Thunderbird Club

[Miles_ONeal]

Any illusions I had of being decent were shattered when this hit YouTube. She’ll be hitting 10,000,000 views pretty soon.

She looks a *lot* like one of my great nieces, right down to her expressions and reactions, but it's not her. She blows my playing away. But that's OK. I came to terms long ago with the fact that I'll never be a great musician. I'll just be the best I can and enjoy what we all do.

 

[KaraQ]

Any illusions I had of being decent were shattered when this hit YouTube. She’ll be hitting 10,000,000 views pretty soon.

The peviously mentioned The Warning, their most recent single (first in Spanish), I think the bassist is either 14 or 15 in this vid...

...wish this is what I was doing at that age

 

[BklynKen]

I picked this up cheap on market place, not exactly Thunderbird related but it certainly is a distant cousin, '84-'86 Ibanez DB700 pups swapped out with Dimarzio model Js. I have a soft spot for early Ibanez basses, they always seemed to offer bassists something different. I did find a original bridge pickup on Fleabay, I have to sort out the neck pickup, that J pup is just swimming in that cavity. Maybe I'll wire up two Js in the neck position or maybe a Model one or XN2.View attachment 4028170 View attachment 4028172 View attachment 4028174 View attachment 4028175 View attachment 4028176

That's really cool! The headstock really suits it, too.

 

[T-BirdBassist89]

If it is one of these, it’s an active bass with a different bridge. Is this what you have?
View attachment 4028214

Ah okie and no I did some digging and i have a classic iv pro sorry long week and day

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Ah okie and no I did some digging and i have a classic iv pro sorry long week and day

Do you mean Classic Pro? Is it neck through? I like mine as much as my Vintage Pro; the biggest difference is the pickups. The Classic is more like a new Gibson with thunderous low ends and mids.

If it's the one in your Avatar, that's almost certainly a Classic Pro. In fact, it looks just like mine, Supertone and all.

 

[Flying B]

I believe the cp & vp pickups are American made by Gibson which seems like a big selling point to me (if it's true).

Is the "Vintage Pro" significantly better than the "IV" ?

Yes. As much as I enjoy my IV, the VP (and the CP) are in another league. Different sounding, though. The VP is very like an early Thunderbird, and can do the angry piano without even trying. The IV doesn't have the top end of a VP, and the overall tone is not quite as vibrant, but it has the thunder for days. The neck on the VP is thinner (1.5" vs 1.73" at the nut). The VP is neck through, if you car about that, and the hardware is generally a bit better. The only downside I've found for the VP is the bridge adjustability is a bit too limited for proper intonation for some strings (it does get really close). The IV has the same problem, but I put a Supertone on it and it works fine.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I believe the cp & vp pickups are American made by Gibson which seems like a big selling point to me (if it's true).

All I know is the pickups on both CP and VP both are excellent.

 

[T-BirdBassist89]

Do you mean Classic Pro? Is it neck through? I like mine as much as my Vintage Pro; the biggest difference is the pickups. The Classic is more like a new Gibson with thunderous low ends and mids.

If it's the one in your Avatar, that's almost certainly a Classic Pro. In fact, it looks just like mine, Supertone and all.

yup the one in my Avatar. I love the sound of it.

 

[dagrev]

When my son was ~13, he decided to enter a GC youth guitar/bass competition. He was pretty nervous day of. He was still pretty entry level. The first competitor was a 12 y/o who played a 6 string bass like he was EVH. Nearly everyone who followed was either sweating bullets or ended up just going through the motions.

I would have just gone to the bathroom when it was my turn.

 

[dagrev]

For the Rush fans, 7 year old drummer...

Pretty much nails it.

Oh yeah! This is going to the drummer!

Might send this as well.

 

[dagrev]

I should be playing my Thunderbird..
However, I’m recycling Celebration bottle caps instead..before you start counting..to make one of these it takes 73 “investments “. Cheers!

View attachment 4028120

That's a lot of beer to wash down one crab!

 

[PillO]

But it just goes to show ya - no matter how good you are there's always somebody better.

Some of us have a whole lot of somebodies better...

 

[PillO]

I just declared keeping up with the thread bankruptcy. Did I miss anything in the last few days?

Go peek behind the spoiler tags I left a day or so back...

 

[PillO]

IMO music competitions should not exist.
Art is subjective.
I’ve only been in one “battle of the bands”. The judge’s notes at the top of the page said “bass too pingy”. At the bottom of the page it said “great bass tone!”
30 minutes later, same bass, same judge.

I have mixed feelings.

On one hand, you are right. Being art, there are no objective measures.

But, we make judgements about artistic merit all the time. Which album to buy, what concert to attend. Subjective measures are possible. In the particular example you gave, I would say that there is a poor judge that can't maintain consistency. And to have a competition, the subjective measures should be made explicit to a judge - such as most likely to get a record deal, most likely to fill a concert venue, most likely to get booed as the opening act for Taylor Swift, most likely to have things thrown at them at a Slayer show...

 

[PillO]

That's a lot of beer to wash down one crab!

They fight like a bugger when they haven't been cooked first...

 

[Tooned]

Healthy competition is good for kids. Studies have shown that kids (especially boys) fall behind when they aren't competing.
Not to mention that kid who was way better than everyone should really be getting praise for their work and it also gives the other kids something to strive for.
The trick is to make sure that the kids who don't "win" feel encouraged and want to continue to improve.

 

[Old_Noob]

Reminds me of my college music audition. Dude before me was wearing a tux and had 3 different clarinets and was on his "Midwest audition tour." All I had was a (very well) rehearsed classical standard.....and I can hear tux dude playing insane scales and improvising. I was totally dispirited and my audition did not go well.

 

[dagrev]

Crabs, beer, going to the beach, child prodigy drummers, nine year old bass face, matching FSO headstocks, stage performances, and ummm Thunderbirds.

That was the first page missed.

 

[dagrev]

Any illusions I had of being decent were shattered when this hit YouTube. She’ll be hitting 10,000,000 views pretty soon.

Really beginning to dislike kids.....

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

I have mixed feelings.

On one hand, you are right. Being art, there are no objective measures.

But, we make judgements about artistic merit all the time. Which album to buy, what concert to attend. Subjective measures are possible. In the particular example you gave, I would say that there is a poor judge that can't maintain consistency. And to have a competition, the subjective measures should be made explicit to a judge - such as most likely to get a record deal, most likely to fill a concert venue, most likely to get booed as the opening act for Taylor Swift, most likely to have things thrown at them at a Slayer show...

yeah, mixed feelings as well as the human factor often “fudges” things....many moons ago (love saying that) we were the favorites to win one in Ft Lauderdale and when a female judge asked (this is FL in the early 80’s so it could have only been one thing) “Do you have anything for the judges?” I don’t know what I was thinking and instead of responding “why? are you a judge?” which was my intention, what came out was “why are you a girl?” to which she responded “no I’m a woman you Axxhole!”......we all looked at each other and knew at that point it was a lost cause.....needless to say we didn’t even make it to third place.....​