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Thunderbird Club

#34,082
BadBassDrummer said:
Did you look at the white Burny they posted on FB? or is that one of yours you are cutting loose?
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Ha! Ya, that's my Burny, the Epiphone is coming soon so I'm letting it go. Both Chad and Jeff were excited to have it and didn't think it would last long.
 
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#34,083
ThunderbirdMax said:
Hi everybody !

I need to buy a "real" amp now that my band is starting to tour. It became quite frustrating for me to borrow venues amplifiers everytime I play. I love Ampeg so I first wanted a SVT 410HLF with a SVT CL. I just saw Aguilar DB 410 with Tone Hammer 500. It costs less money (still expensive though) but I don't know how it sounds with a Tbird.

What amps do you guys use ? Which rig would you recommand ?

(Our drummer is loud and the guitar players plays Vox AC30 and Orange combo.)
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I recommend that amp with literally any other cab besides the 410HLF. Can't stand that model and its scooped boominess.

JJR58 said:
Who needs a tone knob anyway.
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Not me.

TBird1958 said:
It adds essential "clank" :roflmao:
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No it doesn't, it subtracts it. It doesn't add anything.

kat888 said:
tone knob, schmone knob

[insert obligatory TB maxim about tone being in the fingers]

2 Birds and 0 tone knobs - the Epi Vintage Pro will be having it's trip to the vet for de-knobbing soon after it comes home. Up on the table and out with the soldering iron.
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Nice. I also have no tone knob in mine.

ProgressiveDoom said:
For real?, but thats like.......for tone right?. I mean were talking about a Thunderbird so how low do you need to go?. Damn!. Gonna google it up right now.
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That's not how it works. The tone knob removes highs (and also mids at most settings). Taking it out entirely is like having it wide open but a bit brighter.

JJR58 said:
That's why we like no tone knob.
It does sound, uh oh, here comes that word, "better".
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Exactly.

TBird1958 said:
I'll keep mine (tone knobs), playing live there's quite a few songs that I change it up. I like versatility, even on a single pick up bass.
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I adjust my volumes plenty, but I never use tone knobs. Usually if I want a duller tone I just play over the neck and play a bit more softly (without thwacking the strings against the frets).

theFixer said:
On guitar, I pretty much left everything wide open. Rolling the tone off was pretty much like consciously choosing to run your signal through a poop processor. On bass, I find myself tweeking the tone on the bridge pup quite a lot. There's a variety of good usable tones in there!
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I'm the opposite. I see the tone knob's uses on guitar, especially for high soloing. On bass I've never found a use for one.

JJR58 said:
The way I see it, it'll be like Custers last stand.
You'll have to riddle me full of bullets, and I'll still go down fighting.
And it will be with a Thunderbird dang it!

Besides T, you just plain know how to rock it!
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It's funny that it's called that, given that usually someone is referred to as making a "last stand" when mounting a desperate defense of something, while Custer was attacking.

ProgressiveDoom said:
Oh for sure that extra pot,knob and cap take up waaaaay too much space and make the bass soooooo heavy plus the extra wiring is potential for an electrical fire.............:roflmao:.
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That's not the point at all.

Removing the tone knob entirely means that it can't be accidentally bumped into a different position than the preferred one (wide open). For those of us who remove tone knobs, the tone knob serves only as a way to accidentally make the sound suck.

It also frees up space in the control cavity for something else.

In my case, I replaced mine with a rotary pickup switch, which is much more useful for me.

theFixer said:
Call me a cynic, or conspiracy theorist or maybe just "old"... but tube watts and solid state watts are 2 very different things. My best friends '74 Marshall Plexi 50 watt head through a 4x12 will stop traffic, break glass, peel paint, and piss off every club owner who ever hired a live band. A 50 watt solid state amp is barely more than a bedroom practice amp. I've seen my buddy's 50 watt Marshall bury a 450 watt solid state bass amp, but a 300 watt tube amp held it's own with a little room to spare. I'm a big fan of GK, so I'm not bashing solid state or anything... but I think solid state amp manufacturers get their wattage ratings at a BOGO sale.
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Not how it works.

A watt is a watt.

Tube amps just sound louder because of the way they overdrive. A tube amp taken past its power rating will just have a barely noticeable compression, still sounding mostly clean, but louder. You have to push it quite a bit beyond its power rating to get noticeable distortion, and even then, it usually sounds pretty good, so it's still quite useful.

This is not the case with many solid state amps (though some do overdrive in a pleasing manner; GK being a good example).

TBird1958 said:
In Gibson bass related stuff...................
One of they guys on LBO writes for the Dutch magazine "Die Bassist" has found that for 2018 Gibson will not be producing basses, so Epiphone is the it for the time being and foreseeable future.
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Man, **** Henry J.

Drestakil said:
Since we're talking about GAS, here's something every bedroom player needs.
Invalid Link Removed
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Every bedroom player needs Mesa's worst cab?

theFixer said:
Cuz Gibson has more class than that!;)
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Gibson is currently owned by Henry J, who has no class at all. Someone needs to rescue the company from him.

hillerup said:
Nope... And there's ALWAYS time for lubricant! :)
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Yeah, I'd still gladly trade you.

DerekW said:
Let me know when that Lull drops about another $3k, I'll be all over it, lol

And how could you NOT try the Ritter? That thing is wild looking!
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I only try out basses that I could conceivably afford to drop on the floor. That rules out Ritters.

ProgressiveDoom said:
But you use a Tbird as well, what are the differences in the setups?.
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Everything except the bass bodies and necks, probably. His T-bird has stock pickups, mine has thunderbuckers, and I doubt his is wired in series. We probably have different pedals, and most importantly to the sound, we use totally different amps and cabs.

His sound wouldn't work for the bands I'm in, but it does in Noothgrush.
 
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#34,089
TBird1958 said:
It held no fascination for me, there was a nice Gibson Victory Standard for like $600.00 that was tough to pass up - White Epi on the way tho.
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And he has a 2015 'Bird on his website. Price looks OK, too.

I think he's great. He sold both of the Rics that I had (semi-long story about how the second one came into my hands) for what I wanted and was really straight forward. I don't think you can do much better either buying or selling that dealing with Chad.
 
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#34,091
theFixer said:
Should there be a drastic, or subtle difference in height?
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That depends on your preferred string break-angle... Normally I would just go slightly higher on the front stud but YMMV to get the desired action while being buzz free - Some of mine are slightly higher than the others to keep them from buzzing on the high frets.
 
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