Thunderbird Club

[GBassNorth]

And now you are one of us! Turnabout is fair play, and passing along the enablement is a virtue.

I knew it! The Thunderbird Club is a Pyramid Scheme!

 

[GBassNorth]

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.

I think I have more basses and guitars than both my wife and I have shoes combined.
I'm not complaining, got it pretty good with this spouse. Makes up for the last one.

 

[Kriegs]

FANTASTIC!
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!

Glad that you enjoyed it! So far, I've got about 5 hours total invested. I have a few more FOD pedals to finish up sampling and then I'm going to do the modulation pedals that I have with the same instruments.

I used the L-2500's low B to specifically illustrate the huge difference between a 4 and 5/6 string's bottom end and how well/ poorly certain effects track down to that low of a frequency.

It's interesting to hear what folks think/ hear. Personally, my faves are:
Les Paul - Soul Food Klon setting
SS Tbird - Pork Loin for light OD, Soul Food stock setting for heavy OD
L-2500 - Soul Food stock setting

Bear in mind that I don't necessarily use all of these pedals on bass (let alone on extended range basses!). This was simply an exercise to allow me to give examples of the various pedals on various instruments to people when they ask "Can you get this kind of sound?" when we're trying to put together a song or project

 

[Engle]

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.

I either hear differently from most other people here or there have been variations on the PRO IV electronics. I tried one out in a store before I bought my VP and it sounded pretty good to me. It had a pretty broad range of tones.

I didn’t buy it, but I certainly didn’t walk out thinking “nice bass, but the electronics should be crushed and burned”

Once I had seen the chrome on the VP, shallow as I am, I had to have a VP.

 

[JIO]

Thunderbird content -

 

[JJR58]

Thunderbird content -

What a great vid!!

 

[JIO]

What a great vid!!

I've seen his basses for sale on eBay and Reverb for a while now but wasn't aware he was a bass player. My Deadlybird II (red Fenderbird) was just purchased by another bass-player/collector named Uli Salm, owner of ZWIK - a sort of Hard Rock Cafe looking place in Hamburg. Apparently he owns over 450 basses!

 

[JJR58]

I've seen his basses for sale on eBay and Reverb for a while now but wasn't aware he was a bass player. My Deadlybird II (red Fenderbird) was just purchased by another bass-player/collector named Uli Salm, owner of ZWIK - a sort of Hard Rock Cafe looking place in Hamburg. Apparently he owns over 450 basses!

Sure would like to see that collection.

 

[JIO]

Sure would like to see that collection.

Can't locate a source for that, but he owns a Cataldo also -

 

[StephnG]

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

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.

 

[StephnG]

Sorry about that, I'm at work & lost the thread before I could finish answering your questions, I'll check back later with all the details...
Thanks

 

[JJR58]

Can't locate a source for that, but he owns a Cataldo also -

I kinda figured that would be the case, owning a Cataldo.

 

[MCF]

Thunderbird content -

That is pretty amazing. That ‘76 is pretty amazing.

 

[JJR58]

That is pretty amazing. That ‘76 is pretty amazing.

Love the old school tone he's getting with those dead strings, love it!

 

[Klondike]

Im referring to today as wishful Wednesday as in im wishing this bird were built? Or in other news “Clean your damn work bench!”

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Love the old school tone he's getting with those dead strings, love it!

notice the harmonics still ring out beautifully

 

[JJR58]

notice the harmonics still ring out beautifully

I sure did. Says a lot about that Bird. Plus he's just a great player.

 

[Dadagoboi]

I've seen his basses for sale on eBay and Reverb for a while now but wasn't aware he was a bass player. My Deadlybird II (red Fenderbird) was just purchased by another bass-player/collector named Uli Salm, owner of ZWIK - a sort of Hard Rock Cafe looking place in Hamburg. Apparently he owns over 450 basses!

Including six Cataldos. About 3 years ago Heritage auctioned about 15 of his 60's Reverse 'birds and about another 75 other culled basses.

 

[Gaolee]

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???

Not Classic Pro. Pro IV. It's the active one. The Classic Pro is as close to a recent Gibson as you can get without buying a Gibson. I'm pretty sure I would like one of those. A bone stock 2001 Gibson is the magic bass that's just somehow better than everything else. Your CP might be very similar to it.

 

[godofthunder59]

Vintage Pro #3 has landed! I have to do a quick turnaround after work and get to rehearsal but the bird arrived in one piece. On quick inspection I am very pleased, I absolutely love the unstained fingerboard! Bass plays good right out of the box, a few tweaks and it'll be smok'n. More to come.