Thunderbird Club

[BklynKen]

I

My daughter’s Jag SS is really light. It’s a decent instrument that I often bring as a backup because it fits easily into my truck’s lockbox.
I have a Squier Long scale Jag body and it’s heavy. Just depends what wood made its way to the factory.

Cool. I briefly toyed with the idea of getting a lefty Fender Jag imported from Japan, but between the price and the weight, I decided against it.

 

[Engle]

Actually my JBass has stacked coil humbuckers...
It’s not that I don’t like the single coil tone, but the noise bugs me when you solo a pickup.

That burping Jaco tone is just one of the things you can do with a J. The VP can come close if you solo the bridge PU and play by the bridge.

 

[Engle]

I was browsing EBay for humbucker bass pickups and noticed chrome Thunderbird pickup covers. It’s says they don’t fit over Gibson plastic pickups, so what do they fit?

 

[TBird1958]

You have to peel the outer plastic off of the Gibson pups, then they should fit

 

[MCF]

I love the Jaguar body style. Is it heavy? The guitarist in the thing I'm currently playing in plays a Squier Jaguar guitar. It's really nice. I'm playing a THUNDERBIRD.

Love the shape too. My favorite guitarist plays a Jazzmaster. I’d buy a Jag bass, but the current iteration are PJs and I’ve got enough of those. So a Jag or Jmasrer is on my guitar GAS list.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

I was browsing EBay for humbucker bass pickups and noticed chrome Thunderbird pickup covers. It’s says they don’t fit over Gibson plastic pickups, so what do they fit?

vintage ones, the new ones are wider..

 

[BklynKen]

Love the shape too. My favorite guitarist plays a Jazzmaster. I’d buy a Jag bass, but the current iteration are PJs and I’ve got enough of those. So a Jag or Jmasrer is on my guitar GAS list.
View attachment 3517915

Is that Nels Cline? That guy is amazing. I saw him play with Yo La Tengo in 2010 at Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ. Sadly closed, but it was an institution. And really tiny.

 

[dagrev]

Now days (since I discovered the TBird and SG) I'm in the exact same boat. A single coil P and a split coil P both have a sound I like (I still like a TBird or SG Humbucker better) but a Jazz pup near the bridge (with the exception the of a Warwick Thumb bass) is just not my cup of tea.

I have a SS Squire Jag as well and modded it with a custom built John East three stacked knob active preamp (Vol/Pan, neck bass/treb/brite, bridge bass/treb/brite) to see if I could warm up to the Jazz pup on that bass, but still no luck. The good news is, the split P on the Jag is quite nice so I pretty much leave it fully panned to the neck. I've thought about taking it back to passive and installing some Geezer pups in it, but I hate to mess with that sweet sounding stock split P.

I'm with you. I've got a couple Js but likely my least favorite kind of bass I own. Honky or hollow if not careful with strings. One has GHS flats and the other Fender Pure Nickles. They sound pretty good. As fore the bridge PU--I don't care for the burpy thing. But T-Birds do have a nice bridge only PU, if wanted.

I guess one of my favorite Jazz sounds is the thick J of Mike Levine of Triumph. Others have some great sounds but I can't replicate those either.

 

[MCF]

Is that Nels Cline? That guy is amazing. I saw him play with Yo La Tengo in 2010 at Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ. Sadly closed, but it was an institution. And really tiny.

Yep. Listening to Impossible Germany right now while catching up and waiting for the Dodgers Yankees game to start. Should be a good weekend of baseball.

 

[BklynKen]

The Zero Mod thumb rest guy made me a custom one for the Eagle, based on the Jack Casady one. Came out really nice, and relatively unintrusive.

 

[MCF]

My backup bass is a Squire VM Jag SS-P/J pups. Every once in awhile, I've tried turning on the J pup and fiddle with the tone. Nope. Not what I wanna hear. Same goes for the P/J on my EpiBird 5er. It adds nothing(for me), and actually reduces the output of the bass(es). I started playing on a Gibson EB3, using the 'Mudbucker', and that's the sound I like to work with as much as possible.

Over on the Mustang Club thread, one of the gang did some research and found the MIM PJ set is the same part # as the set on the Am entry set. I like them on my ‘Stang. They come up for sale every now and again by pickup swappers. I’ve not liked the set that comes on the Squires when I’ve tried them. If they fit, you might try a used set from the ‘Stang. Or maybe a set of Wilde’s, which are good bang for the buck. YMMV.

 

[JIO]

WADR - as it might be somewhat true that a T-bird is in direct competition with a P-bass... I'll let this slide...

 

[JIO]

The Zero Mod thumb rest guy made me a custom one for the Eagle, based on the Jack Casady one. Came out really nice, and relatively unintrusive.

View attachment 3517946

What exactly are we looking at?

 

[MCF]

Cool. I briefly toyed with the idea of getting a lefty Fender Jag imported from Japan, but between the price and the weight, I decided against it.

There was a really nice MIJ Jag in the classifieds a few years ago that was in LA. I was in Sacto for an extended period at the time. When I got home and checked, it was gone. May well have bought it had I been able to play it. IIRC, it had a set of J PUPs.

 

[MCF]

What exactly are we looking at?

+1.

 

[Engle]

What exactly are we looking at?

There’s a thumb rest sitting on the pickup ring.

 

[GBassNorth]

What exactly are we looking at?

It might be a really cool bridge pup thumb rest for a left handed player that doesn't want to drill holes in his bass.

Unless it's a really confused tug bar for a right handed bass player using a left handed bass.

 

[MCF]

Is that Nels Cline? That guy is amazing. I saw him play with Yo La Tengo in 2010 at Maxwells in Hoboken, NJ. Sadly closed, but it was an institution. And really tiny.

I have a hard drive somewhere with a

There’s a thumb rest sitting on the pickup ring.

Duh! I need to slow down, put my glasses on, and remember he plays upside down or whatever he does.

 

[JIO]

There’s a thumb rest sitting on the pickup ring.

oh - yes - it's there... very stealthy...

 

[Engle]

oh - yes - it's there... very stealthy...

I don’t think it would do much for me, but at least it doesn’t look weird like some of them.