Thunderbird Club

[Larry V]

I love these strings, Ken and have them on almost all of my basses.

Great tone, smooth to the touch and nice tension with no sloppiness.

Amazon.com: D'Addario ECB81 Chromes Bass Guitar Strings, Light, 45-100, Long Scale: Musical Instruments

 

[BklynKen]

I love these strings, Ken and have them on almost all of my basses.

Great tone, smooth to the touch and nice tension with no sloppiness.

Amazon.com: D'Addario ECB81 Chromes Bass Guitar Strings, Light, 45-100, Long Scale: Musical Instruments

Flatwound? Wow. Thanks, but I'm definitely sticking with round.

 

[Larry V]

Flatwound? Wow. Thanks, but I'm definitely sticking with round.

Yes they are flatwound. I also like the feel of tapewounds once they've got a little time on them. At first they are super slippery. Any reason for not wanting to try flatwounds? I'm just curious.

 

[Gaolee]

Thanks!

Yes, a Birthyear Vox

Yes, plus Fender Twin Reverb and the Ampeg B15S that I played with the other day.
Nice studio now hey?

I was confident that the Hammond was going "to a good home".

The Basement of Bad Ideas can't compete with your heap of bits and pieces. I'll have to remember how to find this picture in the event that my wife decides I need to purge. She does that sometimes. She's going through old paper she has collected for about 20 years and that has been hopelessly out of date for at least ten. Which is a concern. That means she's getting organized. Which means she's going to turn the organizer ray on me sooner rather than later. It's always an adventure when that happens. She will dig into files that I keep for reasons I know about, and rearrange them. I'm lousy at filing as it is, and that means I really can't find anything. Plus, I have to get rid of things that will inevitably be essential about a week after the purge. Oh, well. It's what happens when you marry the most beautiful woman on the planet and who also has none of the usual caracature flaws about shoes and shopping and the like and is therefore as close to a perfect human as you can get. I keep the average down. It's my job.

 

[theFixer]

I haven't played it out yet. My little group has fizzled out this year and I'm feeling a bit lost. Band meeting Thursday to sort out our future. If indeed we have one as us.

I really like it, very warm, but have no ability to compare it against other valve amps. Guitarists seem to like them, or did back in the day.

You mentioned Marshall before, from reading around I get the idea that Eminar (and other) Aussie valve amps are like Australia.
Take a little bit from the US, and a bit from the UK, mix it up and change it a bit to suit ourselves.
I gather mine is basically a Bassman/Marshall style design. Which I guess was a common thing back in the day.

There is a story floating around that a guitarist by the name of Blackmore, took a liking to Eminar while touring here with DP.

Thought this link may be of interest ?
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By the way, the first listed valve amp on the chart is mine...

Cool man! Thanks! That'll be a fun read for this evening (my girls are coming to visit for a while today)

 

[theFixer]

Speak of the devil! Here's a cherry 120th Anniversary Edition being offered out of Ann Arbor, MI.

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Very nice offering for $1,300.

drool You gonna go after it?

 

[Larry V]

Speak of the devil! Here's a cherry 120th Anniversary Edition being offered out of Ann Arbor, MI.

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Very nice offering for $1,300.

Apparently this bass is owned and is being sold by the bassist for Citizen Zero, Sam Collins.

Here it is in action:

 

[Larry V]

drool You gonna go after it?

Nah... it's cool but it wouldn't do anything for me beyond what my 2013's do tone-wise.

 

[Gaolee]

If you want something smoother on the fingers try nickel plated or coated. DR Black Beauties are nice, haven't used them on my Thunderbird. I still have an old set of strings on it because I just picked up my basses for the first time in awhile back in December also still waiting for my order of strings.

I have been happy with a lot of different things on the 'Birds. The original bolt-on that convinced me I had been adopted by 'Birds had Black Beauties on it. Great strings. I'm thinking about using those on the magic '01 when it needs strings.

 

[BklynKen]

Yes they are flatwound. I also like the feel of tapewounds once they've got a little time on them. At first they are super slippery. Any reason for not wanting to try flatwounds? I'm just curious.

Yeah, the inherent warmth of the sound. I think brighter strings compliment the Thunderbird's sound well.

 

[Larry V]

Yeah, the inherent warmth of the sound. I think brighter strings compliment the Thunderbird's sound well.

A strings tone can be dialed in electronically so comfort is more important to me and that's what I thought you were after.

 

[BklynKen]

A strings tone can be dialed in electronically so comfort is more important to me and that's what I thought you were after.

I hear you. Sorry if I wasn't clearer. I just meant a little less harsh than the Rotosounds.

 

[JIO]

This could be a general 'shoot-out' thread but I feel (and will most likely be joined in my opinion) that the T-bird included if not hands-down the best sounding bass in this well-done comparison of the most played basses out there, it for sure sounds pretty righteous. You be the judge!

 

[BklynKen]

This could be a general 'shoot-out' thread but I feel (and will most likely be joined in my opinion) that the T-bird included if not hands-down the best sounding bass in this well-done comparison of the most played basses out there, it for sure sounds pretty righteous. You be the judge!

That's a cool video. Funny how my opinion changes between fingers and pick. I love the sound from the Warwick with fingers, but not so much with a pick. And vice versa with the Ric. I love the sound of the Thunderbird with a pic, but not as much with fingers, though mine sounds more like the video's with a pick. I guess it's to do with strings and amp settings.

 

[PillO]

This could be a general 'shoot-out' thread but I feel (and will most likely be joined in my opinion) that the T-bird included if not hands-down the best sounding bass in this well-done comparison of the most played basses out there, it for sure sounds pretty righteous. You be the judge!

Haven't we been through this already (recently, like within the last 500 pages)?

I was amazed at just how thin the jazz sounded. It was just terrible.

Overall, I like the way humbuckers sound .

But my criticisms of the methodology are:
This is not double blinded - so both the player and the judges (us) know what is being played.
We do not know that the strings are all the same and the same age (fresh obviously being the preference).
We do not know that the EQ was set the same/optimised for each instrument.

Off the top of my head, any/all of these are sources of bias that cam meaningfully change the results.

 

[JIO]

Haven't we been through this already (recently, like within the last 500 pages)?

I was amazed at just how thin the jazz sounded. It was just terrible.

Overall, I like the way humbuckers sound .

But my criticisms of the methodology are:
This is not double blinded - so both the player and the judges (us) know what is being played.
We do not know that the strings are all the same and the same age (fresh obviously being the preference).
We do not know that the EQ was set the same/optimised for each instrument.

Off the top of my head, any/all of these are sources of bias that cam meaningfully change the results.

For sure - all good points PillO. Sorry to be redundant, I only posted it as it seems to be a good cross section of the most generic versions of each. No 'clinical test' - more 'tasters choice' of those examples. I guess if I posted it on a Fender or MM or Ric thread, yah.., folks would generally gravitate toward the bass they already prefer.

 

[Gaolee]

That comparison makes the P sound really good to me. The 'Bird sounded weak. I wonder what the settings were. 'Bird buckers are usually hotter than that. The non-surprise was that the Jazz sounded awful in all ways.

 

[RedVee]

The Basement of Bad Ideas can't compete with your heap of bits and pieces. I'll have to remember how to find this picture in the event that my wife decides I need to purge. She does that sometimes. She's going through old paper she has collected for about 20 years and that has been hopelessly out of date for at least ten. Which is a concern. That means she's getting organized. Which means she's going to turn the organizer ray on me sooner rather than later. It's always an adventure when that happens. She will dig into files that I keep for reasons I know about, and rearrange them. I'm lousy at filing as it is, and that means I really can't find anything. Plus, I have to get rid of things that will inevitably be essential about a week after the purge. Oh, well. It's what happens when you marry the most beautiful woman on the planet and who also has none of the usual caracature flaws about shoes and shopping and the like and is therefore as close to a perfect human as you can get. I keep the average down. It's my job.

I hear you. Just one thing, not my 'collection of good things'. I just get to visit at times.
It's a great setup. Some (at least) of which was purchased when the AUD was parity or better with the US.

 

[Gaolee]

I hear you. Just one thing, not my 'collection of good things'. I just get to visit at times.
It's a great setup. Some (at least) of which was purchased when the AUD was parity or better with the US.

Visitation rights to that place is still not too shabby.

 

[RedVee]

Visitation rights to that place is still not too shabby.

I'm struggling with "thou shalt not covet ....."