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Thunderbird Club

#16,662
Nocturnal said:
I thought the price was very good for how rare these are.
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WAY UNDERPRICED!!!!!!!!

Somebody buy that DAMN THING NOW!!!!!


I'm happy to help getting it shipped Overseas
 
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#16,663
image.jpeg
Sorry for the Jackson, this bird arrived today.....
 
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#16,668
Haji said:
Since I know there's a fair number of gigging...or at least giggling...players in our group, I wondered if any of you guys use anything like the BBE Aural Exciter. I find that my TBIV pickups can be a bit boomy depending on the room and wondered if an Exciter's additional harmonics might assist.
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I've been using a Tech21 VT-DI pedal for ages now. Plenty of EQ possibilities there, whenever i want to brighten up the tone.
Although most of the time i usually run it at Bass and Treble at 1 o'clock with the Midrange at 11 or 12-o'clock.
 
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#16,669
Haji said:
Since I know there's a fair number of gigging...or at least giggling...players in our group, I wondered if any of you guys use anything like the BBE Aural Exciter. I find that my TBIV pickups can be a bit boomy depending on the room and wondered if an Exciter's additional harmonics might assist.
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I play live through an Acoustic 360 which can get extremely boomy in the wrong venue. I deal with it by turning down the volume, messing with the EQ, cutting bass, and moving the amp a little. I also use a piece of playground mat under the amp to decouple it from the stage. That all helps. Sometimes it's not enough, and I'm left playing and hoping it sounds better in the audience than it does on stage.
 
#16,671
Nocturnal said:
Are the available choices both bolt-on neck basses? One with black hardware and the other with chrome guitar-sized humbucker pickups? As far as I know the version with black hardware is the same as the typical bolt-neck Bird with the same standard pickups and hardware, just a limited edition finish. The chrome version seems to be the same body but with chrome hardware, and different pickups. Some people love the pickups, others not so much. The good thing with the guitar-sized pickups is that you can easily replace them with lots of aftermarket pickups such as Dimarzio, EMG, etc.
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Andy is spot on, on his observations...

Also the one with black hardware is most likely made in Korea, and the other in China, which is important for some...
 
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#16,672
Nocturnal said:
I honestly don't know. It has been discussed way back in one of the Tbird group postings but it has been a while. The only model I have tested with the chrome humbuckers was the silverburst model, which it turns out had guitar pickups in it and sounded ok to me but some people like them. No clue what the other models have installed. Sorry I can't help more with this.
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Same here... Never opened up mine, so i wouldn't even know if they are in fact guitar pickups.

They are guitar shaped, but sound fine, but never did a comparative test to the black ones.

Should you ever want to mod it with Chinabuckers og Thunderbuckers in the future, then the one with black hardware would require the least routing as the pickups are more or less the same size. The one with chrome pickups would require quite a lot of routing as the pickup cavity is way smaller.

I personally have the custom shop with black hardware, and it's a great bass.
 
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#16,678
Gaolee said:
I play live through an Acoustic 360 which can get extremely boomy in the wrong venue. I deal with it by turning down the volume, messing with the EQ, cutting bass, and moving the amp a little. I also use a piece of playground mat under the amp to decouple it from the stage. That all helps. Sometimes it's not enough, and I'm left playing and hoping it sounds better in the audience than it does on stage.
Click to expand...

I wondering if an Fdeck HPF would help with this. I haven't played out yet with mine but in my basement it can get quite boomy compared to my other basses.
 
#16,679
That's a good thought. I have one that I use with the upright and the small Carvin combo to tame peizo honk, but I hadn't thought of using it with the 'Bird and folded horn. There's a show coming up soon and I may try it out.

One thing I have noticed is that Thunderbirds sound better with a bit of scoop to the EQ. The P sounds better with a mild reverse scoop. It's also interesting to me how the '15 has a tendency to disappear in the mix a little if it's EQed wrong. The '91 with Chinabuckers and Cobalt Flats doesn't, and the '01 with stock pickups and some kind of roundwound strings certainly doesn't. I'm almost superstitious about changing anything about the '01 at this point.
 
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