Thunderbird Club

[ProgressiveDoom]

In that order, I never noticed the club till @TBird1958 caught my eye. There she was in her avatar with a Bird, I dared to enter. And along with @JIO, @hillerup, @Gaolee, @GBassNorth and @kat888. They really all set me straight. And on the narrow path....
Pretty green when I bashed my way in. And everyone was patient and guided me through to the way of the Bird.

I didnt own my Bird for long and was new to TalkBass for about a week and saw this club and posted my Bird and the first comment I ever made was to @TBird1958 , I saw her avatar and posted "Sweet"!, "and the bass looks good too".

 

[wolfkeller]

Here we go, done. Spector euro bridge, Schaller tuners, emg PJs, custom made Haz preamp, (bass/treble cut/boost, set and forget inside cavity) single Vol, brass nut. Action is a bit high due to bridge not being countersunk enough so I believe using slightly lighter strings will bring it down enough. Sounds just like a Spector!

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

So as promised, pictures of new string day.
They’re DR Dragon Skin coated. I messed up when I ordered them, I was thinking of DR Red Devils, but BSO didn’t have them. I saw the red on the label, and the name Dragon Skin, I figured they were the red ones. Oh well.
The Hipshot GB7 fit perfectly, but stands a little higher than the rest. But it is 100% worth it. I’m thinking about trying to switch those small rings under the “Y-Key” with the old ones. You can see they’re different colours than the stock ones above it.

 

[kat888]

That it does. Never heard the Axstar in person (or Paul Kean for that matter) but an upper midrange focused bass as noted in the Kean article is 180 out from the sound I'm after, so I guess I'll just have to pass on getting one of these.

Unrelated - did you ever get the bugs worked out of your Tech pedal? I stopped using mine quite some time ago, it had lots of tone options but only a couple that worked for me. Not to mention the excessive interaction between a couple of the knobs - nudge one a hair one way and you're ok but barely touch another and you're suddenly miles from where you want to be. Not a gig friendly pedal IMHO.

You know, that is the irk I've heard people talk about when it comes to the VT. I demo'd one years back and it just didn't work for me. For those very reasons you mentioned.

In reverse order ... the Tech21 pedal works exactly as you describe. Just the smallest turn and it goes from distinct notes with barely perceptible overdrive to total mush. There's no graduation. If you try to fine tune it with the blend control, you get a clean signal, with a distinct pong of total mush. It's completely unusable with the chorus pedal, not that I use really use it, but want to be able to use it, should I so wish.

@BklynKen asked what overdrive sound I'm after the other day and I never got around to answering. The sound is well overdriven Fender/Marshall/Vox where the notes are still distinct, no buzzsaw or anything. My amp runs more or less flat curving up in the low mids and sounds like liquid, golden caramel. My aim is to get *reasonably* close to that, taking into account there are no 6550s or output transformer.

I think Paul Kean's bass was a cut down J body. I traced around it once but lost the tracing. When I was into Rics it sounded pretty good to me. These days I wouldn't give it a second look.

The Enemy were Dunedin's seminal garage/punk band. I went through school/uni with the drummer's sister, even shared a house at one point. When the Enemy's bass player quit, they replaced him with Paul and a keyboard player = Toy Love. The recordings never reflected how dark they were live ... and their album was appallingly recorded and mixed.

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

@kat888
Here’s a video of the B7K Ultra DI’d

 

[ProgressiveDoom]

Here we go, done. Spector euro bridge, Schaller tuners, emg PJs, custom made Haz preamp, (bass/treble cut/boost, set and forget inside cavity) single Vol, brass nut. Action is a bit high due to bridge not being countersunk enough so I believe using slightly lighter strings will bring it down enough. Sounds just like a Spector! View attachment 2810079 View attachment 2810080

Dude that turned out way fn' cool! I so love the input angle too

 

[kat888]

Im watching the votes as they keep climbing in favor of the Fender brand. As often as Ive read the saying that "Fender needs to change things up", "That body style is tired", "Those bodies are too heavy". Look at the current vote count. Im a FSO kind of guy and I wouldnt have imagined this, hell Rickenbacker is way lower in the running than I predicted. The Thunderbird numbers dont surprise me somehow. I didnt know anything about a Bird until I just decided I need one, bought it after having plugged it in on low volume for about 5 minutes and I was sold.
Which one of my basses would you play?

The usual 'I've never played one but they suck' ... 'dive dive dive' -- can't even be bothered...

 

[ProgressiveDoom]

The usual 'I've never played one but they suck' ... 'dive dive dive' -- can't even be bothered...

Dont forget the broken headstock, they all come pre distressed so they are guaranteed to snap.

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

Dont forget the broken headstock, they all come pre distressed so they are guaranteed to snap.

Oh and can’t forget the “it sounds like muddy mud… cause I don’t know how to actually EQ an amp for different basses”

 

[ProgressiveDoom]

Oh and can’t forget the “it sounds like muddy mud… cause I don’t know how to actually EQ an amp for different basses”

Another great point. I suppose Gibson/Epiphones failure to disclose this particular info in a fully detailed owners manual was partially to blame for that sentiment. Geez!, the least they could have done was engineer an amp specific to Thunderbirds only. Holy did I just say that?. Too late I guess I did. Henry did you catch that?, please inbox me so we can set up the royalty transfers. Thanks.

 

[wolfkeller]

Dude that turned out way fn' cool! I so love the input angle too

Thanks man! One thing I do, I use the same strap for multiple basses as my wireless is attached. I made it so I can use the same strap for this and my skull bass which is a reverse. Funny thing, this new one was a right handed reverse, the skull was a righty non reverse. Now they're both opposite. They both sound about the same with same pickups/preamp.

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

Another great point. I suppose Gibson/Epiphones failure to disclose this particular info in a fully detailed owners manual was partially to blame for that sentiment. Geez!, the least they could have done was engineer an amp specific to Thunderbirds only. Holy did I just say that?. Too late I guess I did. Henry did you catch that?, please inbox me so we can set up the royalty transfers. Thanks.

I can see it now!!
“Gibson Amps… Expensive As Sh!t… And For Guitars Only”

 

[wolfkeller]

For these basses with the front mount strat jack I use a straight plug, for my t birds I use an angled plug. I use 2 different transmitters, one for each strap that works for 2-3 basses.

 

[kat888]

Oh and can’t forget the “it sounds like muddy mud… cause I don’t know how to actually EQ an amp for different basses”

Funny isn't it. I like one knob on my bass and a full EQ set on my amp, while so many other people seem to want only a vol knob on their amp and the EQ on the bass.

Having owned a Ric and had the long term use of a J, I'd take the Bird everytime, with the P in second place (prolly with a J neck).

 

[wolfkeller]

Thanks. I wish I had the expertise to do something like this myself, but I so do not. I can rebuild your linux kernel, tear-ass around Watkins Glen, or calculate a good technical dive plan, though.

I got tired of paying guys to do things wrong. Decided, for the most part, to DIY. Only thing I don't do is routing since I rarely need it.

 

[kat888]

@kat888
Here’s a video of the B7K Ultra DI’d

Thanks. DG pedals do have that DG sound, but you can dial the drive and blend back, it still sounds 'musical' and you don't lose note definition. For me the EQ options make the B7KU more useful than the AΩ, even if the name isn't as coooool.

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

Thanks. DG pedals do have that DG sound, but you can dial the drive and blend back, it still sounds 'musical' and you don't lose note definition. For me the EQ options make the B7KU more useful than the AΩ, even if the name isn't as coooool.

It’s definitely a very versatile pedal, and can take some time to dial it in because of that, but never really had a bad tone coming out of it. I love mine and it’s currently the only dirt pedal in my chain


Those guys also did a video on the αΩ.

 

[Count Bassie]

Plan 9 does a tune that involves a lot of slap-style playing, I'm using my new wide-necked Bird. I notice my volume gets blurred due to this high-transient, difficult-to-master technique. The technique will come, but the transient thing is an issue. Two ways I'm thinking about it:

1) Bigger gauge, probably higher-tension strings will carry more energy for longer, resulting in a more hearable tone, and
2) Adding a pickup down at the bridge. This will in turn do two things:

1) Ruin my plan for having a Thunderbird II bass, and
2) make my Bird sound a little less like a "classic Bird".

If it tailors the bass more to my musical agenda, so be it. Also it's a mod-machine anyway. So off I go... busting out the router tonight to fit that G&L MFD thing into it.

Pix when it happens.

 

[wolfkeller]

Plan 9 does a tune that involves a lot of slap-style playing, I'm using my new wide-necked Bird. I notice my volume gets blurred due to this high-transient, difficult-to-master technique. The technique will come, but the transient thing is an issue. Two ways I'm thinking about it:

1) Bigger gauge, probably higher-tension strings will carry more energy for longer, resulting in a more hearable tone, and
2) Adding a pickup down at the bridge. This will in turn do two things:

1) Ruin my plan for having a Thunderbird II bass, and
2) make my Bird sound a little less like a "classic Bird".

If it tailors the bass more to my musical agenda, so be it. Also it's a mod-machine anyway. So off I go... busting out the router tonight to fit that G&L MFD thing into it.

Pix when it happens.

I'd suggest a good preamp/EQ for that. My outboard haz preamp does wonders for bringing out my Gibson.

 

[JJR58]

Thanks. DG pedals do have that DG sound, but you can dial the drive and blend back, it still sounds 'musical' and you don't lose note definition. For me the EQ options make the B7KU more useful than the AΩ, even if the name isn't as coooool.

The eq points on the toggle switches are perfect. For me anyway. Lots of tone shaping, it's an always on thing for me.