Thunderbird Club

[Larry V]

Some quick pics. Very impressed so far.
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Beautiful bass, Vee! Congrats!

Just installed the DR Silver Star strings on my Ebony VP. Here's the run down...

Installation
Tickled pink that the G string was long enough to make an easy three full wraps around the tuning peg. Recall the VP is enormously long for a 34" scale bass, much longer than any of my 35" basses in fact. I didn't measure the G string but I'd estimate it to be at least 50" in length, which easily allowed three full wraps on the uncut string - the long G string requirement was a major concern for me and my only complaint about the VP. Good to see that's less of an issue than I thought it would be. They do taper at the nut end, fortunately above the nut, so no issues there either. Much much lower tension than the stock Eppi VP strings. I had to back the truss rod off nearly three quarters of a turn to keep them from fretting out.

Appearance
The color is actually bright silver, not grey like most nickel or SS strings. No silks on either end and no goofy colored balls, just a neat clean looking silver string.

Feel
As mentioned earlier, very low tension. They feel lower in tension than my Black Beauties IIRC. Relatively smooth for a round wound string. Somewhere between a ground wound and round wound. Bends are relatively effortless, maybe even too easy. One could easily fret these strings sharp by accident if playing hard and not paying attention to left hand technique.

Sound
As desired, these strings tame the overly bright top end on the VP. Unfortunately they also knock out a fair amount of the grit and growl of the VP stock strings (what brand are those things?) and tame the VP to a more mild manner beast with a creamier bottom end and more subdued top end. These are not mid focused strings, they are very balanced across the board just less grit and zing. Surprisingly, they seem to allow a tad more finger noise on slides than my other black beauty strings but that might be more a function of the VP pickups, which are excessively bright. No one string stood out as significantly louder or quieter than the others.

Overall Opinion
I like the sound, they finally let me open up the tone knob a lot more than I could in the the past. Not to mention being able to leverage that odd bright bump in tone that you get on the VP when turning the volume knobs to their max setting. I was also able to raise the pups up much closer to the string for a bolder fuller sound with out having to dig in as hard as I previously did. As with most strings, right hand location plays a big part in how the string sounds but in addition to that tone control technique these strings also change tone significantly with a lighter or harder attack.

Practical Application
In a quick practice session I was able to set my tone knob mid way up (couldn't do that with the stock strings, too bright), then turn the bridge volume off and the neck at 9 while using a relative soft touch up near the neck for a very rich full bodied non muddy tone. Then with just a quick bump of the volume knob from 9 to 10 I was able to bring the strings to a much brighter and bolder tone, excellent for solo or forward in the mix work. And with just a bit of digging in the grit and growl picks up a bunch for that old school overdriven type sound. Slide the right hand over to the top of the neck pup and clarity increases without losing much of the richness. Slide further down over the bridge pup and things start to get a bit barky in a 70's disco funk kind of way. These are very responsive strings on a very responsive bass with very responsive pickups - that means tons of tone options with not only the tone knob but also the volume knobs, the hand placement and the attack. I can't think of a setting these strings wouldn't work well in. But buyer beware, they are low tension (and thankfully non floppy) strings.

Sounds really nice, G. How about a pic of the strings at the headstock to see what bright silver looks like with the tuners and another over the P/Ups for the same reason?

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

FIVE MORE PAGES!!!
TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

 

[hairypete1138]

Come on guys... there's a lot worse out there. That bass is beautiful to look at.

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My eyes are burning!!!

 

[hairypete1138]

Thanks guys. Just wondered if you guys who play thunderbirds use it as purely as a rock bass! I’m finding it quite versatile.

I only play thunderbirds now, so they have to be versatile or i’d be in a bit of a pickle!

 

[godofthunder59]

I only play thunderbirds now, so they have to be versatile or i’d be in a bit of a pickle!

I have played almost everything on my Thunderbirds!

 

[kat888]

My Birds occasionally play a little Station to Station era coke-funk. This is possible because they lead a double life as Ps on steroids. They don't do slapping though, because they are not J anythings, not in a double, triple, quadruple, or any other kind of life. There's enough violence in the universe without my Birds adding to it.

 

[dukeorock]

@dukeorock I wasn't gonna mention this cuz I figgerd youda thunk of it yerself already if you were interested. It finally bugged me enough to go ahead & tell ya cuz sometimes thinkers don't think of all the right stuff at all the right times… and yer fiddle's in the shop right now.

I put a blend pot in my 'bird (V/B/T instedda V/V/T)… and I'm thrilled with it! Now, adjusting my blend (which I use more like a tone pot), is done with one knob instedda two, and I can increase/decrease the volume of a blended tone with one knob. Just thought I'd toss it out there...

I had considered it...but if I do this one like that, I’d have to do a couple others too, so as not to confuse myself

 

[dukeorock]

My Birds occasionally play a little Station to Station era coke-funk.

Coke-funk. That’s funny

No avoiding this today...

Always seem to be next to the hotel. And what an aptly named restaurant

 

[Haji]

Yahoo Serious? Now there is a name I haven't heard since...

 

[Haji]

Coke-funk. That’s funny

No avoiding this today...
View attachment 2907364
Always seem to be next to the hotel. And what an aptly named restaurant

Yay Crack Baby...er...Barrel!!!

 

[Shannon]

They'll get thrown on the new Eppi VP (fingers crossed that the G string is long enough).

Obvious joke is obvious.

 

[Shannon]

Certainly possible that's the case. Lately I've been hearing a sort of pinging sound when tuning.

It's sonar. Someone is mapping the area for one of those undersea documentaries, but they don't wanna wait for global warming to flood you. So they are mapping now. Wear your tinfoil hat.

Woohoo! These just came in...
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Oooh, shiny! Just look at all that FOAM!
Oh, the pickups are cool too.

 

[Shannon]

I started out on bass with a pick...took years to get decent at fingerstyle. Upright probably helped there a little

You played an upright with a pick?
Props to you!

 

[Shannon]

That'd explain the lot of us.

Hey! I resemble that remark!

 

[JJR58]

Oooh, shiny! Just look at all that FOAM!
Oh, the pickups are cool too.

And it comes in a nice plastic box. All boxes should be saved and cherished. Just like the ones pedals come in.

 

[BklynKen]

Running out of Kat names ... KatBird (NR41) and ThunderKat (Epi) are already taken.

SnowKat? ArctiKat?

 

[Larry V]

And it comes in a nice plastic box. All boxes should be saved and cherished. Just like the ones pedals come in.

Ha ha ha... button pusher.

 

[Shannon]

And it comes in a nice plastic box. All boxes should be saved and cherished. Just like the ones pedals come in.

And saving the plastic boxes saves the environment! Because stuff and reasons! I have had almost enough coffee!

 

[BklynKen]

So I emailed Rotosound about the string snapping and such, just since I figure they know their strings best and curious what they'd have to say about it. This is the response. I find it weird suggesting not to cut it at all.

It is very rare for more than one string in any set to be faulty. They all have different specs, made at different times on different machines, if you get my drift.
I would very politely advise however, that you should always wind the tail of the string at least 3 times around the machine post before taking up tension. This spreads the load and avoids unwanted shear stress at the hole or slot of the tuner.
Also, you should never ever cut the tails of bass strings because this can cause the windings to relax. Many players will do this if the string is a little on the long side for their particular bass but is very bad practice. You see, the windings lock around the length of the tail and prevents slippage, which can result in loss of tone, ring or unwanted resonance.
Now, I am not suggesting you do these things Ken but mention such as standard procedure, particularly when strings break at the tuner or/and tonal loss and rattles, buzzes etc.
Do please let me know how things progress.​

 

[GBassNorth]

And it comes in a nice plastic box. All boxes should be saved and cherished. Just like the ones pedals come in.

Wait...
Your pedals come with a box???
*** - I didn't get any boxes with mine. That's it, I'm gonna rage post in the gen pop, TB needs to hear about this travesty!


Still one of my favorite gen pop threads. The entertainment value is high around here with posts like that one and Jimmys "string change" and "eating tacos while hunting down a stolen bass" and "help I just stabbed my cabinet".