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Problem w new Epi Thunderbird Pro

F

fuersty

Jun 18, 2013
10
1
#1
Hey all,

In a moment of weakness I purchased a Epiphone Thunderbird Pro from an online retailer. I really love my Epi SG-3 and was looking at a Thunderbird to put a bit heavier strings on and use for lower tuned songs.

The Thunderbird Pro has active pickups, which is my first experience with them. I expected there would be some differences, but I think I may have a faulty output jack. When I plug the bass in to my amp I get a pretty serious hum. I've tried adjusting what I believe would be the 2 pickup controls, but anything above "barely audible" gives me an irritating hum. I have tried multiple cables (all of which work fine on my other passive basses) to no avail.
I did note that with a specific Fender guitar cable (which features metal shielding exposed maybe 1.5" beyond the plug) that when I touch the metal shielding the hum goes away - completely. So, if I could just grow a third hand to keep on the cable, it plays great!

So... questions....

Is this a sign of a problem with the bass? A bad ground of some sort?
Could this be due to interference of some sort? I do have a standing lamp that I know can cause interference, but that lamp was not on for my testing. I do have my amp plugged in to a rather decent Furman power strip. It's not a high end power conditioner, but I suspect it's better than a grocery store power strip.

In general, is this something I should expect to be more present in an active bass, compared to my passive ones?

Thanks all!
 
#4
Infact Thunderbirds Pro have always been blamed for a too
"modern" soundin' electronic that, in an unexpensive bass like that, can sometimes mean "too demandin' for its components"

I really think it could be a shieldin' issue, otherwise you chose good... I have the same bass and, while keepin' the Classic one with Gibson soapbars and 3 pivots bridge regularly tuned, the Pro is a full step downtuned, thanx to its himass bridge.

Let all of us know if you can address it with a lil' help from a tech: there's not that much room to operate in that small and crowdy control box...

Cheers,
Wallace
 
#6
schecter5string said:
This is true, but a bad ground under the bridge is an easy DIY fix. With some luck maybe this is the problem.
Click to expand...

I thought about a tech's help if it's shieldin' matter... I'm no giant but still I can hardly articulate my fingers in the control cavity...

My "Pro" luckily suffers from nothin' like that. Furthermore, I never abandon my compression, just because of unwanted hum, but I happened to know about the lack of space in the control cavity when I investigated the opportunity for an on/off capacitor to make the bass active/passive: it was impossible to install anything.

Cheers,
Wallace
 
#7
Thanks a ton all.

While I'm huge computer nerd, I'm not much with electronics. And I'm not too excited to be cracking open my brand new, 2-hour-old-to-me $400 bass (not that $400 is the end of the world, but.. I do expect it to work reasonably well).

I'll probably just return it (no cost to me) and ask for an exchange.
 
#8
mine was noisy too. Guitar Center said they would order a new one but it would take 6-8 weeks. I called Gibson customer service and they sent me a shipping label so I could send it to them. they fixed the problem (bad pickups) and had it back to me in about a week. if it's brand new (not second hand), I'd give them a call.
 
#9
It's not very cool to admit, but I picked the TBird up off Amazon.

But I just registered a return and I'll get a replacement by tomorrow morning, and they'll pick the broken one up for free. Hard to argue with that.
 
#11
I,ve got a pro 4 and no problems apart getting it set up to begin with.
Nut to high and getting relief right but apart from that it,s been good.
I wish they had put the high mass bridge on the classic and made them in black.
 

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