Not me, but I am curious what you put in their place! Did you try those pickups without the preamp?
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
Not me, but I am curious what you put in their place! Did you try those pickups without the preamp?
Hey Doc, thanks for the lesson in "Capsaicin Metabolics" it sounds good in theory although FMHE nothing works as good as a Big ole hunk of French bread for said trauma, anything else & you'll be saying "come on ice cream" LOL
Hi folks, I finally got some clips recorded and posted. Take a look/ listen 
Here's how I did this:
Summary
Approach
https://soundcloud.com/user-429233676-840487729/sets/pedal-demos
Here's how I did this:
Summary
- This is collection of short samples of 3 different instrument - a six string guitar, a four string bass and a five string bass - played through various OD/ Fuzz/ Distortion pedals. This was done to showcase the basic difference between the pedals and their rough overall sound.
Approach
- I didn't dial in the 'best' sound for each pedal for each instrument, I quickly dialed in a sound that was OK but, I did my best to set each pedal to it's more 'extreme' settings. e.g. drive was always at max, most settings were maxed except for volume/ level which was used to maintain identical recording levels. To be clear, each pedal's settings were dialed in once per pedal.
- Once a pedal's settings were dialed in, I used the same settings for each instrument.
- I played the same short riff on each instrument, through each pedal to best allow for direct comparison of the pedal's tone versus the instrument or the song.
- I chose not to use an amp because I wanted just the sound of the instrument and the pedal. I didn't want any coloring of the tone by an amp. However, there were many times during recording that I knew that a pedal could sound better with a bit of pre-amp EQ tweaking - especially some of the fuzzes, but in the name of science, I didn't tweak anything and kept to the procedure I'd laid out)
- IMPORTANT NOTE: On the Les Paul, the riff was played with power chords on the E, A and D strings. On the Thunderbird, the riff was played on the E string. On the L-2500, it was played on the low B string.
- Instrument: Gibson Les Paul guitar, Gibson Thunderbird Short Scale bass or G&L L-2500 bass
- Tuner: TC Electronics Polytune3
- Various OD/ Fuzz/ Distortion pedals - each track lists the pedal that was played through
- Focusrite 18i20
- Reason 11
https://soundcloud.com/user-429233676-840487729/sets/pedal-demos
How do you like the SD pickups in that and what pickups are they? How much routing was required to install them? Did you go to passive or did you replace the pre-amp?
I am still contemplating what to do with mine. Kat has been helpful suggesting that the electronics should be burned and GBassNorth has been helpful suggesting that the ashes of the electronics should be committed to the depths of the Atlantic ocean.
Ummmm. I am English. Came to Canada as a child. My family were tax refugees back when the income tax rate reached 95%.
you talking Thatcher Poll Tax years? I was there...sucked...
Nope - earlier. Arrived in Canada in October 1970 as October Crisis took off (unrelated to my arrival). We fled the tax system that the Beatles were complaining about in the attached song. I didn't fully understand the rationale behind leaving until I had a part time job in high school and had income tax deducted from my pay cheque.
Hey Fellow "TBanger"
Thanks for your interest, this has been quite a project which continues to be "a work in progress" First off I TOTALLY Agree with Kat & GBassNorth. I'm @ work so I'll get you the specific model# on the PU's later, I can tell you that they are still current & I LOVE them!!
The first time I saw a "Pro 5" was in an article in BP magazine, my first Thoughts were that the neck recipe was worth the price of admission alone but everything else would probably need to be replaced!!
So far this has been a worthy assessment!!
Our story starts about 5/6 years ago when my girlfriend & I (who is now my wife) were cruising the local GC when we spotted it, she knew I was interested in one but that was the first time we were able to actually see one "in the flesh"
I gave it the once over & thought the neck & action seemed ok but once I plugged it in I was like "Where's The Thunder" I mean this poor sick bird was downright "Aneimic"
It was rather disappointing to say the least!!
So I
put it back & browsed around a little more
Thanks for your interest, this has been quite a project which continues to be "a work in progress" First off I TOTALLY Agree with Kat & GBassNorth. I'm @ work so I'll get you the specific model# on the PU's later, I can tell you that they are still current & I LOVE them!!
The first time I saw a "Pro 5" was in an article in BP magazine, my first Thoughts were that the neck recipe was worth the price of admission alone but everything else would probably need to be replaced!!
So far this has been a worthy assessment!!
Our story starts about 5/6 years ago when my girlfriend & I (who is now my wife) were cruising the local GC when we spotted it, she knew I was interested in one but that was the first time we were able to actually see one "in the flesh"
I gave it the once over & thought the neck & action seemed ok but once I plugged it in I was like "Where's The Thunder" I mean this poor sick bird was downright "Aneimic"
It was rather disappointing to say the least!!
So I
put it back & browsed around a little more
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Or maybe your spouse can empathize with Kat. Those aren't her shoes, as far as I know.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
And now you are one of us! Turnabout is fair play, and passing along the enablement is a virtue.I knew it. You are all co-conspirators
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I have more bass guitars than pairs of shoes. That's partly because I have lots of bass guitars and partly because I don't have very many pairs of shoes.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Sounds a bit like my take on the Pro IV I have. It's no longer active, and it's got Alumitone pickups instead of stock. It doesn't sound like a Thunderbird with those pickups, but it sounds a whole lot better than it did. Plus, it's fretless now. I didn't like the frets either. The wood, bridge, nut, and tuners were all just fine. The finish is a mile thick poly that's not ideal, but it's OK. I like it a whole lot better now than I did when it was stock. It's the bass I noodle on while figuring out songs or riffs. Why fretless for that purpose? Well, why not?
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
My wife is English. She wasn't a tax refugee. She just wanted to travel, then I met her in New York and have been preventing her from traveling much ever since. Poor woman.
my first wife was(is) from Kensington...impeccable taste in wine and an incredible cook.....she just could not adapt to the cooky northern CA beachy lifestyle...too bad...
So, you're NOT a fan of the Classic Pro. That's cool. I LOVE MINE, in all its stock glory! Cheers! Oh wait, you said Pro, not Classic Pro, so now I'm not sure???
FANTASTIC!Hi folks, I finally got some clips recorded and posted. Take a look/ listen
Here's how I did this:
Summary
- This is collection of short samples of 3 different instrument - a six string guitar, a four string bass and a five string bass - played through various OD/ Fuzz/ Distortion pedals. This was done to showcase the basic difference between the pedals and their rough overall sound.
Approach
Signal chain
- I didn't dial in the 'best' sound for each pedal for each instrument, I quickly dialed in a sound that was OK but, I did my best to set each pedal to it's more 'extreme' settings. e.g. drive was always at max, most settings were maxed except for volume/ level which was used to maintain identical recording levels. To be clear, each pedal's settings were dialed in once per pedal.
- Once a pedal's settings were dialed in, I used the same settings for each instrument.
- I played the same short riff on each instrument, through each pedal to best allow for direct comparison of the pedal's tone versus the instrument or the song.
- I chose not to use an amp because I wanted just the sound of the instrument and the pedal. I didn't want any coloring of the tone by an amp. However, there were many times during recording that I knew that a pedal could sound better with a bit of pre-amp EQ tweaking - especially some of the fuzzes, but in the name of science, I didn't tweak anything and kept to the procedure I'd laid out)
- IMPORTANT NOTE: On the Les Paul, the riff was played with power chords on the E, A and D strings. On the Thunderbird, the riff was played on the E string. On the L-2500, it was played on the low B string.
Results
- Instrument: Gibson Les Paul guitar, Gibson Thunderbird Short Scale bass or G&L L-2500 bass
- Tuner: TC Electronics Polytune3
- Various OD/ Fuzz/ Distortion pedals - each track lists the pedal that was played through
- Focusrite 18i20
- Reason 11
https://soundcloud.com/user-429233676-840487729/sets/pedal-demos
Thanks for going to so much trouble to record all these options for the club to hear, very cool of you.
I only got a chance to listen to them thru my iPad speaker. They may sound much different if I played them thru a reference speaker or headphones, but it's all still relative and so directionally I suspect my opinions wouldn't change much.
Overall impressions...
For driving rock nothing beats a les paul! Fuzz/OD/Distortion and low B strings on a bass don't mix well and should be avoided at all costs. Fuzz/OD/Distortion (FOD) on a four string bass can be useful.
Generally, for guitars, I like a pedal that allows the fundamental of the note to be clearly heard (kind of a wet/dry mix of 50/50 as opposed to a 90/10 mix). Generally for bass I don't like a FOD type pedal but it can sound good as long as it isn't walking all over the guitarist (who is probably already using FOD). I like to hear the bass line, but some bass guitar FOD used sparingly can be useful on a number of songs; and on occasions like intros and solos an exceptionally hard driving FOD bass can be very useful.
Top 3 Favorite pedals from the sound clips (in order)...
Les Paul - pork loin (nice wet/dry mix), angry driver and soul food stock (excellent second choices)
SS TBird - pork loin (great sound, fits nice in a mix), soul food stock and angry driver (perfect solos)
G&L 2500 - just oil and water to me. Didn't hear one that I thought worked well with the low oscillation of the B string.
Just my thoughts YMMV. But most importantly, thanks for putting this out there. I'm sure you didn't just whip this together in 5 minutes, it probably took hours. Thanks for investing your time in the continuing education of the Thunderbird community!
