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Thunderbird Club

#167,461
Nocturnal said:
My good friend has an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 head he runs thru two 1/12 Aguilar cabs. He loves it with his basses (and he has quite a nice variety) and his 76 Bird sounds great with that setup. I have played some of my Birds thru his rig and always liked the sound. I can't describe the sound because it has been a little while, but I remember getting a nice gritty sound without making it extreme grit. I have kicked around the idea of picking up an Aggy head but just never pulled the trigger on one.
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the onboard preamps are excellent as well..
 
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#167,462
Nocturnal said:
My good friend has an Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 head he runs thru two 1/12 Aguilar cabs. He loves it with his basses (and he has quite a nice variety) and his 76 Bird sounds great with that setup. I have played some of my Birds thru his rig and always liked the sound. I can't describe the sound because it has been a little while, but I remember getting a nice gritty sound without making it extreme grit. I have kicked around the idea of picking up an Aggy head but just never pulled the trigger on one.
Click to expand...
your comment of "...nice gritty sound without making it extreme..." sounds exactly lie what I thought when I heard the Mike Lull through the TH 500 on you tube.
 
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#167,463
Klondike said:
I periodically ask some pretty 'away from center' questions but that is because I don't know and would like to know others experience, Ior is it just that weird??? I asked on fb but not all of you are in that group. Some won't answer because it just wouldn't cross their minds etc.

Here goes:

Have any of you ever plugged into an Aguilar Amp? What did you find? Good tone or bad? to warm? To clean?

They are considered by many to be great amps/cabs and many high quality players use them but many high quality players use all sorts of brands. I've dug up you tube and only found one video of a guy with a Mike Lull bird and his tone was quite good. I'm not considering changing anything I have but I haven't been using my GK gear at all and have been thinking of selling it. if I found a good home. Anyway What you say guys? what are your experiences with that combination???
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My big rig used to be an Aggie DB750 thru an Aggie 412. It did in fact play wonderfully with all my basses. I'd say it was voiced a tad darker and richer than most amps I've played, kind of in the same category as most Eden amps and many Ashdown amps I've owned or played. That said, I A/B'd it with an Ampeg SVT-VR and Bergantino 610 cab and ended up keeping the Ampeg/Berg setup, which seemed a bit tighter and focused with more punch. But all that's just personal preference.

The DB750 was an exceptionally well built amp (except for the handles on the front which were easy to bend). It was good and heavy and just as solid and reliable as you'd ever expect any gigging amp to be. However, If I were looking at buying something in the DB750 power range again I'd probably skip the Aggie and instead look for a Thunderfunk 750 or newer offering which has its roots in the Gibby (and I think Acoustic) amp design department - still the best match I've found for the Thunderbird along with Bergantino cabs.

A TB'er that has much more experience than anyone I know with nearly every amp/cab combo out there is Tom Bowles. I'm sure he could give you a very accurate rundown of whatever you're looking at.
 
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#167,464
Roughed up a photoshop of a modded SG-Z. I'm kinda digging it.

SGZ mod.jpg
 
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#167,465
D.M.N. said:
Roughed up a photoshop of a modded SG-Z. I'm kinda digging it.

View attachment 4118380
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That does look nice! If you decide to move forward on the build you might want to look at an SG Supreme as the starting point. It already has the mudbucker at the neck that sounds fantastic. Just drop in a set of China Buckers below it and you're set. Most of the SG Supreme basses I've seen are a bit less in cost than that particular SG-Z and have awesome wood and finishes...
Gibson SG Supreme Bass 2007 Flameburst | SoGlo Guitar Gallery | Reverb
 
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#167,466
GBassNorth said:
That does look nice! If you decide to move forward on the build you might want to look at an SG Supreme as the starting point. It already has the mudbucker at the neck that sounds fantastic. Just drop in a set of China Buckers below it and you're set. Most of the SG Supreme basses I've seen are a bit less in cost than that particular SG-Z and have awesome wood and finishes...
Gibson SG Supreme Bass 2007 Flameburst | SoGlo Guitar Gallery | Reverb
Click to expand...

I was liking the idea of a long-scale version, but if I went short-scale I think maybe one of the older Epi EB-3s from the 90s, the Elitist ones with the Gibson headstock. Good Japanese build quality and pretty cheap.
 
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#167,477
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#167,478
Chucky Stiletti said:
the onboard preamps are excellent as well..
Click to expand...
I have a ToneHammer stomp box that I used for a while to help tame piezo honk when things were mismatched. It did OK at that. It was a good tool for bass guitar, but with wireless, there's not really an impedance match issue any more, and the upright sounds much more like itself without the ToneHammer. So, it sits. I probably ought to sell it.
 
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#167,479
GBassNorth said:
My big rig used to be an Aggie DB750 thru an Aggie 412. It did in fact play wonderfully with all my basses. I'd say it was voiced a tad darker and richer than most amps I've played, kind of in the same category as most Eden amps and many Ashdown amps I've owned or played. That said, I A/B'd it with an Ampeg SVT-VR and Bergantino 610 cab and ended up keeping the Ampeg/Berg setup, which seemed a bit tighter and focused with more punch. But all that's just personal preference.

The DB750 was an exceptionally well built amp (except for the handles on the front which were easy to bend). It was good and heavy and just as solid and reliable as you'd ever expect any gigging amp to be. However, If I were looking at buying something in the DB750 power range again I'd probably skip the Aggie and instead look for a Thunderfunk 750 or newer offering which has its roots in the Gibby (and I think Acoustic) amp design department - still the best match I've found for the Thunderbird along with Bergantino cabs.

A TB'er that has much more experience than anyone I know with nearly every amp/cab combo out there is Tom Bowles. I'm sure he could give you a very accurate rundown of whatever you're looking at.
Click to expand...
As I understand it, Thunderfunk was a Russ Alee design, post ACC. So it did have ACC roots by way of Gibson.
 
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