The Last Bass Outpost

Anal sex with cats is just not right and against nature. Even if they are large. What are you trying to tell us, John?

I knew there was something not quite right with him the moment he showed us his gizmo ...

Uwe

Come to think of it: I liked the apron she wore (Gale, not Whitney), kind of Stepford Wives (the creepy original, not the watered down remake) chic.

Yup, that is a G-3 sound alright! Up to then no other Gibson pup with maybe the exception of the LP Sig pup had those beautiful sparkling highs. Yet it doesn't sound tinny at all.

Are you running the pups as single coils, i.e. not always two (or even three) of them together like in the original G-3 wiring? That was either front two, all three or rear two pups (a common mod was combining just the front and the rear pup, leaving the middle pup out, I have that on one of my G-3s, pre-owner modded it that way).

I like the middle pup setting on your recordings - had a coffee while they loaded!  - for the added midrange.

Uwe

I have yet to hear a set of strings that doesn't sound good on a TBird. I've used LaBella Flats, TI Jazz Rounds, Rotosounds, Epiphone  , D'Addario slow- and regular wound, Elixier coated strings, DR Black Beauties and Lo Riders, GHS Bass Boomers, Warwick Black Label, Status Hex Core and Dean Markley. And a handful of others I've forgotten. They all sounded slightly different with the LaBella Flats and the TI Jazz Rounds obviously the most radical departure from a traditional roundwound sound, but still great in a different way.

I play with a pick and prefer - on a Bird - a medium bright, warm sound which is not yet clanky or piano-ringish.

Remember my sparkle charcoal Epi Embassy with the loveless neckbreak fix (that's how I bought it from Chicago Music Exchange), basically a not very stabilizing "volute" they had pasted to the back of the original (broken and splintered) neck? It came off eventually - unsurprisingly -, so off the Epi went to my luthier for some deutsche Wertarbeit. Some carbon and maple and voilà, this is where we are right now:

Accept always sound like a poor man's version of Judas Priest - minus all musicality. Or as one writer once wrote about KISS: "They sound like a hardrock band must sound to someone who doesn't like hardrock."   

We forgot Lenny btw:



My son, 13 1/2, played this riff for literally hours on end for weeks  until he finally got it right with his triple pup faded Flying V. I saw him play it with his school band only recently (he's got it down pat by now plus, of course, Lenny's moves  ) and, in fine Ritchie Blackmore tradition for which I must bear some responsibility, he was louder than the rest of the band put together (two singers, bassist, rhythm guitarist, drummer and percussionist). I had a parental word with him afterwards. 

How does the Dean compare with the other V's?

Reasonably well: More authority than the Gibson (especially in neck pup solo mode) and more bite than the Ibanez. Action and high register accessability of the double octave neck is a dream. With the gain of the SVT up high, you can get a barky sound with the (probably) EMG passive  pups and the  (rather non-descript) active circuit that wouldn't leave a TBird player too unhappy.

The Kramer is a beast of its own: That alu neck is so sound-determining, the bolt on body doesn't play much of a role.