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Thunderbird Club

#37,121
Minirehak 212 said:
Sorry to disappoint but it's a burst, I don't like the look of any solid colors on basses. It's gotta be trans or natural.
You really think it's the quality of a Gibson?
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The quality is there but the output is the difference. The Epi pros, look, feel and play fantastic but don't have the same output as a Gibson. No big deal tho, just turn up the amp.
 
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#37,123
theFixer said:
I see. I was just a little confused when you said you were gonna try to secure a white one, cuz I knew that you'd already pre-ordered one...
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I do have one on order from Sweetwater.
I got a little excited from @kat888 post about the SamAsh thing.
It's the obsessive compulsive in me rearing its ugly head.
They say patience is a virtue, at times i have neither.
 
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#37,125
theFixer said:
That's a handy list! Thanks for linking me up!

The Rodger Waters sig. P-bass is also 1.75" at the nut. That's the widest 4 string bass nut width I've heard of.

@JJR58 mentioned that he used to have one of those AVRIs. He said the neck was so big that he sold it cuz he couldn't get used to it. I love the sound of that... but I would most likely land on a Ric before I would go for an FSO.
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Have you played any Ric's Fix?
The necks vary through the years, not sure it'd be to your liking.
I had a '97 4001, best Ric neck i've ever played, it was on the flat side.
 
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#37,128
Mantis Tobaggan said:
I love my 2013 Gibson Thunderbird. It plays great and looks awesome. It has action that is better than my Jazz CS and comparable with my Rick. However, the tone is only okay in my opinion. I am looking at a few bridges like the Hipshot supertone and the Babicz. Also I have been reading about thunderbucker pickups. Any ideas for how to get a more classic, Fender sounding bass tone?
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I put a Babicz and Lollar replacement pickups in my 2014 Thunderbird. To my ear, sustain and clarity improved quite a bit over the stock bridge and pick ups. The Babicz is super easy to install and set up is a breeze.

I played a Jazz bass for 22 years prior and the Lollars have fender like aspects to my ears, just with a wider tonal range and a greater low end response. Again none of this is science, just opinions.
 
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#37,133
kat888 said:
@hillerup - I'm fairly certain the Chinabucker won't come near the Thunderbucker, but will give it a fair shake and try to be as objective as possible.
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I'm also looking forward to the reviews. Depending on what you say, a set of Thunderbuckers for the '91 may become a higher priority.
 
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#37,134
kat888 said:
I actually agree, it's just that I like to be annoying, bloody-minded and obstreperous. The most accurate measuring device I have is an architectural scale, otherwise it's that 3m/10' builder's tape measure - good enough for building work.

Yeah you can see the nut is brass from where some paint has chipped off. The slots are way too wide and deep. I'll have a fret level added to the list.
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Depends on what you are building. Plus, staring at an architectural scale while drafting back when is one of the reasons I need glasses now. Those depend on your eyesight sometimes. I'm partial to calipers when something needs to be accurate over a short distance. I'm also hopelessly anal retentive in some ways, and completely not in others. So, take all that for what little it's worth.

I doubt the brass nut will make a huge difference in the sound you ultimately get, so long as everything is set up the way it should be. I'm in the wood matters, but it's behind pickups and the player when it comes to what sound you get. Same with nut material and whatever bridge you have on the bass.
 
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#37,135
JJR58 said:
Have you played any Ric's Fix?
The necks vary through the years, not sure it'd be to your liking.
I had a '97 4001, best Ric neck i've ever played, it was on the flat side.
Click to expand...
I had a 1998 for a while. It had a small, flattened neck. It wasn't chunky at all, but oddly enough, I found it reasonably comfortable. That bass wouldn't hang like a Thunderbird, more like a 7ender because of the upper horn and geometry. That said, it was the most comfortable bass I ever played that wanted to be horizontal and wouldn't stay vertical. I kept the Precision and got rid of the Ric and another Ric I got in trade for an enormous Acoustic bass stack. That's because the Ric didn't sound all that different from a Thunderbird, and I think 'Birds sound better. The P sounds like a P.
 
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#37,136
Gaolee said:
I had a 1998 for a while. It had a small, flattened neck. It wasn't chunky at all, but oddly enough, I found it reasonably comfortable. That bass wouldn't hang like a Thunderbird, more like a 7ender because of the upper horn and geometry. That said, it was the most comfortable bass I ever played that wanted to be horizontal and wouldn't stay vertical. I kept the Precision and got rid of the Ric and another Ric I got in trade for an enormous Acoustic bass stack. That's because the Ric didn't sound all that different from a Thunderbird, and I think 'Birds sound better. The P sounds like a P.
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There was hardly any chunk to the one i had, super comfortable, but it did balance quite well oddly enough.
And i like your descriptions of the Bird, Ric and P.
 
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#37,138
Gaolee said:
Depends on what you are building. Plus, staring at an architectural scale while drafting back when is one of the reasons I need glasses now. Those depend on your eyesight sometimes. I'm partial to calipers when something needs to be accurate over a short distance. I'm also hopelessly anal retentive in some ways, and completely not in others. So, take all that for what little it's worth.

I doubt the brass nut will make a huge difference in the sound you ultimately get, so long as everything is set up the way it should be. I'm in the wood matters, but it's behind pickups and the player when it comes to what sound you get. Same with nut material and whatever bridge you have on the bass.
Click to expand...
Spot on. Sound wise the most impact you'll get from a nut material change is a better or worse match between a fretted note and the same note played on an open string. I have found that all my basses with brass nuts do in fact sound very similar on open vs fretted notes. But that's not to say that other basses I have that don't have brass nuts don't deliver the same level of open/fretted note parity, some do and some don't.

And for the record - I still use my architects multi scale (in real fractional units vs those crazy metric ones) and calipers for fine work. It is getting harder to read those darn little 1/32 hash marks on the architects scale though.
 
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#37,140
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