Thunderbird Club

[MCF]

Where can we have that discusion? “Off the books: the underground economy” great book.



Naw I’ll keep the bird... soapboxes are cheap and music is better than any soap box but thanks this has been quite helpful. I’m starting to see which members I might really like above and beyond bass talk... as well as how much time I’m wasting.

I used to waste a lot of time on taborama when I was between 17 and 20.... thank god it was shut down. I never would have escaped. It helped me refine my own thoughts and oversights. It’s important to speak your thoughts out loud so that they may be challenged. Just have to find somewhere else....

PillO speaks of some secret shadow only paid members have access to. Can we not start something for the rest of us?

Well, I for one think you and I could have some interesting conversations/debates over a few (or several) cold ones. And I would welcome it. I’m a 60 year-old Californian, born and raised. And I’m about as liberal as they come. And (first time I’ve ever disclosed this here) I’m a lawyer and very political. But this isn’t the place for that.

You are welcome and valued as a contributor to our little community. We talk Birds, amps, cars, music, concerts, chicks, dudes, and a lot of nonsense. We have fun and don’t take things too seriously. Our common bond is our love for the most amazing bass ever made, the Tbird.

So please Mark, hang around, join in and enjoy a diverse group of nonjudgmental friends who find this to be a comfortable refuge for a few minutes every day.

 

[Inky13]

If I can get 10K for a kidney, she's mine!

The only reason I have any gear at all is that I woke up in an ice-filled bathtub with a cell phone strapped to my arm.

 

[MCF]

Yes she’s amazing

Yep. One reason I am still a klutz with a pick. I swore I would learn all Clash songs with a pick. But others did punk/new wave finger style so really, why couldn’t I? I am trying though.

 

[Markamb1]

Well, I for one think you and I could have some interesting conversations/debates over a few (or several) cold ones. And I would welcome it. I’m a 60 year-old Californian, born and raised. And I’m about as liberal as they come. And (first time I’ve ever disclosed this here) I’m a lawyer and very political. But this isn’t the place for that.

You are welcome and valued as a contributor to our little community. We talk Birds, amps, cars, music, concerts, chicks, dudes, and a lot of nonsense. We have fun and don’t take things too seriously. Our common bond is our love for the most amazing bass ever made, the Tbird.

So please Mark, hang around, join in and enjoy a diverse group of nonjudgmental friends who find this to be a comfortable refuge for a few minutes every day.

Thank you. I will. I’d be interested to hear anything you have to say, in relation to some of the subjects I touched on or anything else maybe in a PM. Sounds like I sparked something with you. Maybe I just have the opposite problem than everyone else, too much shallow conversation in daily life and not enough meaningful conversation anywhere else.

Shallow conversations are wonderful in their own right but some people I’d like to believe, are just teeming with so much more... no matter how trivial the conversation it can spark a great outpouring of information, well formed into a significant concept.

For those who do, even when they try not to, they find inspiration and realization in the most unexpected places as it over flows at every opportunity, unable to speak plainly. A constant reminder that maybe there’s more to them... more that needs tending to, maybe they should be doing something different if their life is not currently a significant and positive outlet for that creative and intellectual energy.

So there you have it. Thanks for being a forum through which that realization is reinforced. I think I shall find a better place and use for it.

“Watch your thoughts for they become words. Watch your words for they become actions. Watch your actions for they become…habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny! What we think we become.”

 

[Markamb1]

What I love about forums now though is the access to people and information. Can you imagine how many people you would have to know And interact with to get the same kind of access and information? How many days and nights you would have to spend in stores and at shows talking to random people and hoping to get relevant and helpful information from people in the short time that anyone has for anyone else. Impossible. I was a transitional generation...the internet existed but there weren’t as many people on it so the information was less available and harder to find...

Even today I hate going into music stores and asking about anything. Most people don’t know or don’t care.... dont know and don’t care....and don’t care that they don’t know.

 

[Gaolee]

What does tl;dr mean?

Too long, didn't read.

 

[Markamb1]

Well now I know. I’m surprised I haven’t come across that sooner, With the way I write anyway.

 

[Gaolee]

I've recently been tempted to 'thin out the flock' and sell my Pro IV. I got it a year after I started playing, didn't like the sound at all, strung flats per this group's recommendation and ended up digging the ultra warm tone. Alas, I still never played it b/c I prefer a brighter sound.

Anyway, last week I put rounds on it, took it to practice and decided I'd let it have its chance to either fly, or fall. Of course, instead of not liking it I actually really liked how it sat, cut, etc. And the band did not help either - they too liked it's sound.

So. Now.

It seems to have chosen you, except it's a tease.

 

[Gaolee]

Has anyone in the greater Seattle area actually put eyeballs on this [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]? I would love to get a birth year bass, but I probably can't bring myself to spend 10k even if it reasonable for the market.

I haven't wandered in there for a while. Maybe it's time now. The guy in the video is absolutely not a bass player, but he's a pretty decent guy. You won't get any bargains from there, though.

 

[Markamb1]

At least some of us spend a little less time on classified sites and eBay. Kijiji is big in Canada I spend too much time on there with the added downside of spending too much money as well....

But people seem to post 10k dollar basses here anyway so that’s not exactly helpful... a 57 Strat might be the most money I’ll ever spend on an instrument.... can’t think of a really expensive old bass.... maybe the EB 2....we all say we won’t until we actually play something and we’re hooked... anyone who doesn’t know why you would pay sooo much more for an “old” guitar has never played one and or is deaf and can’t feel their hands and is blind....

 

[GonePlaid]

Agree


But lost all his fried chicken

 

[GBassNorth]

At least some of us spend a little less time on classified sites and eBay. Kijiji is big in Canada I spend too much time on there with the added downside of spending too much money as well....

But people seem to post 10k dollar basses here anyway so that’s not exactly helpful... a 57 Strat might be the most money I’ll ever spend on an instrument.... can’t think of a really expensive old bass.... maybe the EB 2....we all say we won’t until we actually play something and we’re hooked... anyone who doesn’t know why you would pay sooo much more for an “old” guitar has never played one and or is deaf and can’t feel their hands and is blind....

I've played some old basses that were dogs, and I've played some that were stellar. Likewise I've played some new basses that were dogs and some that were stellar. I find that age isn't as much a factor in determining a good bass as is a good mixture of luck and skill.

When the right neck is put on the right body and wired with all the right components and finished with the right hardware by a craftsman that has the right skills the odds increase exponentially that you'll have a bass with all the right stuff to be that killer bass everyone wants. Luck frequently comes into play with mass produced or assembly line instruments like Fender or Gibson. Skill comes more into play in the boutique offerings like Lull, Pedulla and Alembic.

I suppose it's possible that some of that "mojo" we frequently attribute to vintage instruments might be a result of a higher percentage of artisans working in the Fender and Gibson shops back in the 1950's and 1960's. Maybe they had the time and skill to note variations in different components and make decisions on the fly as to which part to put on which bass for best results. Conversely, in today's age of minimized variation from component to component and increasingly automated processes where ideally the end result is to create nearly identical finished products there might be less opportunity to conjure up that special bass with new age mojo. But that's just pure speculation on my part. YMMV

 

[ToddOfThunder]

Yep. One reason I am still a klutz with a pick. I swore I would learn all Clash songs with a pick. But others did punk/new wave finger style so really, why couldn’t I? I am trying though.

I suck at finger style all I can play is a pick and I wonder how people play punk finger style? So I have to give her and everyone else huge props for playing punk finger style! Someday I hope to be able to.

 

[Markamb1]

Agreed... today though I think that while consistent, it’s consistently mediocre. Most specifically noted and clearly seen is in acoustic guitars... the aging and conditioning of the wood through drying and opening up from years of playing and even just being in the same room as high and low frequencies for extended periods of time.... they’ve done much to mimic these forces.... the Billy Corgan acoustic is really just a Yamaha lj16 A.R.E Acoustic Resonance Enhancement..... which has been subjected to frequencies and humidity extremes to condition the wood if I remember that correctly... the only real difference is the brass bridge pins and a branded head stock.... still I prefer it to any Gibson I pick up in store because they all, by comparison, feel and sound like thick, wet, tight sounding woods all wrapped up... a 1960s hummingbird though....very different. I think it was a 64 or 65 I played when I was younger at Tom Lee in Vancouver.

To a lesser but still noticeable degree I find this to be the case with electric and bass guitars as well.

Honestly though stock gauges and string choices can turn you off of any stock guitar on the shelf. I wasn’t a fan of the heavy gauge elixirs at all....switched to Ernie ball aluminum 10s down from elixir 12s. I don’t know why they set the action so high with 12s and 13s sure the volume is there but the feel is terrible, high action to the point of a deadened sound and volume.....you know how you lose optimum values of both as the action goes up. I guess it’s easier to lower action than raise it some cases.

 

[Markamb1]

I find picks a little more freeing and expressive when combing notes on different strings to strum together.... more attitude too. Stuff I just can’t do with my fingers. I like treating it like a guitar sometimes.

Any references to cool chords on the bass?

 

[PillO]

Too long, didn't read.

That question wasn't too long. I can't believe you didn't bother to read it. And then to waste your time responding!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I suck at finger style all I can play is a pick and I wonder how people play punk finger style? So I have to give her and everyone else huge props for playing punk finger style! Someday I hope to be able to.

Yeah. Pick, or thumb and first finger. Working on multiple fingers, but it’s slow going.

 

[GonePlaid]

Well, I for one think you and I could have some interesting conversations/debates over a few (or several) cold ones. And I would welcome it. I’m a 60 year-old Californian, born and raised. And I’m about as liberal as they come. And (first time I’ve ever disclosed this here) I’m a lawyer and very political. But this isn’t the place for that.

You are welcome and valued as a contributor to our little community. We talk Birds, amps, cars, music, concerts, chicks, dudes, and a lot of nonsense. We have fun and don’t take things too seriously. Our common bond is our love for the most amazing bass ever made, the Tbird.

So please Mark, hang around, join in and enjoy a diverse group of nonjudgmental friends who find this to be a comfortable refuge for a few minutes every day.

Well said!

 

[GonePlaid]

I've recently been tempted to 'thin out the flock' and sell my Pro IV. I got it a year after I started playing, didn't like the sound at all, strung flats per this group's recommendation and ended up digging the ultra warm tone. Alas, I still never played it b/c I prefer a brighter sound.

Anyway, last week I put rounds on it, took it to practice and decided I'd let it have its chance to either fly, or fall. Of course, instead of not liking it I actually really liked how it sat, cut, etc. And the band did not help either - they too liked it's sound.

So. Now.

Some years ago I thought about selling my '67 NR Bird. A guy at Sam Ash in Margate,FL,(a Mosrite fan)said to go home and play it before making a decision. I did-and I didn't sell it. Thanks, Dennis, for the advice.

 

[GonePlaid]

I’m sure you could get a lot more for a kidney if you wanted a few more basses... I know a guy that can broker a deal too

That's scary.