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Thunderbird Club

Here's mine. '77 Greco TB900. I recorded some tracks for an album with it last week and the sound was "terrifying" according to the engineer. That's just how an engineer should be, I thought.

Also, Mark, if you have a moment after fixing the throne, I would be grateful for a tb club #. And happy birthday!

View attachment 683177


Lovely!
There are a few of us here with these monster birds now.
Yes I know what you mean- I did the last two gigs with my 77 Greco TB900!
Same case exactly as mine btw.

And I'll add birthday wishes as well!
 
Here's mine. '77 Greco TB900. I recorded some tracks for an album with it last week and the sound was "terrifying" according to the engineer. That's just how an engineer should be, I thought.

Also, Mark, if you have a moment after fixing the throne, I would be grateful for a tb club #. And happy birthday!

View attachment 683177


Welcome Matt O
Love the Greco, they Rawr like few basses can, you're #539 here at the Thunderbird Club, as always pics videos etc are encouraged.
You guys are a very chatty bunch, which I like, the list was 20 pages back.

Thank everybody for the Birthday wishes, I did get get the "throne" repaired!


TBird1958 #1
GodofThunder59 #2
Funkster#3
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Jazzbo58 #6
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PWV #15
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Walter Vega 33
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darkside 88 #47
GCool#48
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uncletupelo #51
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reptyls #58
dabido #59
96tbird #60
whilke #61
JIO #63
thebrain #64
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PhR #67
Dr.Eagle #68
lowend1 #69 Mopar or no car!
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s mcsleazy #71
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Matty H #73
moonshinegtrs #74
bass lord mutha #75
jumbodbassman #76
davidprice #77
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electrocoyote #83
ih8law #84
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rdwil191 #87
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TBirdie #91
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jaibeau #131
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jelenko #145
Jools4001 #146
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NOT #149
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aLLard #176
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LanOsb133 #180
Lowner #181
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guitarded #188
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jgould 1124 664
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phaze1todd #538
Matt O #539
 
You may be correct that a mahogany body helps land a 'true' T-bird tone but I'd have to see what @Dadagoboi has to add to this as he builds splendid T-bird-esk basses out of various body woods with full on T-bird pu's/electronics. As a personal example, I made a Fenderbird using a mahogany Epi body, a maple/rw bolt-on neck and (2) Wilkinson MM style hum-buckers with an w/active preamp and I can dial in a pretty effective T-bird tone with it.

My MKII is an all maple body, with bolt on maple neck w/rosewood fingerboard. Split precision pup & hum jazz at bridge. I recon i can get a spector nikki sixx vibe out of it since it's all going to be wired to a killswitch.

On another note: Happy Belated birthday your Majesty! May you rule the kingdom with a thunder fist!
 
I've also changed out all of my wall hangers in my aux studio to these Hercules hangers:

Hercules Stands Wallmount Guitar Hanger | Musician's Friend

I'm planning to start replacing the ones in my main studio, so here is a before picture w the Epi Thunderbird IV Classic Pro front and center. Fenders take a back seat :) View attachment 640858
Epi Thunderbird IV Classic Pro: What strings do you recommend? I want it to sound like a T-Bird, whatever that might mean, when using it in the studio. I have other basses for other sounds (see picture above). BTW, you folks convinced me to purchase this and I am very glad I did. Just some finishing touches now.
 
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Roundwounds. Stainless are brighter, nickel are a little mellower. In standard tuning or close to that I prefer the Dean Markley Blue Steels. If you wanna tune down (my band tunes to Drop C), I really like the Dunlop Heavy Cores and have my two main basses strung with 'em. Some people like flats on Birds but I hate 'em; they just sound...dead.
 
Do you have any sound examples of that fret less Thunderbird of yours?
I don't know of any. It also has Alumatone Bass Bars instead of the original pickups and is now passive instead of active. The sound changes dramatically depending on how I adjust the pickups. Those pickups are actually quite remarkable. If they are up near the strings, the sound is scooped, very hi-fi sounding and very modern. Back them down away from the strings and it gets more midrangy and softer. I don't know how else to describe it. It works for me.
 
I have chromes on my classic pro and gibson, d'addario black tapes on my blackbird.
Smooth and mellow. Melts like butter in my brain, and does NOT sound dead.
You want to hear dead, try DR flats.
Is there any way you can record a few bass lines withe the tapewound TBird? Im really curious about that type of strings, but Im not spending that much without being sure how they sound on a Bird. Ill get them for my future fretless bass though, but I already have an idea of how they're gonna sound on it.
 
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