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Thunderbird Club

#14,721
Klondike said:
DR Flats. At first I didnt really lime them. The the more I play Ol Blue the more I like them. Not at drunk angry piano more luke a stoned angry piano
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Guess I need a set of those for one of the 'Birds. The wound up angry piano that just needs to have blood pressure medicine and a trip to some tropical island for a while is the '91 with Ernie Ball Cobalt Flats. You wouldn't think flats would be that ferocious, but on a 'Bird, those sure are. I'm thinking I'll put tape wounds on the bolt-on Epi to turn it into the thump machine when I get the thumbs out and get the Dimarzio One in it. The '15 is it's own thing and has DR Sunbeams. I'm not sure what the '01 should have. It's going to stay stock like Gibson meant it to be. Well, for now anyway. DR flats might be the thing for it. The fretless 'Bird has Chromes on it, and will probably end up with a set of Sadowsky flats. Those sound great in a thuddy kind of way on the Precision, so they will probably sound pretty good on a fretless. I'm rambling and musing. 'Birds have that effect.
 
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#14,722
Andii Syckz said:
It's ALIVE!!

View attachment 828405

Picked up the SWR Goliath II cab this evening & man is it heavy (no car & no cash for a taxicab, so walking all the way down to the metro station up/down stairs, & during rush hour no less) Little bit of work that i want to do to make it look better (clean up the carpet lining & fix the bottom portion of it underneath - separated somehow) Also, the top left speaker isn't moving so i gotta check that out next time i'm at my friends place (since he's holding the rig for the time being) Hopefully it's just a bad connection, but if not it's no biggie to find a replacement speaker. 4x10 is what i love to have, The peavey head packs a lot of bass, so i might try & find a 1x15 (but not for now, i'll have to see after many gigs :p ) In 2017, i'll be making myself a roller base to carry this cab due to the heaviness & i'll probably remove the grill & SWR logo, so i can paint my band logo onto the grill & reinstall it. Already found my amp settings too & I got to play my thunderbird through it.

Verdict, it needs a pickup swap (Emg TBHZ) & i'm probably going to add a stacked preamp to have more definition to it's tone. Gonna try & keep the killswitch cause that's always handy.
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Old Peavey made in USA it's a great amp) I love my combo 300
40ef6306d89c.jpg
 
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#14,728
I just got an awesome message from an eBay purchaser about a PG I made him. I'd say 9 times out of 10, I don't hear anything about a PG I've sold on eBay, not even a feedback so it's great to get this from this cool dude. :)

The eBay message said, "Here's some shots of your PG kicking the sh!t out of NYC! Thanks again!"

Link Removed

$_12.jpg


I like what he did with the chrome PG screws. :thumbsup:

This is the guy that bought the TB IV PG only to discover that he owns the Studio and not the IV. No biggie, I made him another one and didn't charge him anything to ship him out the new one after I got the TB IV one back.

Here's his band's FB page: Ten Ton Mojo
 
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#14,732
Mike.C. said:
As much as I enjoy drooling over pics of Birds and other stuff I am equally as interested in looking at what is going on in the background, etc. Where were you? Is that a rusted oil barrel? Is that a back yard, front yard....? :)
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friends arranged after the wedding afterparty in their yard) played a jam in the village)
 
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#14,733
Larry V said:
I just got an awesome message from an eBay purchaser about a PG I made him. I'd say 9 times out of 10, I don't hear anything about a PG I've sold on eBay, not even a feedback so it's great to get this from this cool dude. :)

The eBay message said, "Here's some shots of your PG kicking the sh!t out of NYC! Thanks again!"

Link Removed

$_12.jpg


I like what he did with the chrome PG screws. :thumbsup:

This is the guy that bought the TB IV PG only to discover that he owns the Studio and not the IV. No biggie, I made him another one and didn't charge him anything to ship him out the new one after I got the TB IV one back.

Here's his band's FB page: Ten Ton Mojo
Click to expand...

That's pretty awesome, Larry!

So what happened to the other PG, you posted about a few pages ago - Did you sell it, or do you still have it?
 
#14,734
Klondike said:
DR Flats. At first I didnt really lime them. The the more I play Ol Blue the more I like them. Not at drunk angry piano more luke a stoned angry piano
Click to expand...

I came close to putting a set of Cobalt flats on my Classic IV, but chickened out and put them on my Jaguar. I've only owned the T-Bird for a couple of months and I was really digging the burly growl too much to dampen that with flats, so I put a set of Lo-Riders on 'er.

However, I was amazed at how growly the Cobalts sound on the Jag! (my first time trying Cobalts and only my second set of flats in over 30 years of playing). I love the way they feel too. My playing sounds so much... cleaner and smoother. Now, I think they'd sound great on the T-Bird... but I'm still not ready to go there just yet. :cool:
 
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#14,735
Mosstone said:
I came close to putting a set of Cobalt flats on my Classic IV, but chickened out and put them on my Jaguar. I've only owned the T-Bird for a couple of months and I was really digging the burly growl too much to dampen that with flats, so I put a set of Lo-Riders on 'er.

However, I was amazed at how growly the Cobalts sound on the Jag! (my first time trying Cobalts and only my second set of flats in over 30 years of playing). I love the way they feel too. My playing sounds so much... cleaner and smoother. Now, I think they'd sound great on the T-Bird... but I'm still not ready to go there just yet. :cool:
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Do it.
 
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#14,736
Got the T-bird back from the shop today. Setup in BEAD right now. Tone pot has been removed and a rotary pickup selector put in its place. The second volume knob has been replaced with a push/pull to switch between series/parallel. For some reason, no matter which way the guy tried to wire it, in series mode, the neck pickup is always quite a bit louder than the bridge pickup. Not a problem, though, as I actually the tone a lot.
 
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#14,737
Hi everyone, I am considering buying my first ever Thunderbird bass and I am told, this group is the place to come for advice. My local shop has a Gibson 50th Anniversary, or a 2015 Gibson T-bird with the alternate pick ups. They also have some nice Epiphone Thunderbirds, the Pro IV, the Classic Pro IV, Thunderbird IV Ltd. Ed. I would appreciate any thoughts/reviews/recommendations. I have previously owned and played: Ric 4003, F Jazz bass, F American Hot-Rodded P-Bass, 62 200/1 Hofner, and Ibanez SR800. Recently I have fallen under the spell of the Thunderbird's low end growl...with my local options listed above, and bearing in mind that I play LEFT-HANDED (and I know they don't make LH T-birds (Gib or Epi), what would your recommendations be? Thank you all in advance for your input. Cheers!
 
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#14,739
Dazzler70 said:
Recently I have fallen under the spell of the Thunderbird's low end growl...with my local options listed above, and bearing in mind that I play LEFT-HANDED (and I know they don't make LH T-birds (Gib or Epi), what would your recommendations be? Thank you all in advance for your input. Cheers!
Click to expand...

It's nice to hear that you have access to all of those TBirds to try. That's cool! I'd say try them all and find the one that sounds/feels the best and just go with it. Let the bass pick you.

As for lefty TBirds, they do exist but they're rarer than hen's teeth so if you find one, snag it!

I'm curious, are you planning on playing the TBird right handed or are you going to get a new nut cut and flip the bass over?
 
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#14,740
Larry V said:
It's nice to hear that you have access to all of those TBirds to try. That's cool! I'd say try them all and find the one that sounds/feels the best and just go with it. Let the bass pick you.

As for lefty TBirds, they do exist but they're rarer than hen's teeth so if you find one, snag it!
I'm curious, are you planning on playing the TBird right handed or are you going to get a new nut cut and flip the bass over?

Larry V: In store I try them upside down, when I buy one I will have the nut flipped and have it re-strung Left-Handed with the e-string back up top.
Click to expand...
 
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