Thunderbird Club

[Chucky Stiletti]

"The final version of ‘My Generation’ was played on the Jazz with La Bella tape wound strings."

John Entwistle Gear: 1960-1966 | John Entwistle Bass Gear | Whotabs

I'm surprised.

funny, I read elsewhere it was a Dano..

 

[Butcherboy]

I ordered 9 May, no email yet, checked trash/junk

...still waiting for my babybird coming from Switzerland, arrived at German customs 7th May ...no shipping update .... short scale sisters ordered their Gibson Bass Book today...

 

[dagrev]

Speaking of fretboards.... How about a big thick Slab of Rosewood?

Nice neck as well.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Pretty stoked, just found me a matched sextet of GE these...

For this bad boy..

 

[dagrev]

Pretty stoked, just found me a matched sextet of GE these...
View attachment 3830509

For this bad boy..
View attachment 3830515
View attachment 3830520

Ooooooh!

 

[Gaolee]

... I'm trying to be reasonable

What? Crazy talk!

 

[JJR58]

Saw this while googling.(Not mine, no affiliation).Greco Thunderbird 1990 White | Southside Guitars | Reverb

That shop isn't too far from me.

 

[Gaolee]

Then I'm good to go since I already have a VP.


The 2015 currently has Heavy Black Beauties. So far I like them on this bass. A bit of background on the 2015, unlike the VP, I'm finding that this particular bass is very very picky about the strings it wants to play well with. It didn't take to Cobalts at all, way too much going on with the interplay between the pups and strings on those. So far the BB heavy strings seem to be less impacted by the pup magnets, I may try Tapes next. I do have La Bella Black Tapes on my FrankenGoth and love them, very musical and crisp if needed (almost in a baritone guitar category) or very thick and thumpy if needed. I suspect they might be the perfect string for the 2015 which has a very wide tonal range but has pups that can easily over saturate the signal creating a very unwanted chorus effect especially above the 12th fret.

On any other bass, Black Beauty strings are my go to string to tame the top end and bolster the low mids.


I've noticed that as well. Both my Goth and VP boards were quite a bit darker in person than on their website photos.


Here's proof - this VW driver just picked up his 2015 bass at Guitar Center and had it in the back seat of the bug for the drive home - Big Mistake! Watch those bass pups fling the bug around like a toy...

Good point on the heavier gauge strings. I may put heavier strings on the '15 to see what it does.

 

[D.M.N.]

funny, I read elsewhere it was a Dano..

He tried tracking it a number of times on a couple Danos, but kept busting the small strings, which unfortunately weren't available in England at the time. So, each time they broke he bought another Dano. Eventually I think they ran our and he recorded it on a Jazz.

 

[Gaolee]

Yeah they are balanced tension. And every string has the same number of wraps. So the tone is also a lot more even. No more extra zingy G strings. They did that with roundcore boomers, too. And I think the re-release of the Progressives are gonna be all the same number of wraps, as well. Once the balanced tension version finally launches.

I just looked. I haven't found them in .050 - .110 yet. Maybe .044 - .106 would be OK. I'll try anything once.

 

[Gaolee]

"The final version of ‘My Generation’ was played on the Jazz with La Bella tape wound strings."

John Entwistle Gear: 1960-1966 | John Entwistle Bass Gear | Whotabs

I'm surprised.

Having had tapes on a 'Bird, I'm not completely surprised. I was getting that sound with dead rounds on the EB-2 through the Acoustic 126 combo and the EQ radically scooped.

 

[MCF]

I have had Black Beauties on it off and on since I got it. It's got nickel rounds on it now. I don't remember which ones, though. I think they are Sunbeams. I was going to put tapes back on it but decided that I like what's on it now for the time being.

The reason for putting tapes on it is that you can dig in and get the kind of aggressive, black and teal with electric blue edges sound that a Thunderbird is best at. You can also back off and get a much more maroon sound out of it. That's also possible with Black Beauties. The difference is that Black Beauties don't take as much digging in to get the electric blue edge. Tapes feel far softer, and because there's just a bit of insulation between the string and the pickup, the aggression of the pickups gets muted just a bit. The rounds I have on it now end up with both black and some white in the sound. I kinda like it for now, especially since the Flamingo has Bass Burners and the '01 has Black Beauties. I'm also considering Cobalt Flats on the '15 because they can be far more aggressive sounding, but you can back off and get them to thump. They last a long time. Of course all strings last a long time when there are multiple bass options and next to no opportunities to play shows or even rehearsals. That's when strings get worn. Noodling around in the basement isn't the same.

The main thing with a '15 is to lower the pickups as far as you can. Those things would pick up a Volkswagen and throw it across the room if you let them.

Make sense about string sounds? Didn't think so. Sorry about that. It's a standard problem.

I’m still running the Cobalt Flats on the ‘15. There are days I’m ready to ditch them. Then other days I like them. Pickups are as high as I can set them without weird sound effects. Eventually I’ll go back to nickels on it I think.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Me too !

I was expecting it to be an Epi or Gibson. But he'd got rid of his other basses in trades before or toward the Jazz. Assuming he was recollecting correctly.[1]

[1] Recorrecting? Sounds like a 60s Hollywood movie trying to sound Japanese.

 

[MCF]

Yeah, I did know that. Such a weird design choice I think.

In thinking about it, it should be superior to the solo three point. The claw secures the strings, the wraps aren’t close to the saddles and the three point helps distributes the tension weight better and allows a lot of intonation adjustment.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

funny, I read elsewhere it was a Dano..

He said the initial recording was done on the Longhorn, but the final was the Jazz. The page has quotes and data from a lot of interviews and sources. Is it 100%? Who knows?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Pretty stoked, just found me a matched sextet of GE these...
View attachment 3830509

For this bad boy..
View attachment 3830515
View attachment 3830520

WAT WAT?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Speaking of fretboards.... How about a big thick Slab of Rosewood?

Nice neck as well.

No can see.

 

[GBassNorth]

If you are interested in the Balanced Nickles, I have a set I would gladly send them your way very reasonably. They have only been played a few times. Literally. I tried them on the VP and it just wasn't a good fit for what I wanted. I might want to try them on the new Gibson when it arrives first, however. But if they don't work there I would be more than happy to send them to you.

Thanks, That's a really nice offer. First I'm gonna flip through a few different sets of strings that I already have to see what works best on the 2015. I just changed out the Heavy Black Beauties for a set of light gauge La Bella Black Tapewounds. (See my findings below)

Good point on the heavier gauge strings. I may put heavier strings on the '15 to see what it does.

Up until about an hour ago I was running Heavy Tapered Black Beauties. They worked pretty good on the 2015 but I was still getting noticeable over saturation on notes above the 12th fret (closer to the pups) even with the pups slammed down to the max. I was also having to deal with the side effects of slamming the pups down all the way - which is a significant drop in volume. The obvious solution for that is to dime the volume knob, but as luck would have it, on the 2015 when you dime the volume you essentially remove the tone knob from the circuit and go full bright, which is not my cup of tea.

My sound goal on this bass is to have it as loud as my other birds, no chorus effect or over saturation on the notes and a full range tone knob, all while maintaining a relatively low action.

I've found that if I keep the volume at 8 or less I get the tone knob functionality I want. And if I raise the neck pup to about 10/32" below the strings I get the volume I want. That's a no go with the Black Beauties. So I took them off and tried a set of light gauge La Bella Black Tapewounds.

The Tapes are much better sounding down to the last fret on each string. Very little if any chorus effect. I did have to loosen my truss rod a half turn because the tapes didn't have as much pull on the headstock as the Heavy BB's. I was also able to lower my saddles quite a bit because of the neck adjustment, the lack of Taper wounds, and the lack of significant magnetic pull on the strings. I'm currently at about 2/32" clearance on the open E string at the 12th fret, which I consider pretty low (the BB's were about twice that high). So far I'm liking these strings on the 2015 more than the Heavy BB's. If after a few weeks I continue to like them I'll probably flip out the light gauge Tapes for a regular gauge set, which will also call for some nut work.

If I had to sum up the 2015 I'd say unlike my VP or Anniversary birds, this bass is not a work horse, it's a thoroughbred. Every part of this bass significantly interacts with every other part of the bass. When doing setups, even the smallest change in one parameter can completely undo another parameter. However, once you get everything in harmony it's a beast. The light gauge Tapes are definitely very close to perfection on this bass, maybe bested by a regular gauge set, time will tell.

I’m still running the Cobalt Flats on the ‘15. There are days I’m ready to ditch them. Then other days I like them. Pickups are as high as I can set them without weird sound effects. Eventually I’ll go back to nickels on it I think.

I loved Cobalts on my VP but was really bummed when they just didn't sound right on the 2015. I run XL Round Nickels on my EB5 (it has the same pups as the 2015) with pretty good luck. The only reason I haven't tried them on the 2015 is that I'm trying not to duplicate what I can already get on another bass.

 

[dagrev]

No can see.

Yes, just a general shot with no closeup of the slab view.

 

[BklynKen]

STIV!!!!

It was a doc on Amazon Prime. Pretty good.