As an engineer, I'm sure you are aware that reading numbers properly is hardly significant.
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
@Gaolee and @MCF
Just wrapped up several hours of playing time with the newly strung La Bella Black Tapes on the 2015 bird. Played along with Pandora on '60s pop, country western, '50s rock, big band, smooth jazz, yoga meditation, swing, funk, classic rock, hard rock, disco, alternative, grunge, waltz and even polka. It did great with numerous songs in each genre. Cut through when it needed to, laid back when it needed to, provided plenty of punch when digging in, and got a bit gritty if I played over the bridge pup. I was able to play all the way up the neck and the notes rang true and clear with very good sustain. These will definitely take the place of the Black Beauties on the 2015.
After the setup sat over night I did have to make some minor tweaks. The strings got bumped up about a 64th higher to 5/64ths and the neck pup was able to be raised from its 10/32" clearance to about 7/32" on the E string side (for reference, my other birds are at about 3/32") and 6/32" on the G string side. I could possibly go with even less gap but I'll have to experiment on that later. I pretty much soloed the neck pup, kept the volume knob at about 8 and the tone knob between zero and 5 depending on the song.
Big band, smooth jazz and swing all sounded phenomenal when played up at the fretboard with my right hand. Classic and hard rock sounded best played right over the neck pup with an occasional slide down to the bridge pup to bing in more grit. I hardly had to touch the tone knob at all, playing at the neck was a bass boost and playing at the bridge was a treble boost, volume stayed roughly the same but was easily controlled by how much I dug in.
So far I'm really liking these strings on the 2015. I play a lot of Swing, jazz and 40's stuff. This will probably be my go to bass for that type of work. My VP is set up for hard rock, the Anniversary Bird covers all the other bases.
Just wrapped up several hours of playing time with the newly strung La Bella Black Tapes on the 2015 bird. Played along with Pandora on '60s pop, country western, '50s rock, big band, smooth jazz, yoga meditation, swing, funk, classic rock, hard rock, disco, alternative, grunge, waltz and even polka. It did great with numerous songs in each genre. Cut through when it needed to, laid back when it needed to, provided plenty of punch when digging in, and got a bit gritty if I played over the bridge pup. I was able to play all the way up the neck and the notes rang true and clear with very good sustain. These will definitely take the place of the Black Beauties on the 2015.
After the setup sat over night I did have to make some minor tweaks. The strings got bumped up about a 64th higher to 5/64ths and the neck pup was able to be raised from its 10/32" clearance to about 7/32" on the E string side (for reference, my other birds are at about 3/32") and 6/32" on the G string side. I could possibly go with even less gap but I'll have to experiment on that later. I pretty much soloed the neck pup, kept the volume knob at about 8 and the tone knob between zero and 5 depending on the song.
Big band, smooth jazz and swing all sounded phenomenal when played up at the fretboard with my right hand. Classic and hard rock sounded best played right over the neck pup with an occasional slide down to the bridge pup to bing in more grit. I hardly had to touch the tone knob at all, playing at the neck was a bass boost and playing at the bridge was a treble boost, volume stayed roughly the same but was easily controlled by how much I dug in.
So far I'm really liking these strings on the 2015. I play a lot of Swing, jazz and 40's stuff. This will probably be my go to bass for that type of work. My VP is set up for hard rock, the Anniversary Bird covers all the other bases.
This isn’t a thunderbird video .... but just a Humble tribute to the GREATEST Heavy Rock singer of All times ... RONNIE JAMES DIO
Possibly so. Delays I can certainly understand. But your experience and Miles, and my situation not knowing where it is difficult to rationalize. It's not Christmas. And even then I've not heard of the bizarre nature of more recent events. Private carriers seem to not be experiencing similar problems. At least I'm not hearing of that many.
I hope you get your pedal and this thing sorted out.
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Indeed, it's a matter of reading. That it even had another town and zip on it and was not noticed indicates other issues.
I had posted this guitar previously:
When we were talking about Burgundy Mist paint about 1000 pages ago. I bought his for my wife in 1993-ish. It sat for years in a local music store. I knew by the serial number it was from 1987 but it never matched anything I could find online.
A friend just sent me this from an recent sale at M&M Guitars: The letter explains how these guitars came to be. Ours is marked "SEC" factory second on the headstock. Pretty cool
When we were talking about Burgundy Mist paint about 1000 pages ago. I bought his for my wife in 1993-ish. It sat for years in a local music store. I knew by the serial number it was from 1987 but it never matched anything I could find online.
A friend just sent me this from an recent sale at M&M Guitars: The letter explains how these guitars came to be. Ours is marked "SEC" factory second on the headstock. Pretty cool
File under: You had one job?
Thanks George. Good information. Taps off I assume? Or does it not make a difference? And I forget, Do you measure your string height at the 12th?
I’ve been told a lot of experienced workers are taking retirement and moving on, replaced with contract workers. Management is the epitome of the Peter Principle, more so now than ever. Training is bare bones. All signs of an enterprise in big trouble.
USPS has been fine for me. UPS mostly fine. FedEx was weird for a while but new driver here is grest.
Excellent questions.
To my ears the pups sounded much better in full Humbucker mode on just about every song. The sound is fuller, richer and more complex without being muddy at all. In single coil mode the specific notes sounded a bit clearer but thin. Where single coil mode worked well was when I was tracking the melody on piano solos. In that case each note sounded very much like the note struck on the piano, but that's not a typical bass job so I didn't mention it.
My struggle with the 2015 in the past (and to a lessor degree with my dicola pup EB) has been that it sounds wonderful on one tone and volume setting (5 on tone and 8 on volume) but if you move that setting on either knob by as little as one point it's just hohum. With the Tapes I was able to utilize the tone and volume knobs to a much greater degree. Coil switching came in handy when ultra crisp clarity was needed; right hand position was super sensitive and very advantageous, almost to the point of not even needing a tone knob.
The light gauge tapes appear to be a very good match for the 2015. If I got really picky, the only down side I could find with them as that the G string sounded a tad thin or twangy compared to the other strings. I suspect the solution might be a normal gauge set, but my concern would be a boomy E string in that case. So for my next attempt at perfection I might buy a normal gauge set of Tapes but only replace one string at a time starting with the G string and then stop once all the strings sound relatively balanced. On any other bass I'd just raise the treble side of the pup. Not on this bass, if you do that the magnets will pull the strings out of intonation and you'll need to raise your action and adjust the neck or bridge. I love this bass but I've never had a one as difficult as this to completely sort out.
As for string height, I measured an open E at the 12Th fret and I measured the pup clearance at the open E on the center of the pup between the pole pieces.
washboard is fun ! I would consider going up to a full size if I find one at the right time, place and price.
I do enjoy my washboard tie and thimbles on country / folk songs.
I saw this bass on Pinterst and it totally reminded me of one of @JIO creations. I know its not Thunderbird based, but that T-40 pickup was used in an Epi NR once in the past.
I suspect you all might guess what I’m thinking about now. Interesting.
Schecter Reintroduces the Ultra Bass
Schecter Reintroduces the Ultra Bass
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,964
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Top pic is mine - lower pic - ?
The T-40/45 pu is a bucker that allows you to split the coils - it has a cool tone. 
Thats from Gildaxe and many of his basses use Epiphone thunderbird necks.
Here is the reverb listing for that one
Gildaxe Custom Retro-Modern TeiscoT-45bird | gildaxe.com | Reverb
He has some great stuff. check out the gildaxe reverb store
gildaxe.com
I like it! My Schecter Sixx is very well made and the Pelham Blue looks great on it!
