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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
Disastrous. I think it was ~1979. I could barely play a fretted bass no less a fretless.
I had recently discovered Jeff Beck’s “Wired” album, and thought I could sound like Wilbur Bascomb. As it turned out, the line from “Blue Wind” I wanted to learn was probably done by Jan Hammer.
Welcome!
Short answer is that there is no best string. It comes down to preference for tone and feel. Tone can vary from bird to bird, depending on PUPs and your setup, including PUP height. Re Slinkys:
I like them just fine on a bird when they’re new (hybrid 45-105), but they just seem to change quickly and sound dull after a sort time.
I loved the RS66s on my VP when they were new and they weren’t bright enough for my rock gigs after they had died. But even dead, they sounded REALLY good for recording straight into the board.
Depending on the vintage of the BadAss, I guess. I’ve got an old one that has no recess.
gorgeous bass AND sporting a Badass Bass II bridge...BTW Floridians don't use "mere lad"..
I’m not a native. NY born, MD raised. 15yrs in FL. But I do try to meet the standards of “Florida Man”.
That's a pretty low bar.I’m not a native. NY born, MD raised. 15yrs in FL. But I do try to meet the standards of “Florida Man”.
a cakewalk..I’m not a native. NY born, MD raised. 15yrs in FL. But I do try to meet the standards of “Florida Man”.
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
For an aggressive rock thing, those are my preferred strings on a T Bird as well. Cobalt flats for everything else.
Spent two days away from this thread then spent what felt like two days just catching up!
I had to add extenders on my Epi IV because of the EBCF silks. All I had handy were ugly washers. This is with the stock three point. Looks like the Supertone solves that problem.
How were the gigs? (Ignore if discussed elsewhere.)
I’ll stop going on about seeing my crush Nikki last night after this post. It was a fun show. Here is the set list:
Five new songs. Neon Wound, It Doesn’t Matter Why, Freakazoid, Straw Man and my favorite of the new ones, Simpatico. A good mix of familiar favorites.
I stood in front of Nikki to watch how she does it. Hadn’t done that in ages; last time was watching Simonon on the London Calling tour at the Santa Monica Civic. Sacrificed sound quality to get some instruction.
Her pick hand is a blur when they’re rocking. Amazingly fast. She uses a bee’s d**k amount of the pick tip and props her pinkie near the top of the bridge. She picks just forward of the the bridge PUP. She really works hard and was obviously spent at the end of the show. Man, she’s good.
Here are some final final pics:
Five new songs. Neon Wound, It Doesn’t Matter Why, Freakazoid, Straw Man and my favorite of the new ones, Simpatico. A good mix of familiar favorites.
I stood in front of Nikki to watch how she does it. Hadn’t done that in ages; last time was watching Simonon on the London Calling tour at the Santa Monica Civic. Sacrificed sound quality to get some instruction.
Her pick hand is a blur when they’re rocking. Amazingly fast. She uses a bee’s d**k amount of the pick tip and props her pinkie near the top of the bridge. She picks just forward of the the bridge PUP. She really works hard and was obviously spent at the end of the show. Man, she’s good.
Here are some final final pics:
- Mar 8, 2011
- 12,232
- 51,187
- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
Long, but super fun day yesterday. Two recording sessions and two gigs. Not quite as tough as it sounds, but not easy.
First session at 10:00am. At a House of Blues studio called The Cave. The tracking room is a recreation of the original Sun studio. Exact same dimensions and damping materials. The only difference was the addition of 5 iso rooms. The control room is another story. Very modern and state of the art meets some cool vintage stuff. David Leonard engineered and Kenny Greenberg produced and played guitar. Look those guys up if you’re a recording nerd. These dudes are very serious.
That’s a rare 1977 API console. Ocean Way monitors that were close to 8ft tall and 4ft wide. Sounded AMAZING. Nearfields were Genelecs
Also this Neve sidecar. The outboard gear was insane. Pultec eq’s, TubeTech, Vintage Urie, Burl converters...basically everything
the mic collection was jaw dropping.
The artist is Mark Collie. The first session was his live band (myself, Steve Latanation on drums, Jesse Isley on guitar) plus Kenny Greenberg on additional guitar.
first song was straight up rockabilly, so I used my 1948 Epiphone B4 upright.
I told the engineer I much prefer certain ribbons for ‘that’ sound I like, but he said he always starts with condensers like a U87 or U67. Lovely mics, but I’d never use em on upright. He’s a very famous engineer, so I kept my mouth shut! After about 20 minutes, he switched to an AEA R84 ribbon (the same mic I always use on that upright) and it sounded great. I’m sure he was used to carved top, darker sounding uprights. All the classic rockabilly stuff was done on brighter, plywood basses.
The next song was on electric, but was still kinda vintage sounding, so I grabbed my 1967 Hofner 500/1. I was a tad apprehensive about using it since the engineer produced a Paul McCartney record (!), but he hooked it up through a Demeter tube DI, had me play a few minutes, then got on the talkback and said “dude, that bass is fvcking amazing!” That felt good
More random shots of the session...
After we cut 3 songs, Mark’s band got sent home so they could set up for the evening session. All A List top tier musicians...and me, for some inexplicable reason. Kenny normally uses Michael Rhoades on bass, so it was intimidating to say the least. They asked me to stick with the Hofner since it sounded so good earlier, but it quickly became obvious that wasn’t the right bass for the more modern material. I switched to my MusicMan Sabre, cranked the lows, pulled back the highs and it worked perfectly. That was a fun day!
After that, I quickly packed up and headed across town to play with Derek Hoke, followed by a set with Mike Lynch (thankfully) at the same venue. Back on my T Bird for the live stuff and all was right with the world
Sorry for the long winded post. Just figured the recording nerds like myself would find it interesting!
First session at 10:00am. At a House of Blues studio called The Cave. The tracking room is a recreation of the original Sun studio. Exact same dimensions and damping materials. The only difference was the addition of 5 iso rooms. The control room is another story. Very modern and state of the art meets some cool vintage stuff. David Leonard engineered and Kenny Greenberg produced and played guitar. Look those guys up if you’re a recording nerd. These dudes are very serious.
That’s a rare 1977 API console. Ocean Way monitors that were close to 8ft tall and 4ft wide. Sounded AMAZING. Nearfields were Genelecs
Also this Neve sidecar. The outboard gear was insane. Pultec eq’s, TubeTech, Vintage Urie, Burl converters...basically everything
the mic collection was jaw dropping.The artist is Mark Collie. The first session was his live band (myself, Steve Latanation on drums, Jesse Isley on guitar) plus Kenny Greenberg on additional guitar.
first song was straight up rockabilly, so I used my 1948 Epiphone B4 upright.
I told the engineer I much prefer certain ribbons for ‘that’ sound I like, but he said he always starts with condensers like a U87 or U67. Lovely mics, but I’d never use em on upright. He’s a very famous engineer, so I kept my mouth shut! After about 20 minutes, he switched to an AEA R84 ribbon (the same mic I always use on that upright) and it sounded great. I’m sure he was used to carved top, darker sounding uprights. All the classic rockabilly stuff was done on brighter, plywood basses.
The next song was on electric, but was still kinda vintage sounding, so I grabbed my 1967 Hofner 500/1. I was a tad apprehensive about using it since the engineer produced a Paul McCartney record (!), but he hooked it up through a Demeter tube DI, had me play a few minutes, then got on the talkback and said “dude, that bass is fvcking amazing!” That felt good
More random shots of the session...
After we cut 3 songs, Mark’s band got sent home so they could set up for the evening session. All A List top tier musicians...and me, for some inexplicable reason. Kenny normally uses Michael Rhoades on bass, so it was intimidating to say the least. They asked me to stick with the Hofner since it sounded so good earlier, but it quickly became obvious that wasn’t the right bass for the more modern material. I switched to my MusicMan Sabre, cranked the lows, pulled back the highs and it worked perfectly. That was a fun day!
After that, I quickly packed up and headed across town to play with Derek Hoke, followed by a set with Mike Lynch (thankfully) at the same venue. Back on my T Bird for the live stuff and all was right with the world
Sorry for the long winded post. Just figured the recording nerds like myself would find it interesting!
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Nice! Is that her wireless she's wearing on an armband? I haven't seen that before.
I still have the price tag on my 1510 too! Mine is to remind me of the incredible price I paid for it. What an awesome cab!
