Thunderbird Club

[dagrev]

No.

'Zackly.

I'm not laughing.








Yes I am.

 

[JIO]

Is it a bird or a J?View attachment 7534809

Both... my Ex-Factorbird fretless started its life w/J pu's, but over the years switched to first Wilkinson buckers and currently G&L L-2K pu's/9v pre. (no pic's of the intermediate stage...)

 

[JIO]

Sorry how this sounds but I wouldn't do any nut cuttin' until you try the string on first. Because if you go too deep, you'll get buzz, and trust me even fretless will buzz if there's not enough relief. But I've seen the videos on YouTube how to fill overly wide/deep nut slots.

Just in case- for a Gibson guitar.

Super glue & baking soda - used it a few times to repair a nut...

 

[GBassNorth]

Is it a bird or a J?View attachment 7534809

Hey, sometimes ya just gotta strum a different pup. Wouldn't be the first Tbird I've seen with Jazz pickups. In fact, this one is at Pat Wilkins right now getting a body paint job…

Hope to have it back and reassembled in early August. Just for the record, although the ThumbDerBird has dual Jazz pups it sounds nothing like a Jazz, it's pretty much identical to my Warwick Thumb bass which it was modeled after.

 

[JIO]

Hey, sometimes ya just gotta strum a different pup. Wouldn't be the first Tbird I've seen with Jazz pickups. In fact, this one is at Pat Wilkins right now getting a body paint job…
View attachment 7535254
Hope to have it back and reassembled in early August. Just for the record, although the ThumbDerBird has dual Jazz pups it sounds nothing like a Jazz, it's pretty much identical to my Warwick Thumb bass which it was modeled after.

I have Fender PV (Pure Vintage) '74's in my '66 J and PV '63s in my Ubersonic - yes, sometimes you gotta strum a pu that works perfectly with your bass.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Battle Angel

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Battle Angel

I was so bummed there wasn't a sequel. A friend of ours was Rosa Salazar's body double for that movie. She was even more bummed.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Careful. If you spell her name wrong she'll turn into Attila!

Nature of the beast.

 

[Count Bassie]

This is the bass sound I love the best. I love that big, farty, unwieldy, deep, dark bark, and I think it's used to good affect here.

 

[ectoflanger]

Never would have guessed this-

 

[ectoflanger]

Cool vid. I supposed she wired them series-parallel to get 8 total ohms from four 8 ohm speakers?

 

[dagrev]

Used this yesterday and got a great complement from a former drummer. He had heard it a number of times but came up yesterday and asked if I did anything or changed anything other than that bass from the last few weeks and said it sounded fantastic. I told him the only thing I changed was I backed the "character" knob back from 10:00 to 8:30 on the Sansamp VT Dx I use as my DI. This would tend to smooth out the tone and make it more full. Not sure what the impact was FOH. I did use the Ampeg tube head. The Ampeg just has some bigness and 3-D presence the ABM lacks--which is my only negative (too strong a word) for the ABM, and possibly there is a way to get it closer with some EQing.

I will say the Sansamp VT is an average amp saver. I used that when I couldn't find an amp and cab that suited me. Got a Bass Driver first and it helped some but was was way too scooped and glassy. Got the VT (Ampeg tone), and talk about making average rigs sound great. I don't use it in front of the heads now--DI only to have some of what I want my bass to sound like in FOH.

Oddly enough I was curious about my bass EQ in FOH prior to run through and took a pic. I'm no expert and have no idea what the SG is hearing, but wasn't sure this is likely ideal. But it seems me changing the character might have helped. Who knows.

 

[Engle]

Used this yesterday and got a great complement from a former drummer. He had heard it a number of times but came up yesterday and asked if I did anything or changed anything other than that bass from the last few weeks and said it sounded fantastic. I told him the only thing I changed was I backed the "character" knob back from 10:00 to 8:30 on the Sansamp VT Dx I use as my DI. This would tend to smooth out the tone and make it more full. Not sure what the impact was FOH. I did use the Ampeg tube head. The Ampeg just has some bigness and 3-D presence the ABM lacks--which is my only negative (too strong a word) for the ABM, and possibly there is a way to get it closer with some EQing.

I will say the Sansamp VT is an average amp saver. I used that when I couldn't find an amp and cab that suited me. Got a Bass Driver first and it helped some but was was way too scooped and glassy. Got the VT (Ampeg tone), and talk about making average rigs sound great. I don't use it in front of the heads now--DI only to have some of what I want my bass to sound like in FOH.

View attachment 7535421


Oddly enough I was curious about my bass EQ in FOH prior to run through and took a pic. I'm no expert and have no idea what the SG is hearing, but wasn't sure this is likely ideal. But it seems me changing the character might have helped. Who knows.
View attachment 7535429

He anti-scooped your tone quite a bit. Rolled off your lows and highs, while pushing mids.

 

[Engle]

Never would have guessed this-

Why? Gibson headstock snaps are common. They get repaired and the guitar/bass goes back into service.
IMO epoxy isn't ideal, but it works.

 

[Engle]

Arrived next day:
View attachment 7534838

So onward to nut layout, then sanding, polishing, assembly... and learning how to play fretless.

Regarding nut layout:

The clearly-factory nut on my 2018 lefty bird is... odd.

Does not seem to be constant center spaced, but clearly also is not constant gap spaced.

The edge to string gap on the low E side is way larger (0.130") than the gap between the G and the edge (0.097").

Gaps between strings, low to high, are
0.291"
0.342"
0.334"
(Strung with 045-105 EBCFs, at pitch)

And center to center, best I can resolve, are:
0.386"
0.419"
0.389"

Do we have any group knlowedge re: how Gibson cuts nuts (hand, machine, combination)?

It's almost like the nut was laid out for right-hand equal-gap spacing but then cut to LH string-width pattern.

My LPDCjr Tribute bass, made in '22, isn't similar; it's a wider nut overall (1.6" nom.) being short-scaled, but string spacing seems symmetrically-centered, dead on 0.425".
Only thing similar is that the edge-to-E gap is larger than the G-to-edge gap, though less prominently so.

Not true on any of my other-brand basses far as I can tell. The Guild and the Schecter fiver are constant-gap, and the FSOs are constant center... and low string is closer to the edge than the high string on all 3 brands.

Opinions and arcana welcome.

Temptation is to go constant center at 0.4", havent decided if I will true-center or equal-space the edges, or which way I will bias.

Cat adoption and acclimation is stealing my hobby time this weekend. In a good cause.

I think Gibson cuts them by hand. Funky spacing is common.
I would look at your existing basses and copy the spacing scheme that feels right to you. It's not an exact science.
FWIW I account for the string thickness when I decide my spacing.

 

[MCF]

He anti-scooped your tone quite a bit. Rolled off your lows and highs, while pushing mids.

That is generally how I set eq for Thunderbirds, upside down smiley face. Of course it depends on the music.

 

[dagrev]

He anti-scooped your tone quite a bit. Rolled off your lows and highs, while pushing mids.

In the past it's sounded thin from what I hear backside of the FOH. Possibly me essentially removing mid-type freqs yesterday that helped.

 

[GonePlaid]

Used this yesterday and got a great complement from a former drummer. He had heard it a number of times but came up yesterday and asked if I did anything or changed anything other than that bass from the last few weeks and said it sounded fantastic. I told him the only thing I changed was I backed the "character" knob back from 10:00 to 8:30 on the Sansamp VT Dx I use as my DI. This would tend to smooth out the tone and make it more full. Not sure what the impact was FOH. I did use the Ampeg tube head. The Ampeg just has some bigness and 3-D presence the ABM lacks--which is my only negative (too strong a word) for the ABM, and possibly there is a way to get it closer with some EQing.

I will say the Sansamp VT is an average amp saver. I used that when I couldn't find an amp and cab that suited me. Got a Bass Driver first and it helped some but was was way too scooped and glassy. Got the VT (Ampeg tone), and talk about making average rigs sound great. I don't use it in front of the heads now--DI only to have some of what I want my bass to sound like in FOH.

View attachment 7535421


Oddly enough I was curious about my bass EQ in FOH prior to run through and took a pic. I'm no expert and have no idea what the SG is hearing, but wasn't sure this is likely ideal. But it seems me changing the character might have helped. Who knows.
View attachment 7535429

The Shadow do.

 

[Engle]

In the past it's sounded thin from what I hear backside of the FOH. Possibly me essentially removing mid-type freqs yesterday that helped.

If you really want to know how it sounds out front, get a wireless and go out there.
It gets interesting about 30ft out when you start hearing latency due to the speed of sound (not the wireless unit) and you have to adjust your playing slightly ahead of the beat

 

[Miles_ONeal]

If you really want to know how it sounds out front, get a wireless and go out there.
It gets interesting about 30ft out when you start hearing latency due to the speed of sound (not the wireless unit) and you have to adjust your playing slightly ahead of the beat

It can be even closer than that, depending on your hearing. But by 30 feet, almost everyone will notice unless they're just not paying attention. In which case, one arguably shouldn't be playing.