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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
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- club thunderbird
I have lived in Philly my whole life. Its what we do best!
godofthunder59
Life is short, buy the bass.
- Feb 19, 2006
- 9,057
- 38,405
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Cataldo Basses, Whirlwind products, Thunderbucker pickups
I hesitate to post this as my video and speaking skills are terrible but here is my over due review of my Cataldo NR Thunderbird.
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
Great job Scott! I’m not sure why you don’t think you’re good at doing reviews...you covered everything I’d want to know about the build quality, added real world experience playing and recording on it and you gave great examples of the sound by playing nice, strong parts. Well done and keep em coming, please!
"Sometimes I forget I'm not playing one of my original 1960's Thunderbirds"... does praise get higher than that?
Looks like I'll get my DR Silver Star strings in the mail today. These are supposed to be similar to Black Beauties, which I use on my Stingrays but have yet to try on a Bird. They'll get thrown on the new Eppi VP (fingers crossed that the G string is long enough). @dukeorock seems to be getting lots of praise for the BB strings on his Bird so I'm kinda excited to see how these sound. I'll post a review after I try them out. Still lovin the Gold Optimas on the anniversary bird and the La Bella Black tapes on the FrankenGoth.
The Spectorbird (Rex 5 Pro) is still running a very broken in set of Chrome rounds on it, so it may be the next bird to get strung up. I like my birds to sound as different as possible - more sonic choices in the toolbox is always a good thing for me. Any thoughts out there on a string that would take me in a different direction than the Optima Gold, DR SS and La Bella Tapes? I've tried Cobalt rounds and hated them, don't really want to go flats on the Rex 5 string, so mostly focusing on Rounds. Maybe a string that really brings out a super deep authoritative (not flabby or muddy) low B. What string would fit that bill?
The Spectorbird (Rex 5 Pro) is still running a very broken in set of Chrome rounds on it, so it may be the next bird to get strung up. I like my birds to sound as different as possible - more sonic choices in the toolbox is always a good thing for me. Any thoughts out there on a string that would take me in a different direction than the Optima Gold, DR SS and La Bella Tapes? I've tried Cobalt rounds and hated them, don't really want to go flats on the Rex 5 string, so mostly focusing on Rounds. Maybe a string that really brings out a super deep authoritative (not flabby or muddy) low B. What string would fit that bill?
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
Looking forward to your review on the Silver Stars! Keep forgetting to order some. I don’t play 5’ers but my Drake is drop tuned to C# Standard. It’s got Dunlop Super Brights and the Low C# sounds really good. Dunlop gave me a few 5 string sets, so I just used the lowest 4. I think for focused low strings the DR SS Lo Riders are a nice, lively, but tight sounding string as well.
Black Beauty’s are very strange and cool. They have qualities of flats, rounds and tapes at the same time. Tough to explain, but they’re a trip. Like I said, I don’t love em when I’m playing by myself (they still have a slightly odd feel to me), but they really sound great with a band, I think.
Agree with your comment on wanted each bass to bring something different to the table!
Loved the review! Thanks so much for posting it and for playing both finger and pick style (and not slapping LOL).
You, our Queen and many others on this thread have inspired me to get off my ass and start learning how to play with a pick. It just transforms the TBird in particular to a completely different bass, it's like it was designed to be played that way. I'm currently an exclusive fingers guy so this pick thing is going to take some getting used to. Should be an interesting journey.
No matter how hard i try playing with a pic, i'm even more of a hack with that then i am with the fingers..
At least the fingers are a bit more forgiving.
There's only 2 relatively common kinds of strings that I can think of that I haven't seen discussed in these pages. I can't speak to either one of them as they relate to bass, but I play/have played both on guitar. One is Elixer. On guitar... I absolutely hated them. On bass, I think they could have something to offer. The other is anything pure nickel (not nickel plated steel). I prefer pure nickels on my Strats & Teles. The pure nickels kinda round off the bright sharp tone inherent in these models, and wear better than NPS. If the Spector has a hot bright active sound... pure nickels might be a way to soften if up & give it a little bit of a more natural or "vintagey" kinda vibe. My knowledge of active systems is limited to that grey area between "jack" and "squat", but between you and @dukeorock maybe wunnaya will stumble into either of these & find something useful.
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
I’d like to try optimas at some point
Not that great of a car...
There's only 2 relatively common kinds of strings that I can think of that I haven't seen discussed in these pages. I can't speak to either one of them as they relate to bass, but I play/have played both on guitar. One is Elixer. On guitar... I absolutely hated them. On bass, I think they could have something to offer. The other is anything pure nickel (not nickel plated steel). I prefer pure nickels on my Strats & Teles. The pure nickels kinda round off the bright sharp tone inherent in these models, and wear better than NPS. If the Spector has a hot bright active sound... pure nickels might be a way to soften if up & give it a little bit of a more natural or "vintagey" kinda vibe. My knowledge of active systems is limited to that grey area between "jack" and "squat", but between you and @dukeorock maybe wunnaya will stumble into either of these & find something useful.
I've tried the Elixer's. Didn't like em. The coating felt to rubbery, and at the time i was using them. The coating eventually started to crumble and fall off.
I was gigging back in those days. So not sure what they would be like now for me. But not likely to ever go back to them myself.
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
You stop that this instant
HAH!!! You made it farther than me! When I tried 'em on guitar... they came off, the same day they went on!
I'm sure I'll completely suck at pick, but at least I'll have an excuse - it's new to me. Can't use that excuse on my finger style playing unfortunately.
I'm 48 years old. Don'tcha think I would've stopped already if I were able???
