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Thunderbird Club

#14,142
ThaCoast said:
Thunderbird replacement pickups are much smaller in cavity size than epiphone's & much deeper as well. If you want the bridge pickup to have it's optimal string response, i'd suggest filling the bottom of the bridge pickup cavity with a block of wood. It should suffice to give you the thunderbucker response. I know Tbird has on his sixx bass when he replaced the stock ones with Lull pups & possibly other birds that were equipped with the standard Gibson thunderbird pickups.
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Awesome I guess I'll change the bridge (fch-3 point seems cool) and add a block of wood if needed.

Lo-Hz said:
That's the thing... I don't think the Classic IV sounds muddy at all. It definitely has more bottom than my Jazz or Jaguar, but it's solid and well defined... Not what I would call muddy at all. Whenever I A/B'd the Classic IV against a Gibson T-Bird, I found the Gibsons always had a muddier tone than the Classic IV (with amp eq set flat).
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well, if you live in the states, you could buy them, try them, and if you feel like they are not worth it, return them
 
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#14,143
JMacBass65 said:
And since this is the TBird club......

I once tracked a bunch of tunes for my band with a mud bucker Tele bass and my '76 SVT rig.

Upon playback, we all decided it sounded like crap and didn't sit well in the mix, save for one song.

I re-tracked everything on a T-Bird, direct to the board. Sounded great!
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I had a similar experience when we recorded a bunch of tracks last July. It wasn't that my gear didn't sound good, it was that I just wasn't "on" that day so I busted out the TB IV's thinner neck. Sounded great. There was one part that I re-recorded later, plugged right into the interface and direct into a laptop. I boosted the bass a touch (my Bird has a Tone Monster preamp in it) and got this super cool overdriven sound that I wish I could get all the time. That track is getting played on 3-R Radio, an internet based station out of the Sevierville, TN area. I think it has to be the bass tone because that song is almost 6 1/2 minutes long!
 
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#14,145
Count Bassie said:
Oh boy. Ventured out into the general population with a question about a combo amp a friend of mine is looking at, and it has completely waylaid the first two respondents. It's as if I were a wizard, and have put a stupefying spell on my post...

But perhaps I react prematurely. I'll be back, hopefully with a less evil report. : D
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What was the question? I mainly post on the amps forum, but people in the "general population" of TB can be pretty rude.

Gaolee said:
The whole thing is very sensitive to adjustment. When you first start becoming a 'Bird person, you find out that everything you knew isn't exactly wrong, just a little different. I have been lowering pickups and raising pickups and tilting pickups to get the sound how I want it on a couple of Thunderbirds. The G string in particular can have a tendency to hide in a mix if you are playing with your fingers and not a pick. The odd thing is that lowering the pickups on the bass side helps with the balance, and lowering the pickup on the treble side lets the string ring longer. The pickup magnets in the 2015 could probably pick up a Volkswagen if you let them. I don't think other Thunderbird pickups are quite that out of control powerful, but they can pull a string and damp it down a bit if you get them too close.

Counter intuitive, but it is a balance.
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I think pretty much any bass that isn't a Fender or based on a Fender takes a bit of getting used to if that's what someone's coming from.

JMacBass65 said:
I have a bunch of boots form the 75 tour, and would agree with the wanking. Even when they were "on" for some shows in 75, those long wank parts are a bit much, but yeah, it was the style at the time. I like having the boots for historical purposes, but they get tiresome in many places.

That's what I liked about the O2 show - concise (and non-smacked out) versions of No Quarter, Dazed and Confused, etc.
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Nice. Never did like the long, self-indulgent solos.
 
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#14,147
CharlyG said:
I had the natural Pro V for a while before they took them off the market. After moving the pups to get good volume out of the B string, it was a great bass. never should have sold it................altho i did pick up that one on the left after...
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Ah, so that means a 'Bird chose you. Either you are a 'Bird person or you aren't. Sounds like you really are on of the chosen few...
 
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#14,148
Bear From Delaware said:
Can I join,
I play a 2014 Gibson in artic white.
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Yup!
I see a nice Bird in your avatar - I'll bring the list forward tomorrow and we'll give you a formal welcome :)
 
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#14,149
Count Bassie said:
I'd thought the Classic was set neck. Fine, maybe that's my next 'Bird! Well see if I hear the call...

Not that I'm unhappy. I'm quite happy with my Pro IV, and my mods, in my mind, will reflect that. One wants to dress up one's 'Bird, as it were, when one likes her!
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The Classic Pro is as close as you possibly can get to a Gibson on a budget:

More or less identical build with a 9-ply neck through construction and Gibson PU's...

The differences between my Classic Pro and my Gibson are minimal, and they pretty much sound the same...
 
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#14,150
Haji said:
I had a similar experience when we recorded a bunch of tracks last July. It wasn't that my gear didn't sound good, it was that I just wasn't "on" that day so I busted out the TB IV's thinner neck. Sounded great. There was one part that I re-recorded later, plugged right into the interface and direct into a laptop. I boosted the bass a touch (my Bird has a Tone Monster preamp in it) and got this super cool overdriven sound that I wish I could get all the time. That track is getting played on 3-R Radio, an internet based station out of the Sevierville, TN area. I think it has to be the bass tone because that song is almost 6 1/2 minutes long!
Click to expand...

Sound clip or it didn't happen! ;)
 
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#14,153
Bear From Delaware said:
Can I join,
I play a 2014 Gibson in artic white.
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I think is 2003-2008 T-bird usa, not 2014

67bb3c45be42.jpg
 
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#14,155
veebass said:
Thanks, yes this is a black one I am in the process of buying.
Interested you say "fat neck".
The specs say 1.5 inches at the nut, which is pretty narrow.
Do you mean in depth?
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Before that bass I played a Jazz and a Thunderbird, so it felt quite fat in comparison. :roflmao:

Thinking about it now, it certainly gets fatter in the higher registers. I think you'll find it surprisingly thin (body thickness). The pickups are pretty well balanced and it has shockingly great tone. The body is basically a huge hollow gut under the pick guard. I really miss the sound of it.
 
#14,156
mistergoats said:
Before that bass I played a Jazz and a Thunderbird, so it felt quite fat in comparison. :roflmao:

Thinking about it now, it certainly gets fatter in the higher registers. I think you'll find it surprisingly thin (body thickness). The pickups are pretty well balanced and it has shockingly great tone. The body is basically a huge hollow gut under the pick guard. I really miss the sound of it.
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Thanks for that. From the sounds, I don't think the neck will worry me. I have some basses with very chunky necks.
I have a 74 Ripper and had a very early Grabber and they both have quite thin bodies too. The Grabber had a swimming pool rout for the pickups as well.
I'm really looking forward to getting it.
 
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#14,157
veebass said:
Thanks for that. From the sounds, I don't think the neck will worry me. I have some basses with very chunky necks.
I have a 74 Ripper and had a very early Grabber and they both have quite thin bodies too. The Grabber had a swimming pool rout for the pickups as well.
I'm really looking forward to getting it.
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You're a Gibson guy, so you'll like it. Just don't expect it to be a Bill Lawrence-era G3. It's quite the departure.
 
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#14,160
Korladis said:
What was the question? I mainly post on the amps forum, but people in the "general population" of TB can be pretty rude.
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The question had to do with a Fender Rumble 350 combo that had an original driver and a Carvin replacement driver... The Carvin was replacing a Pyle driver that was in there previously. I was trying to discern if the Carvin was OK matched with the original one. I think my mention of the Pyle had stolen the thunder, as it were, from the question...

And yeah, curiously there is a lot of avoiding brusqueness out there in the general population. To bad.
 
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