Thunderbird Club

[Count Bassie]

Jenny Piccolo?

No... in fact that's not true, it was high school in S FL... Nina. Nice girl.

 

[Mike.C.]

TBird arrived today.

Initial impressions:

Did not weigh it, but this Freakin thing is light. Much lighter than my MIM Jazz or 4003S. I'm guestimating under 9 lbs

Fit and finish..could not find anything negative to report. Not a sharp fret, finish issue, sloppy pot, etc. In fact, comparing to the RIC, I say on par with the almost 2k instrument. Very impressed.

Noodled a bit. Neck is a tad thinner than the Jazz or RIC. Very comfortable for me at least, but I'm not picky about neck size. Fatter than an Ibby, thinner than a P and im good.
Neck relief is out of spec...strings touch fret when I checked relief. BUT....this did sit in zero degree temps this morning. Strings were shipped kinda loose...nowhere near in tune. I tuned and will let hang until tomorrow night. Will adj truss if needed. Not an issue, but did not play too much given the clank. This was not set up since built, so no big deal.

Plan on putting on new strings tomorrow. Not crazy about the OEM. Have a pack of Super Slinky's I will throw on before I check/adj neck.

Sound? Even with the clack, it sounded like I remember TBirds sounded like back in the day....

Long story short.....I think someone at Epiphone done screwed up. Neck threw TBird, at a very high quality, for 699 list?

I wouldn't be any less happy if I spent 1499.
Blows the MIM Jazz away, at a lower cost. And it's not even close.


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Awesome! Totally agree with you about the neck comparisons as I have all those same basses.

You’re gonna love it.

 

[dukeorock]

Did a fun (?) little run through with a few basses playing the same groove, one after the other. One thing I kinda forgot when using tapes (Hofner) is they prefer a very light touch to keep things from getting clacky

 

[Hounddog409]

Awesome! Totally agree with you about the neck comparisons as I have all those same basses.

You’re gonna love it.

Ha. Are we related? Jazz is burst. RIC is fireglow.

If yours are the same, I'm blocking you.

 

[BklynKen]

TBird arrived today.

Initial impressions:

Did not weigh it, but this Freakin thing is light. Much lighter than my MIM Jazz or 4003S. I'm guestimating under 9 lbs

Fit and finish..could not find anything negative to report. Not a sharp fret, finish issue, sloppy pot, etc. In fact, comparing to the RIC, I say on par with the almost 2k instrument. Very impressed.

Noodled a bit. Neck is a tad thinner than the Jazz or RIC. Very comfortable for me at least, but I'm not picky about neck size. Fatter than an Ibby, thinner than a P and im good.
Neck relief is out of spec...strings touch fret when I checked relief. BUT....this did sit in zero degree temps this morning. Strings were shipped kinda loose...nowhere near in tune. I tuned and will let hang until tomorrow night. Will adj truss if needed. Not an issue, but did not play too much given the clank. This was not set up since built, so no big deal.

Plan on putting on new strings tomorrow. Not crazy about the OEM. Have a pack of Super Slinky's I will throw on before I check/adj neck.

Sound? Even with the clack, it sounded like I remember TBirds sounded like back in the day....

Long story short.....I think someone at Epiphone done screwed up. Neck threw TBird, at a very high quality, for 699 list?

I wouldn't be any less happy if I spent 1499.
Blows the MIM Jazz away, at a lower cost. And it's not even close.


View attachment 3328965 View attachment 3328966 View attachment 3328967

Congratulations! I'm sure you'll have a blast. I wish they made those in left-handed.

Remember that the EQ for these will be different than with your Fender, so give it some time. I'd say first order of business: turn the Voicing knob all the way to Flat on your D800, with extreme prejudice.

 

[RedVee]

My little music room...

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Also have a bike on an indoor trainer in that room plus all the cases and gig bags. The need for room outweighs the need for stuff at the moment. Sold a couple amps too

That’s nice.

Is your museum open and on the RnR tourism trail?

 

[PillO]

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

That rocks! Buy it!

 

[PillO]

Jenny Piccolo?

Joanie's best friend.

 

[JJR58]

Did a fun (?) little run through with a few basses playing the same groove, one after the other. One thing I kinda forgot when using tapes (Hofner) is they prefer a very light touch to keep things from getting clacky

If i may ask. Pick, or plucking, and over which pick-up?

 

[RedVee]

Wall hangers.

I often see in the Gen Pop claims about “with my OCD...”

Wondering what works for people.

Place the wall hangers all in a row? (I would). But all the basses body ends will be uneven.
Or, ensure all the body ends of the basses are in a line (like sitting on a shelf) and have the hangers and heads all higgedly piggedly?

 

[RedVee]

Did a fun (?) little run through with a few basses playing the same groove, one after the other. One thing I kinda forgot when using tapes (Hofner) is they prefer a very light touch to keep things from getting clacky

Youtube ?

 

[BklynKen]

Wall hangers.

I often see in the Gen Pop claims about “with my OCD...”

Wondering what works for people.

Place the wall hangers all in a row? (I would). But all the basses body ends will be uneven.
Or, ensure all the body ends of the basses are in a line (like sitting on a shelf) and have the hangers and heads all higgedly piggedly?

I have three Hercules wall hangers. They're great. Maybe they're a concern if you have bolt-on necks, but all mine are neck-throughs. I see no downside. They're on three different walls. One has my Thunderbird, one my Carvin, and one is now empty since I sold off that POS Flying V. It's waiting for the RNR. I guess set-neck will be fine, too.

 

[dukeorock]

If i may ask. Pick, or plucking, and over which pick-up?

Pick, both pickups on kinda between the two pickups

Youtube ?

Just recorded it to Logic at home for my own fun. 7 basses, straight in with no eq. Just tried to match levels. Pretty fun!

 

[Engle]

Wait, I do all of those things...you telling me I could get fired for it?!



I could see using one before the show starts, then putting it away. I use fairly heavy strings, so tuning up right at the start does the trick for the entire gig as a rule. I don’t have a clip on though. Never thought to get one. Leaving em on a bass headstock just looks too silly to me

I think I have lent mine to others more than I have used it myself!

 

[JJR58]

Pick, both pickups on kinda between the two pickups



Just recorded it to Logic at home for my own fun. 7 basses, straight in with no eq. Just tried to match levels. Pretty fun!

I'm thinkin Labella's or TI's on that beauty. No tapes. But take what i say with a very small grain of salt.

 

[dukeorock]

The 7 basses were

Hofner w/tapes
EB3L w/ Lo Riders (?)
Gibson T Bird w/ Pure Blues
Cataldo w/ worn out BassBurners
Gretsch w/ Black Beauties
MusicMan Sabre w/ whatever strings it came with
Drake w/ Cobalt rounds

 

[JJR58]

The 7 basses were

Hofner w/tapes
EB3L w/ Lo Riders (?)
Gibson T Bird w/ Pure Blues
Cataldo w/ worn out BassBurners
Gretsch w/ Black Beauties
MusicMan Sabre w/ whatever strings it came with
Drake w/ Cobalt rounds

That's a rather beastly line up. I'll back out slowly now.

 

[dukeorock]

I'm thinkin Labella's or TI's on that beauty. No tapes. But take what i say with a very small grain of salt.

I think you’re dead on! The Hofner has low output as it is and the tapes ain’t helping that, plus I have to play with a lighter touch than I’d prefer. I’ll start poking around for different strings later tonight. Gotta get to a gig. I think the Gretsch might get the call tonight. It’s been on a long hiatus from playing

 

[PillO]

Did a fun (?) little run through with a few basses playing the same groove, one after the other. One thing I kinda forgot when using tapes (Hofner) is they prefer a very light touch to keep things from getting clacky

Speaking of a light touch...

[Background] On my Spotify feed over the weekend, it presented me with new music by Weezer, so I assume a new release. It is all covers, and very good/interesting ones [/Background]

So, I was listening to Stand By Me, both the original and the cover by Weezer For reference:


And I was struck by a number of things. This is a great song. I can play it. There is potential there to do an interesting cover of it.

So I started playing round with it. I have settled on playing it an octave down with a fair bit of overdrive. Now I need a guitar part for it. I'm thinking simpler and crunchier. Essentially, a punked up Stand By Me. Playing down an octave, I have to have a light touch on the B string to keep from clanking too much. I need to work on a light touch anyway. It is a good exercise.

 

[GBassNorth]

Are they Legends ? Or full Spector?

All the Rex5 basses are Korean made Spectors with full neck through design, 35" scale, and all maple.
There is a Spector legend X body but it's not a Rex and is a much cheaper build. I've tried the Legends and wasn't impressed with them, totally different beast.

Edit: there's also the Forte models, which are fantastic and full on Spector DNA but as you'd guess, the price reflects it. The Korean Rex5 is the Sweet spot in the bang for the buck line up. Kinda the same as the Eppi VP is the current sweet spot in the Thunderbird line up.