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Thunderbird Club

#181,883
TBird1958 said:
Loud Rickenbacker love by Mike Mesaros of the Smithereens, talk about driving the bus! What a great band!

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Oh yeah! One of the bands that made the eighties tolerable. Part of the Jersey brotherhood. They're actually playing with Marshall Crenshaw at the Canyons in Agoura Hills on the 20th. Probably can't do it though. And Mark's show in Paso Robles is the following week which I really want to see.
 
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#181,887
being chased by a banana yellow Grenlin…..
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#181,891
dukeorock said:
String update yet again :)

I’ve been an MXR/Dunlop endorser for many years, but kinda let that slip because I don’t use pedals too much and I didn’t love their strings. The head artist rep is still a buddy and we caught up at NAMM and I told him I was doing a ton of touring this summer and am back into using rounds, but tend to change em every 2-4 shows. He sent me 6 sets of regular Super Brights, 6 sets of MM Super Brights and 3 sets of flats. I put on a set of regular stainless SB’s and played two long outdoor shows that were over 3 hours long, each set. These shows were super hot and humid, so the top end zing went away quick, but they still sounded nice. Did a third show outdoors, hot and humid (90 minutes) and the strings still sounded good. Fourth show, one hour indoors…still pretty good. Fifth show indoors, 4 hours and still sound pretty dang good! Usually my E&A have gone to mush well before that. Put a set of the flats on my Gretsch and they’re awesome on that bass.
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Kudos to Dunlop for the stainless SB’s for longevity. I actually like the MM SB’s too as I’d rather eq out too much zing than try to eq it in after they die out too much
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Man that Gretsch bass is lovely - probably the best "LP" shaped bass, very western looking too. TV jones pickups are killer, i got a bridge thundertron in the middle position of a custom short scale bass i built a while back - wired straight to the output sounds every bit of RIC & pbass rolled in one.

KaraQ said:
That's one of the reasons I keep spares! :D :whistle:

Speaking of spares, and Blackbirds.....

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Dig the Blackbird! What made you go with a single volume rather than the killswitch?
 
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#181,892
Chucky Stiletti said:
Thanks! Data is consistent and tight confirming my suspicion about the TBuckers….thanks again G…
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My pleasure. Now I’m curious as to which model of thunderbucker you have. I’m still not sold in keeping the stock BaCH pup. It sounds good but not great, and the chrome flats aren’t doing it any favors.

Gaolee said:
George's IV has Thunderbuckers?
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Nope, my Greco IV has stock Greco pups, which I wouldn’t even consider flipping out for something else. But what the test did show is that the thunderbuckers are a more robust sounding pup than the stock BaCH.

MCF said:
I still have the Cobalt Flats on the '15. They sound good on it at all the various settings. And my fingers love the smooooooooooooooothness of them. But I think I'm going to go with Super Bright nickels pretty soon though, because I really want more Tbirdyness when it's in full humbucker mode. The thing that has kept me from doing it is that the Cobalts were so darn hard to install because of the stiffness at the wraps and the narrow diameter tuning pegs.

Have I said how much I love my 15? My #1
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Beautiful bass.
My favorite rounds on Tbirds so far is Optima Golds followed by Boomers and then Fender 7250. I do like the tapes best on my 2015 since it’s such a different beast, didn’t like cobalts on it at all, sounds like they work good for you though, and that’s what matters.

Gaolee said:
Especially with the obligatory black and gold pickguard.
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That’s the special Gibson 2015 Veronica Tribute Tbird. A few of us here have them, kind of a club within a club thing. ;)
 
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#181,894
WSquires said:
So sad to hear about Dusty. The world lost a legend today. :-(


I have a question for the group. This 2021 NR bird is the first NR thunderbird I've ever owned and played for extended periods of time. This bass is killing my shoulder after 30 minutes of playing. I currently own 2 reverse tbirds (and have played other reverse tbirds) and do not ever get this kind of shoulder pain with them despite the fact that they are heavier. My Greco is 9.5 lbs, my bicentennial Gibby is also around 9.5 lbs, and this NR bird is around 8.6 lbs. I seem to have to reach more for the 1st fret with the NR bird because of where the strap button is relative to the fretboard. Both the Greco and the bicentennial have strap buttons at the heel of the neck that line up around the 15th fret, whereas the NR bird has a strap button on the horn that seems to line up closer to the 17th fret. I believe this difference is causing me to extend my arm more to play the positions I frequently play with my band (usually north of the 7th fret) and is causing shoulder pain because my shoulder is not in a relaxed position like it is with other basses.

I'm wondering what your opinions are on this? Would changing the strap button location to the heel of the neck help? (It looks like the strap button would continue to line up with the 17th fret if I moved it so I have my doubts)

I'm 6'3" so I did not think that this would be a problem… but here we are. My only rule with the basses I own is that I have to be able to gig with them - and I don't gig sitting down. If I can't fix this issue then I'm afraid I will have to return the instrument to the store. :-(

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Thanks for another datapoint that will serve future NR shoppers. :thumbsup:

That would be unfortunate, if you can’t get comfortable with it. I hope you can.

It looks like my 2018 Reverse Gib is aligned with the 16th fret. It hasn’t bugged me at all, but maybe because I’ve got a longish strap, that causes the bass to sit more vertical. I dunno.
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#181,895
GBassNorth said:
My pleasure. Now I’m curious as to which model of thunderbucker you have. I’m still not sold in keeping the stock BaCH pup. It sounds good but not great, and the chrome flats aren’t doing it any favors.


Nope, my Greco IV has stock Greco pups, which I wouldn’t even consider flipping out for something else. But what the test did show is that the thunderbuckers are a more robust sounding pup than the stock BaCH.


Beautiful bass.
My favorite rounds on Tbirds so far is Optima Golds followed by Boomers and then Fender 7250. I do like the tapes best on my 2015 since it’s such a different beast, didn’t like cobalts on it at all, sounds like they work good for you though, and that’s what matters.


That’s the special Gibson 2015 Veronica Tribute Tbird. A few of us here have them, kind of a club within a club thing. ;)
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66N and B…..first thing I did was yank those Arteks and sent them to The Fixer…..
 
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