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Thunderbird Club

#173,826
GonePlaid said:
A cocktail PDB trio was where I got my start as a bassist.
Click to expand...
040811-Cocktail-Yamaha.jpg
 
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#173,827
shadven said:
I had an “Oh sh*t” moment today that made me question everything I believe in. I have my biggest, most important and meaningful gig in a year happening tomorrow night.
In an effort to be 100% ready for the show I decided to do a gear check and decide on which amp and which bass to play. So I lined up my favorite basses. My go to basses: 1954 Fender P-Bass, 1963 Fender P-bass, 1968 Fender Telecaster Bass. Neither of them were sounding great. ***? So I go to my 2nd tier 1974 Fender Jazz Bass, 1975 P-bass, 1995 P-bass. None of my main-stay sounded good. So I finally on a whim picked up my 2011 Gibson Thunderbird. A number of years ago I knocked it off a guitar stand and snapped off the headstock. After i had it repaired I lost interest... to fragile, didn’t feel “right”, repaired not perfect anymore.
Oh man, the bass sounded great! So much better than any of the vintage Fenders. It was also as light as a feather and had a mid-range growl that l love and I know will cut through the mix.
So tonight the earth shifted its axis and I am playing a Gibson Thunderbird at “the” gig and I’m gonna look cool too!
Click to expand...
Sounds to me like the 'Bird was just waiting for you to be ready before it chose you. Now that you have been chosen, nothing else will be quite the same.
 
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#173,829
Chucky Stiletti said:
yeah, doesn’t sound like a Bird but then again, doesn’t really sound like a J either.....kinda more like a Ricky...
Click to expand...
I found this on EdKingForum

I want to clear up something that has been a little bone, in a friendly way, between ZAP and me. This is the story of Ed's bass and how it got smashed.

For the folks from the old forum, you may have noticed that ZAP referred to me "geographically challenged" in a few of his last posts talking about this new forum. This is because ZAP claimed that he saw Leon smash a bass in New York City and I claimed that Leon had smashed a bass in Boston. The particular bass in question was a bass that belonged to Ed. When Ed left the band suddenly in Pittsburgh, he took his guitars but left this bass and Leon used it regularly.

Now ZAP says NYC and I say Boston, the truth is that we are both right. Before I tell what happened, let me provide a little background.

When the band received the Peavy endorsement, I built a bass rig for Leon using 6 individual 1 x 15 cabinets with an assortment of JBL D140's and Cerwin Vega 15's and 2 - 4 x 12 cabinets with JBL K120's this was powered by a PV bass head pre-amp into an electronic crossover into 2 BGW power amps. Each channel powered 2 cabinets. The crossover was set at about 100Hz so the 15's were working as sub woofers and the 12's carried the rest. The amps, by the way were recommended by our old sound company guy, Bullit. Thank God I was off the hook for that.

This rig sounded great. It was loud, clean and bone rattling, kidney stone shattering powerful. At 4 ohms, each channel was producing 700 watts. It worked great too, at first. It turns out these amps just were not up to the rigors of the road. I started having more and more problems. This culminated in both amps failing simultaneously at, where else?, the end of Freebird!

Now for the old timers here that saw the original band, you guys will remember the adrenaline pumping intensity of the live show. They planned their set to grab your attention at the very start of the first song, drag you around for a few songs, slow down a little in the middle then start turning up the heat bringing things to an explosive boil at the end with Freebird as the finale. The movie and the live album come close but the live show was electric.

Now the most important part of my job, and the rest of the band crew, was to make sure that there were no equipment failures AT ALL during the show. We were pretty damn good at it too. We ran a tight stage. Every thing, every cable or power cord was taped or secured so they couldn't be pulled out accidentally. Every light or PA cable on stage was taped and covered so no one could trip. Everything was clean. We used a lot of duct tape. When anything did happen, it was during Freebird.

Now besides Freebird being the song that things happened in, we had a real history in Boston. The first time we played Boston, it was opening for the WHO at Boston Gardens. During the ending to Freebird, one of the WHO's roadies kicks out the cord to Allen's amp. The next time in Boston, some guys at a bar wanted to fight and followed us out of the bar, their mistake. The next time, we were thrown out of this deluxe, very old hotel because someone started a fire in a fake fireplace, the whole floor filled with smoke and got a three alarm response.

So with all that background, here's what happened. The Boston show was in this theater. The band had done their magic and the crowd was all worked up and they were playing Freebird and were deep into the ending. At the same time, Allen is pulling on his whammy bar and he pulls it out of it's base. The only thing that held it in was string tension on a knife edge hinge. Then both of Leon's power amps fail. Pandemonium takes over the stage. Billie, Gary and Arty keep playing while Allen and Leon start smashing their guitars on the stage. It was really quite a show. When it was over, they both threw the remaining pieces out into the audience. I had to run out and managed to salvage the pick up and the whammy bar, both very rare pieces, from Allen's guitar but had to let them keep the other pieces they won.

Now some people have tried to argue that Ronnie told Leon to smash the bass because it was Ed's and Ronnie was still pissed at Ed. I don't think Ronnie knew or cared that it might have been Ed's bass and to the extent that Ronnie gave Leon any indication or encouragement it was just to let Leon know to go ahead and just do it.

Now this just pushed everything over the edge. I hadn't been happy with what was happening with those amps and I finally got permission to get 4 Crown 300's to replace them. We still had one (1 of 2) more show in NYC before these new amps would be delivered. Guess what? It happened again, at almost the same spot at the end of the Bird and Leon smashed ANOTHER bass. This is the show that ZAP saw.

Now I have to confess that at first I could not understand why ZAP kept insisting about the NYC show. The Boston show was a slam dunk for me. How could I not remember that show? The NYC show was fuzzy because of all the other stuff going on. The off day before the show in NY, we found another Firebird I for Allen and I spent all day at the hall setting it up with the whammy bar, installing the P90 at the bridge, routing and installing the mini-hb at the neck and then wiring everything up and then setting up the guitar.. The next day, I was putting together the new power amps for Leon. I was busting my butt doing all of this and the whole poopie storm became a blurry memory. It's took me a while to put the pieces back together about what happened but that's the story about smashing basses.
 
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#173,830
shadven said:
I had an “Oh sh*t” moment today that made me question everything I believe in. I have my biggest, most important and meaningful gig in a year happening tomorrow night.
In an effort to be 100% ready for the show I decided to do a gear check and decide on which amp and which bass to play. So I lined up my favorite basses. My go to basses: 1954 Fender P-Bass, 1963 Fender P-bass, 1968 Fender Telecaster Bass. Neither of them were sounding great. ***? So I go to my 2nd tier 1974 Fender Jazz Bass, 1975 P-bass, 1995 P-bass. None of my main-stay sounded good. So I finally on a whim picked up my 2011 Gibson Thunderbird. A number of years ago I knocked it off a guitar stand and snapped off the headstock. After i had it repaired I lost interest... to fragile, didn’t feel “right”, repaired not perfect anymore.
Oh man, the bass sounded great! So much better than any of the vintage Fenders. It was also as light as a feather and had a mid-range growl that l love and I know will cut through the mix.
So tonight the earth shifted its axis and I am playing a Gibson Thunderbird at “the” gig and I’m gonna look cool too!
Click to expand...
Welcome home.
 
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#173,833
Patrick J said:
I found this on EdKingForum

I want to clear up something that has been a little bone, in a friendly way, between ZAP and me. This is the story of Ed's bass and how it got smashed.

For the folks from the old forum, you may have noticed that ZAP referred to me "geographically challenged" in a few of his last posts talking about this new forum. This is because ZAP claimed that he saw Leon smash a bass in New York City and I claimed that Leon had smashed a bass in Boston. The particular bass in question was a bass that belonged to Ed. When Ed left the band suddenly in Pittsburgh, he took his guitars but left this bass and Leon used it regularly.

Now ZAP says NYC and I say Boston, the truth is that we are both right. Before I tell what happened, let me provide a little background.

When the band received the Peavy endorsement, I built a bass rig for Leon using 6 individual 1 x 15 cabinets with an assortment of JBL D140's and Cerwin Vega 15's and 2 - 4 x 12 cabinets with JBL K120's this was powered by a PV bass head pre-amp into an electronic crossover into 2 BGW power amps. Each channel powered 2 cabinets. The crossover was set at about 100Hz so the 15's were working as sub woofers and the 12's carried the rest. The amps, by the way were recommended by our old sound company guy, Bullit. Thank God I was off the hook for that.

This rig sounded great. It was loud, clean and bone rattling, kidney stone shattering powerful. At 4 ohms, each channel was producing 700 watts. It worked great too, at first. It turns out these amps just were not up to the rigors of the road. I started having more and more problems. This culminated in both amps failing simultaneously at, where else?, the end of Freebird!

Now for the old timers here that saw the original band, you guys will remember the adrenaline pumping intensity of the live show. They planned their set to grab your attention at the very start of the first song, drag you around for a few songs, slow down a little in the middle then start turning up the heat bringing things to an explosive boil at the end with Freebird as the finale. The movie and the live album come close but the live show was electric.

Now the most important part of my job, and the rest of the band crew, was to make sure that there were no equipment failures AT ALL during the show. We were pretty damn good at it too. We ran a tight stage. Every thing, every cable or power cord was taped or secured so they couldn't be pulled out accidentally. Every light or PA cable on stage was taped and covered so no one could trip. Everything was clean. We used a lot of duct tape. When anything did happen, it was during Freebird.

Now besides Freebird being the song that things happened in, we had a real history in Boston. The first time we played Boston, it was opening for the WHO at Boston Gardens. During the ending to Freebird, one of the WHO's roadies kicks out the cord to Allen's amp. The next time in Boston, some guys at a bar wanted to fight and followed us out of the bar, their mistake. The next time, we were thrown out of this deluxe, very old hotel because someone started a fire in a fake fireplace, the whole floor filled with smoke and got a three alarm response.

So with all that background, here's what happened. The Boston show was in this theater. The band had done their magic and the crowd was all worked up and they were playing Freebird and were deep into the ending. At the same time, Allen is pulling on his whammy bar and he pulls it out of it's base. The only thing that held it in was string tension on a knife edge hinge. Then both of Leon's power amps fail. Pandemonium takes over the stage. Billie, Gary and Arty keep playing while Allen and Leon start smashing their guitars on the stage. It was really quite a show. When it was over, they both threw the remaining pieces out into the audience. I had to run out and managed to salvage the pick up and the whammy bar, both very rare pieces, from Allen's guitar but had to let them keep the other pieces they won.

Now some people have tried to argue that Ronnie told Leon to smash the bass because it was Ed's and Ronnie was still pissed at Ed. I don't think Ronnie knew or cared that it might have been Ed's bass and to the extent that Ronnie gave Leon any indication or encouragement it was just to let Leon know to go ahead and just do it.

Now this just pushed everything over the edge. I hadn't been happy with what was happening with those amps and I finally got permission to get 4 Crown 300's to replace them. We still had one (1 of 2) more show in NYC before these new amps would be delivered. Guess what? It happened again, at almost the same spot at the end of the Bird and Leon smashed ANOTHER bass. This is the show that ZAP saw.

Now I have to confess that at first I could not understand why ZAP kept insisting about the NYC show. The Boston show was a slam dunk for me. How could I not remember that show? The NYC show was fuzzy because of all the other stuff going on. The off day before the show in NY, we found another Firebird I for Allen and I spent all day at the hall setting it up with the whammy bar, installing the P90 at the bridge, routing and installing the mini-hb at the neck and then wiring everything up and then setting up the guitar.. The next day, I was putting together the new power amps for Leon. I was busting my butt doing all of this and the whole poopie storm became a blurry memory. It's took me a while to put the pieces back together about what happened but that's the story about smashing basses.
Click to expand...
whoa, thanks Dude, so we’re talking about that blonde one from the pics I guess..
 
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#173,836
Patrick J said:
Not that I know of. Plus, by Bullets, Ed was gone. It was only Allan, Gary and Leon. Late 75 Cassie just happened to say, “My little brother plays guitar...”
Imagine the eye rolls she got.
Click to expand...
This isn't where I recall seeing it, but Wiki has Ed playing very little guitar, as well as co-writing one of the songs.
  • Ronnie Van Zant – lead vocals, lyrics
  • Gary Rossington – lead guitar (2-5, 7); rhythm guitar (1, 6, 8); slide guitar (8)
  • Allen Collins – lead guitar (1, 4, 8); rhythm guitar (2, 3, 5-7)
  • Ed King – lead guitar (6); bass guitar (all tracks except 2, 6); guitar fills (2) (during piano solo)
  • Billy Powell – keyboards
  • Bob Burns – drums (all except 2)
 
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