might’ve come with white walls-

No wonder FoMoCo had sales issues-

Oops wrong T-Bird!

 

[ectoflanger]

remember Blade Runner?.....music may be the way we distinguish humans from AI replicants..... interesting times....I know it's a little out there but....

How did I miss this one? Saw it in the summer of 82 in a college town all by myself in one of those theaters where they had the red curtains retreating from the screen-

Epic and deeply poignant for me at points-

How could I forget?

 

[jarrad]

Thunderbirds forever Glad to see this club still going strong.

 

[MCF]

Was just thinking about how the only I got at the high-rise from playing bass but not guitar, and I thought of a song parody of ‘Til Tuesday’s 80’s hit “Voices Carry”

“Oh, oh hush! keep down now, bass notes carry”.

After all Aimee Mann was their bassist -

God I love her.

 

[JIO]

For the Warwick Thumb NT5 neck dive tendency I was advised to use a wide strap so I got one of those Leviy’s 4.5 or 5 inch wide ones that does the job-

Wide grippy straps definitely help and on top of that are soft and very comfortable.

 

[JIO]

Baja rules.....
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[ectoflanger]

God I love her.

Don’t remember if I shared these before but I’ll share them again-

My favorite one of theirs from their Live at the Ritz performance does not appear on any of their albums-

Haunting and atmospheric- right up my alley-



The full 1986 concert -

 

[TBird1958]

I even do it playing my headless Factorbird fretless which has zero neck-dive. (no headstock, heavy solid Koa body) Aside from aiding neck-dive (at whatever level) on a standard T-bird, overlapping the jutting lower bout with your strap draws the guitar body to your body and stabilizes it so focused playing isn't being compromised/distracted by fighting the instruments ergonomics. Many T-bird players ride their basses lower which works for them, but playing one in a less R&R position benefits from this simple functional solution. I am well aware that playing a T-bird is all about how badass they look and sound, (and I 100% agree with that) so my addressing that particular design shortfall is only to offer advice to help make playing one more comfortable/enjoyable. Not slagging T-birds, why would I as a "dyed in the wool" T-bird player since 1974 when it was my only instrument? I would have to say I am one of the T-birds' greatest advocate, and as a designer/builder of basses I am keenly aware of how to make an instrument that makes playing it effortless. Most production basses have design compromises - as proof there is no one design that everyone uses. Add to that the very active "modding" community which reinforces players making their chosen basses uniquely their own.

View attachment 7429101

I get why you're doing it, and it made me wonder why I don't. I went and looked at a lot of live shots of me playing and realized that if I wasn't at the mic to sing, the body of the bass is on my right hip almost all the time, not across my tummy, so the headstock points out towards the crowd at an angle and my right hand is on the upper bout. I don't use wide straps either, different strokes!

Like this........