Thunderbird Club

[veebass]

I have some Phospher Bronze Round Wounds on my AB20, and yes Michael it uses a Piezio.


I recall that thread about neckdive - The collective TB intelligencia always amazes me, I just get tired of wasting my time them.

Somehow, this lithe, lovely woman manages to play a *big, heavy, neckdiving* Thunderbird and she's not even using a wide strap.......
I think some whiny 7ender boys need to hit the gym - says the scrawny Drag Queen

I have a Tanglewood AEB- pretty happy with it for the price.
Yes, the neck diving/ general Gibsons are rubbish threads.
If it is the recent one I remember, I was amazed that there was even discussion that the OP had faked pictures of Gibsons (a TBird and an SG?) defying gravity by inexplicably not neck diving while being worn without hands firmly attached to the neck.
Gibson neck dive....not my Gibsons | TalkBass.com

What can you do?

As @GBassNorth says above a data point 50 years ago is pretty laughable. The position of the top strap pin moved to the neck base years ago (and lots of old ones have had it moved since), light weight tuners etc have improved the balance of these basses
I play my T Birds at about the height and angle that the young lady in the pic does- no problem. I play all my basses about there.

As I posted in that thread #57, when it all got too much for me.

"This clip is interesting. It shows Ed balancing a bass heavily influenced by the Gibson RD at about 2.48 min. He correctly puts the "better balance" down to the strap button position on this bass, as though this is some improvement made by this manufacturer. However, he is almost 40 years out of date and makes an error when he says it is different to RDs and Thunderbirds. RDs used the same position for the strap button in the late 70s, as have Thunderbirds for some considerable time. In fact, RDs are less likely to neck dive than the Deldada bass given the RD has a very heavy maple body!
Little wonder so much misinformation exists about Gibson basses."


Interestingly, I got no reply.

 

[mistergoats]

Ya, I have 2" straps, mostly slidy seatbelt style ones. They work great.

 

[hillerup]

Yup it does! i think the only difference i'd do is either have a white/any colour pickguard rather than black & chrome hardware (i prefer chrome over any other colour hardware).

& i'm finally caught up with this thread (for some reason i don't get notified about this thread ). Congrats @mrb327 on the newcomer of thunderbird family



That looks nice, what is it? I already know which semi acoustic bass i'm going to get
View attachment 678216 It's nice to play, short scale & the first thing i'm doing after having it in my hands, Removing the pickguard. I might swap the controls all around for either chrome domes, clear speed knobs or witch hats. I'll use the chicken head for my ripper bass build.

Also, on the subject of my thunderbird, i brought her to my practice with my pop punk band & holy crap this thing has balls. Plugged just in my M80 with a little distortion to give that edge bite: it makes the basement tremble. & the string spacing doesn't kill me so much when jumping strings to do fills well not for this music genre anyway. My MKII is on hold for the moment, i'm figuring out my university courses & such so it'll kick back into high gear during october most likely (am also revamping my batman costume for this year & comic con etc.)

That white semi acoustic I posted is a Harley Benton HB-60, which is a Thomann house brand. It's more or less the same price as a bolt-on Epi bird and also comes in walnut color.

There's a couple of good demos and reviews on YT - People are generally pretty impressed with it...

 

[hillerup]

This whole neck-dive urban myth is ridiculous at best...

And even if it did dive a little, I wouldn't have a problem with it since I mostly play my basses sort of semi-horizontal...

 

[GBassNorth]

...

Now wait just a gosh darn minute there your Highness!
That picture has clearly been photo shopped! Some wise guy rotated the picture 90 degrees counter clockwise. Just look at the girls hair and dress, obviously gravity is pulling her hair and clothes (not to mention the lousy Tbird bass neck) towards the ground as it always does on this planet! Rotate that picture back 90 degrees clockwise the way it was before you photo shopped it and you'll see that neck pointed straight at the ground just like every non Fender bass ever made!

 

[hillerup]

LOL!!!

 

[veebass]

Now wait just a gosh darn minute there your Highness!
That picture has clearly been photo shopped! Some wise guy rotated the picture 90 degrees counter clockwise. Just look at the girls hair and dress, obviously gravity is pulling her hair and clothes (not to mention the lousy Tbird bass neck) towards the ground as it always does on this planet! Rotate that picture back 90 degrees clockwise the way it was before you photo shopped it and you'll see that neck pointed straight at the ground just like every non Fender bass ever made!

I reckon you are onto something!
At least the wise guy didn't photo shop her playing finger style. We know you can't play a TBird with anything other than a heavy pick.
If you could play them finger style and they didn't neck dive, why with that lovely fast neck and excellent pickups you would be able to do all sorts gymnastics on them and not sound mid scooped.
That would answer the commonly made criticism of the Jazz Bass.
Same wise guy probably photo shopped Mr Entwistle into The Who.

 

[Gaolee]

Entwhistle was a hologram. Everyone knows that. Sheesh.

 

[TBird1958]

Now wait just a gosh darn minute there your Highness!
That picture has clearly been photo shopped! Some wise guy rotated the picture 90 degrees counter clockwise. Just look at the girls hair and dress, obviously gravity is pulling her hair and clothes (not to mention the lousy Tbird bass neck) towards the ground as it always does on this planet! Rotate that picture back 90 degrees clockwise the way it was before you photo shopped it and you'll see that neck pointed straight at the ground just like every non Fender bass ever made!

I love her dress......want it bad!

 

[Klondike]

I love her dress......want it bad!

I love her dress too. But is would look better on the floor! Can I say that? Lol

 

[Haji]

We know you can't play a TBird with anything other than a heavy pick.

I really wish I could. I keep trying, but I just plain suck at it.

 

[Gaolee]

Every time I try to play with a pick, it comes out all wrong. Maybe Thunderbirds are off limits...

 

[Haji]

I guess they're not meant to work for some of us.

 

[hillerup]

I love her dress too. But is would look better on the floor! Can I say that? Lol

Now we're getting somewhere...

 

[Larry V]

One pick or four fingers? Four fingers for the win, Alex.

 

[marko57]

I love her dress too. But is would look better on the floor! Can I say that? Lol

I'm ok with it!

 

[marko57]

I really wish I could. I keep trying, but I just plain suck at it.

Curious thing about picks/fingers for me. In the 80's, I was 99.5% a pick player. Coming out of "retirement" 2 years ago and joining up with a band of friends, I've had to relearn old songs and learn
new songs but living in a condo, have to watch the volume a bit so in the process of sitting at home and working on songs, I've gotten in the habit of playing with my fingers to lessen the sound, picks
have a sharper/harder attack than the fingers. Now I'm probably 50/50 with picks/fingers, depends on the song we're playing. I still like the sharp/hard attack of a pick but sometimes I enjoy playing
with fingers too. Sometimes I HAVE to use a pick because these old fingers can't keep up!

 

[TBird1958]

I love her dress too. But is would look better on the floor! Can I say that? Lol

Play nice, that's Nikki from The Silversun Pickups!

 

[Klondike]

Play nice, that's Nikki from The Silversun Pickups!

I will delete my post if you like. No harm intended, but she is aweful cute.

 

[jd56hawk]

Play nice, that's Nikki from The Silversun Pickups!

Gotta love her choice of basses!