Thunderbird Club

[Engle]

I was under the impression that once set up properly, you don't need to twiddle your knob. Ahem.

Different rooms, cab placements

 

[dagrev]

Part it out?
Observation: it does no good to come up with(semi)witty repartee, type it, then forget to hit post.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Check out my TB Wiki: High Pass and Low Pass Filters | TalkBass.com

There are a few graphs at the beginning that make it easy to see the difference.

Great resource. Thanks!

 

[PillO]

Mine closed up shop!!

1. St. Catherines.
2. That's what happens when you don't shop there.

 

[FlyingPigSound]

I have a JC that I HATE - not that it's not a really good bass. It's just that mine has a neck that CONTANTLY needs adjusting - at least it's in both directions. Plus, there is something screwy with the 12th fret on the E string. I thought it was a raised fret so I tried tapping it in - did nothing. Upon closer inspection it appears that the fret is totally seated, and that maybe the fretboard itself wasn't sanded flat, or maybe some piece of debris fell into the slot right before the frets were added. I should take it to a tech to get it sorted out, but then there is still the see-sawing neck issue. Not worth the trouble to me. I want to sell it, but don't want anyone else stuck with my problems, so I imagine it will just take up space until I meet my maker.

I love my JCB, but the reason I bought a Thunderbird is because I realized that I really needed a solid body bass that could take the beating of a three hour rock gig better than a hollow body. I just didn't realize how much I'd love the T-Bird...I've played pretty much everything, long-scale and short, and the Gibson Thunderbird checks all the boxes for me.

 

[TBird1958]

WADR (sincerely) - how our language has evolved! "Why be content to be waken tired, listless or low - when you should be gay and radiantly alive?" (note chirping bird - think David Lynch "Blue Velvet")

View attachment 3674915

Waking up Gay and dressed like a woman..........
I'm half way there!

I love this!

 

[JIO]

Waking up Gay and dressed like a woman..........
I'm half way there!

I love this!
View attachment 3675278

Speaking of "ovalwounds" and "Ovaltine" (down the oval rabbits hole?...hummm, oval rabbits...)... I tried to find the movie clip of this scene from The Trial 1962 by Orson Wells, based on the Kafka novel of the same name and came up short, only finding this. For anyone who has never seen it - I highly recommend watching it.

Nervous Josef K (just pre Psycho Anthony Perkins) points the word 'ovular' out in the inspectors notes, so penned by his men after seeing an oval stain on the floor and noting it as evidence. (of something)

Inspector A: None of this is going to show up very well in the record, Mr. K. My men say you even tried to stop them from putting this down [points to notebook].
Josef K.: Well, I tried to stop one of them from making a fool of himself. [pointing] Yes, yes: ovular.
Inspector A: What’s that?
Josef K.: Ov-u-lar.
Inspector A: There’s no such word.

It's a funny scene showing AP's frustration with the inspector reiterating the point Josef K (AP) was trying to make that "ovular" wasn't a word and showed the inspectors men to be uneducated. Even funnier is the fact that ovular is a word. This is the world of Kafka.

Not only is it a word, but it has achieved another connotation in modern street-slang that I wasn't aware of;
(this is copy and pasted from the net-webs)

ovular
a word to describe someone that just isn't there and doesn't understand life...
that person usually sucks only half the time, but when they suck, they suck pretty bad.
they're not as bad as a square, but they sure as hell aren't a circle.

guy: hey you? wanna come over here and hang out?
girl: no
guy: hey, quit being so ovular
girl: suck me!

 

[Count Bassie]

Speaking of "ovalwounds" and "Ovaltine" (down the oval rabbits hole?...hummm, oval rabbits...)... I tried to find the movie clip of this scene from The Trial 1960 by Orson Wells, based on the Kafka novel of the same name and came up short, only finding this. For anyone who has never seen it - I highly recommend watching it.

Nervous Josef K (just pre Psycho 1961 Anthony Perkins) points the word 'ovular' out in the inspectors notes, so penned by his men after seeing an oval stain on the floor and noting it as evidence. (of something)

View attachment 3675258
Inspector A: None of this is going to show up very well in the record, Mr. K. My men say you even tried to stop them from putting this down [points to notebook].
Josef K.: Well, I tried to stop one of them from making a fool of himself. [pointing] Yes, yes: ovular.
Inspector A: What’s that?
Josef K.: Ov-u-lar.
Inspector A: There’s no such word.

It's a funny scene showing AP's frustration with the inspector reiterating the point Josef K (AP) was trying to make that "ovular" wasn't a word and showed the inspectors men to be uneducated. Even funnier is the fact that ovular is a word. This is the world of Kafka.

Not only is it a word, but it has achieved another connotation in modern street-slang that I wasn't aware of;
(this is copy and pasted from the net-webs)

ovular
a word to describe someone that just isn't there and doesn't understand life...
that person usually sucks only half the time, but when they suck, they suck pretty bad.
they're not as bad as a square, but they sure as hell aren't a circle.

guy: hey you? wanna come over here and hang out?
girl: no
guy: hey, quit being so ovular
girl: suck me!

Sounds like a fledgeling hipster substitution for "obtuse"?

 

[Gaolee]

And that's supposed to make me want the 7ender?

Only if you want to be a fairie with an easily soiled white dress and white cat.

 

[BklynKen]

I have a JC that I HATE - not that it's not a really good bass. It's just that mine has a neck that CONTANTLY needs adjusting - at least it's in both directions. Plus, there is something screwy with the 12th fret on the E string. I thought it was a raised fret so I tried tapping it in - did nothing. Upon closer inspection it appears that the fret is totally seated, and that maybe the fretboard itself wasn't sanded flat, or maybe some piece of debris fell into the slot right before the frets were added. I should take it to a tech to get it sorted out, but then there is still the see-sawing neck issue. Not worth the trouble to me. I want to sell it, but don't want anyone else stuck with my problems, so I imagine it will just take up space until I meet my maker.

Have you considered taking it to a good luthier to work that out? Could end up being a fantastic bass. I know a great one in Brooklyn, depending on how far you're willing to travel.

 

[Gaolee]

Interesting. Maybe I just lack in experience, but that sort of thinking never occurred to me. I just plug in with my dirt pedal, tweak some EQ, and go.

It isn't 100% necessary, but I find that it somehow makes the 'Bird sound better without making it sound any different. Depending on how it is set, of course. You don't want to kill the low or high end, just tame parts of both, and it does that. It also helps control feedback from the upright in high volume situations.

 

[Gaolee]

I have an FDeck HPF that I’ve used for upright, and I usually run 2 x 210AVs with my cover band.
Now I have a reggae band in the works and I need to get my gear worked out for that.
An HPF on the pedal board might be a good idea so I don’t kill speakers. I’m using an SVT-15E for rehearsals and thinking about getting another one to stack for gigs.

I’ll need to leave the Fdeck out of my board so my kid can use it when she amplifies the upright. What do you guys recommend for the board?

I was using an Fdeck for a long time. I still have it somewhere. It works well. I find the Broughton high/low pass filter is just a bit better because it also deals with the top end of the range. Both leave everything else alone.

 

[BklynKen]

It isn't 100% necessary, but I find that it somehow makes the 'Bird sound better without making it sound any different. Depending on how it is set, of course. You don't want to kill the low or high end, just tame parts of both, and it does that. It also helps control feedback from the upright in high volume situations.

Yeah, this discussion has been really helpful and I'm definitely seeing the point and advantage to them. If this project I'm working on works out, maybe I'll get one for myself as a little gift. I like to do that when I hit little self-imposed milestones. This would mean shows out of town, which I still have yet to do.

 

[JIO]

Sounds like a fledgeling hipster substitution for "obtuse"?

Aside from sounding like the script for a Monty Python rapid-fire insult skit, 'ovular' used like that is definitely in the same neighborhood.

Obtuse:
annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand.
"he wondered if the doctor was being deliberately obtuse"

Similar:
stupid, dull, slow-witted, slow, dull-witted, unintelligent, witless, half-baked, halfwitted, doltish, lumpish, blockish, imperceptive, uncomprehending, bovine, stolid, crass
insensitive, thick-skinned, dim, dense, thick, thickheaded, dimwitted, slow on the uptake, dumb, dopey, dead from the neck up, boneheaded, blockheaded, lamebrained
chuckleheaded, dunderheaded, wooden-headed, pig-ignorant, log-headed, muttonheaded, dozy, glaikit, dumb-ass, chowderheaded, dof, dotish, hebete

 

[Gaolee]

Brought my TBird out to play tonight...
View attachment 3674934

And it cut off one of its own ears.

 

[Gaolee]

I wish I had talent.... Instead I was cursed with looks and brains.

Nice job!

I have none of those things, but I'm a darn sexy merch girl.

 

[Gaolee]

Yeah, this discussion has been really helpful and I'm definitely seeing the point and advantage to them. If this project I'm working on works out, maybe I'll get one for myself as a little gift. I like to do that when I hit little self-imposed milestones. This would mean shows out of town, which I still have yet to do.

They are cheap for the improvement and control they offer.

 

[BklynKen]

They are cheap for the improvement and control they offer.

It would require changes in my little pedal board. What's the use case for a LPF for a bass? Broughton's HPF would fit my black pedal with white print theme, where the red combo would not. Plus it's bigger.

 

[BklynKen]

They are cheap for the improvement and control they offer.

And also if I want to keep the little board that easily fits into my Gator ProGo, it might require switching from the Damnation MBD-1 to the 2.

 

[Gaolee]

It would require changes in my little pedal board. What's the use case for a LPF for a bass? Broughton's HPF would fit my black pedal with white print theme, where the red combo would not. Plus it's bigger.

I'm shallow as the next person, but I haven't thought about a color theme for my pedal board. The board itself is orange. Maybe that's it.

The LPF part cleans up clank a lot or a little, depending on what you set it at. It seems to tighten up the top end a bit somehow by getting rid of frequencies a bass shouldn't be making anyway.