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Thunderbird Club

#192,401
GBassNorth said:
When it comes to more than two pups on a bird you’re in relatively uncharted territory. I think I recall seeing a picture of our Queen holding a custom one off that Gibby made quite some time ago, but there may only be one of those. Cataldo has a three pup as an option but probably only a few of those at most floating around. So I pretty much did the pup layout on my own. Same with the control design, scant info out there on wiring for a three pickup bass, plenty on guitars but I wanted the option to control volume and tone on all three pups independently. Hence, a modified ‘62 Jazz bass stacked pot configuration.

After a lot of searching and researching I concluded that the theoretical “best” pup locations for my application would be the lower two pups in standard P/J locations and the third pup up close to the neck heel. For the third pup location it worked out very good aesthetically to just drop the third pup at the same pup to pup spacing as the lower two. This brought the third pup about 1/2” from the neck heel (or 21st fret location) and the equal pup spacing kept my OCD in check.

Coincidentally, the spacing lines up exactly with my two pup SpectorBird, which because of the all maple body and maple/rosewood neck, is probably a closer fit sound wise to the new build. The new build is a poplar semi hollow body with a thick maple cap and maple/rosewood neck. The Spector is no slouch on tone and hopefully the additional pup will thicken it up even further - fingers crossed.
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I have a bolt-on that I was going to install a Dimarzio One as a neck pickup and leave the other two as a sweet spot and bridge pickup. Like so many projects, that one isn't done. Now, I'm reconsidering. I may look into installing the Model One in the fretless 'Bird as a neck pickup with the other two swapped out. It has Alumitones in it now, but maybe the '91's original pickups would be good. It would be a fretless Thunderbird with a mudbucker positioned Model One. I think that would sound good.

Of course if all that happens, I may as well take it apart and get it refinished something other than dark burst. Oh, well. Time and money.
 
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#192,402
GBassNorth said:
Great song though, I’ll have to dig deeper into his stuff, YouTube rabbit hole, here I come!
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The earlier Move stuff was most likely played on a P-bass (Ace Kefford, Trevor Burton and Rick Price) and I believe when Roy Wood handled the bass himself for that last album ("Message From The Country") and last few singles on Harvest label he used that customized Jazz Bass. Jeff Lynne might have played some bass too during the last year as the band was a studio unit only then (Jeff and Roy were eager to get ELO off the ground).
Anyway, they always had a great bass sound. "Shazam" is another great album.
 
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#192,403
PhR75 said:
How do you run your 4 pickup fretless Tele? Does it have all on all the time or do you use different combinations for different situations?

My only "multi pickup" bass is this Jazz, originally assembled in 2006 because I was (and am) a huge Doug Rauch fan. What I didn't know back then that he had a P pickup in place of the Jazz neck pickup and also I have never had a real mudbucker. The current setup is pretty balanced (Model 1 and DP127's) 'though I seldom use all three on.
View attachment 4514037
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Looks fantastic and I bet it sounds fantastic as well! I noticed you have two output jacks, is one dedicated to the Dimarizo?
 
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#192,404
WillyW said:
Super secret wiring... this is actually the first and only time I will put this in writing...

Two 51 single coils (one under the cover) controls are volume/blend (the two toasters are dummies)

View attachment 4514042
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Haha, that's perfect! I recall reading an old Melody Maker or NME article where Roy Wood was very secretive about his bass sound secrets. Maybe the pickups on his bass are dummies too and he has another set under the pickguard...
 
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#192,405
WillyW said:
I don't have to tools to make my own bodies, or I woo(l)d, but I had a few made.

The couple fellers what made the bodies for me BOTH were kind of particular asking about pickup placement.

I told em' I didn't care.

I can't tell if it's a Pbass, a Thunderbird, or a tuba on a specific recording, so 3mm of pickup placement is lost on me.

I don't envy those that can tell the difference.

I go "Thumpity-thump-clank-thump", girls dance, peeples smile and order another round.

View attachment 4513987
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I don't think most people in an audience know what a bass guitar is. An upright bass they kinda get. Kinda. But most of them don't even notice that it only has four strings or that the neck is half again longer.
 
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#192,408
GBassNorth said:
Looks fantastic and I bet it sounds fantastic as well! I noticed you have two output jacks, is one dedicated to the Dimarizo?
Click to expand...

Yeah, the other one is mono with all possible pickup combos and the other is Model One only. When both jacks are in use they split between the J pickups and the neck 'bucker.

Sounds like this with all on, flats, Acoustic 301 IR and heavy thumbing.
 

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#192,410
Before I found my sound (Thunderbird, duh) I had this made:
20211222_123716.jpg

Using this schematic:
20211222_124036.jpg
 
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#192,418
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