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Thunderbird Club

#158,681
GonePlaid said:
Yeah, I knew a lotta y'all like Acoustics. Maybe a way to sound like one w/o the 'grunt'.
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Not sure that will provide true “vintage” ACC acoustic sound. But who knows. MF/GC now owns that trademark and logo and sell acoustic branded amps as their house brand. Not bad, but not great. They are what they are; mass produced Asian amps built in the same factories that build new amps with the Kustom name on them. The best that can be said for the amps is they’re passable, give a nod to the classic looks of the originals, and are readily available used at very low prices. I’d be interested to learn how that box sounds, but I won’t be the one buying one to find out.
 
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#158,682
MCF said:
Not sure that will provide true “vintage” ACC acoustic sound. But who knows. MF/GC now owns that trademark and logo and sell acoustic branded amps as their house brand. Not bad, but not great. They are what they are; mass produced Asian amps built in the same factories that build new amps with the Kustom name on them. The best that can be said for the amps is they’re passable, give a nod to the classic looks of the originals, and are readily available used at very low prices. I’d be interested to learn how that box sounds, but I won’t be the one buying one to find out.
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GC has a good return policy. Just sayin'.
 
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#158,683
Thumper said:
When I was looking Thunderbuckers, their site has a comparison, Chinabuckers had better highs and lows, the Thunderbuckers has stronger mid IMO. The jazz has no shortage of lows with the Chinabuckers, and growls all I could ask for.
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Interesting. The comparison was just of Thunderbuckers though or is there a comparison where all things are equal someplace between the TBs and CBs? I was considering some Chinabuckers for my 06 Gibson if I couldn't get it sounding good.
 
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#158,684
GBassNorth said:
You might want to consider favoring one pickup over the other. I find on the VP that it starts to sound a bit thin when both pups are equal. I normally have my neck on about 8 and the bridge at 5 or less, many times completely off.
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I initially was finding the first VP not as beefy as my '64. Just wasn't BIG sounding. I found the Boomers (Round core and regulars) and String Joy's really helped fill in the lows better than many strings. But favoring the neck does make if sound more bigly!
 
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#158,685
dagrev said:
Interesting. The comparison was just of Thunderbuckers though or is there a comparison where all things are equal someplace between the TBs and CBs? I was considering some Chinabuckers for my 06 Gibson if I couldn't get it sounding good.
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My recollection was based on a comparison of various PUPs, a Google search pulled it up a couple of months ago.
 
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#158,687
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TT
 
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#158,688
Chucky Stiletti said:
That Alembic is pretty trick! Didn’t Entwistle play one of those? Are the pre’s on those 9 of 18 Volt?
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As I understand it, in the early 2000's John was playing his signature Buzzard Bass. He had been after Alembic for years to build him a copy of his Buzzard but Alembic repeatedly turned him down as they aren't keen on copying others designs. In early 2002 Alembic decided they would build a custom bass for John based on his Buzzard but not a copy of it. Their design was called the Dragon Wing and as you can see it takes a number of clues from the Buzzard but is still clearly a fresh design. John passed away that year before the Dragon Wing was completed. Alembic dedicated the model to him and made a very limited number of them (I've seen estimates as low as 10 to 12 copies but I haven't researched it to confirm).
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As far as the bass internals go, this model has the Anniversary preamp vs the external powered Series preamp. So it runs on one 9 volt battery. The LED fret markers run on an additional four batteries. In typical Alembic fashion, it plays like butter and has absolutely flawless construction.

An interesting side note, Alembic did manage to make one custom build of another company's bass, it was a Thunderbird that they called an Alembird. Looked beautiful. If it ever comes up on the open market I'm all over it.
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#158,693
TBird1958 said:
Miles, we just do "Turning Japanese", any other songs would likely draw a blank from our typical crowd - to be fair though, we're a cover band and play dance music.
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I thought so, but had to ask. A couple of their songs would sound “familiar enough” to most people, but it still might be dicey.
 
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#158,695
MCF said:
Not sure that will provide true “vintage” ACC acoustic sound. But who knows. MF/GC now owns that trademark and logo and sell acoustic branded amps as their house brand. Not bad, but not great. They are what they are; mass produced Asian amps built in the same factories that build new amps with the Kustom name on them. The best that can be said for the amps is they’re passable, give a nod to the classic looks of the originals, and are readily available used at very low prices. I’d be interested to learn how that box sounds, but I won’t be the one buying one to find out.
Click to expand...
As a person who had a 320/408 stack and currently has an original 360,, a Grexa 360m stack and a 126 combo, I can say the GC version is not ACC stuff. But I might have a problem. As problems go, ACC enthusiasm is not too bad, especially at the price it used to command. I dunno about current prices. Those are a problem.
 
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#158,696
Gaolee said:
As a person who had a 320/408 stack and currently has an original 360,, a Grexa 360m stack and a 126 combo, I can say the GC version is not ACC stuff. But I might have a problem. As problems go, ACC enthusiasm is not too bad, especially at the price it used to command. I dunno about current prices. Those are a problem.
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Many, many mango seasons ago, a little mom&pop music store had one of the folded horn/18" cabs at a fairly decent price. I was majorly tempted but common sense won out since the stage at the gig I was doing barely had room for my 2x12 Bassman cab standing on end with the head on top(end?). Plus which, I don't think that little 50W head woulda pushed that 18".
 
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