Thunderbird Club

[WillyW]

After my son goes to sleep I have about 13 hours of unboxing and set up to do on his new drum kit…

maybe I’ll just put the box in his room and let him set it up… how else ya gonna learn….

 

[BklynKen]

@PillO Apologies in advance.

 

[avi]

So maybe I'll give it one more go at trying to get the 3 point more playable. I really need to clean that bass anyhow. Might throw in a Duncan BO pre I have laying around while I'm at it. Plus just did the bills and I'm bleeding money right now so...can't do much else!

 

[avi]

So maybe I'll give it one more go at trying to get the 3 point more playable. I really need to clean that bass anyhow. Might throw in a Duncan BO pre I have laying around while I'm at it. Plus just did the bills and I'm bleeding money right now so...can't do much else!

Thanks everyone for thier input. I may put the Hipshot on the wish list.

 

[icefly]

Not sure what you mean. Here is a closer pic. View attachment 4662607

. I really need to clean that bass anyhow.

According your pic, seems an easy task, not too much dirty

 

[BklynKen]

Not sure what you mean. Here is a closer pic. View attachment 4662607

Beautiful grain on that one.

 

[dagrev]

Thanks everyone for thier input. I may put the Hipshot on the wish list.

After market bridges tend to be easier to adjust and some offer more adjustments, but I can get my 3 point bridges to play fine. I've got two and have no intention of changing them. Do I prefer them? Not at all. Will they work? Yes they will. Keep at it as it's literally more of a balancing act but can be done and work well.

 

[Stealth57]

Question for the electrical engineers. My Sunn Concert Bass amp and 215m cabinet has a hum. I took the head to a highly recommended solid state amp repair shop and they tested it and said it was clean. I watched as they pulled it into another cabinet and no hum.

So I figured it was just dirty power since the line the amp is on shares intermittent loads with a motor and 300w transformer.

But, I plugged in another amp on the same circuit and no hum. Any thoughts on what might be going on? The hum isn’t noticeable when playing.

 

[dagrev]

Beautiful grain on that one.

You're right. Never noticed it the first time, but very nice and a little different in a good way.

 

[Engle]

26363762[/URL], member: 85055"]Actually, with more neck pitch your bridge saddles will end up sitting higher off the body than with less neck pitch. The heel of the neck sitting high limits how far down you can take your three point before it starts fretting out on the last few frets. I believe a Hipshot will allow you to drop the saddles a bit lower than a three point. The Babicz may go low as well but then you start getting into string break angle issues.

Just for reference, my BlingBird build utilized a Fender spec neck pocket and neck, so pretty much zero pitch. The problem I ran into with the Tbird two piece bridge was that even bottomed out My action was sky high (I don’t think it would have been a problem for a Hipshot three point replacement bridge). I ended up having to shim the bridge end of the neck pocket quite a bit to create something near a Gibson spec pitch so my action was at a reasonable point with the bridge nearly all the way down. A lot of trial and error with temporary shims (layers of masking tape) and neck adjustments and bridge tweaking to get the pitch just right for a decent action. Because tape is compressible I’ll give it a couple more months of use before I replace the temporary shim with a permanent full pocket wood tapered shim.

I think we are on the same page.
With more neck pitch, the bridge saddles are higher. So you need a taller bridge.
Less neck pitch requires a shorter bridge. So a three point is in danger of not being able to go low enough.
It’s a classic problem with Fenders where lack of neck pitch means the saddles are all the way down and the strings are sometimes still too high off the fingerboard. Adding a shim at the closed end of the neck pocket creates more pitch and if you leave the bridge as-is, the action will be lower. Ideally you want it at a point where you have room to adjust the saddles.

Too much neck pitch could lead to a problem with low action that you can’t adjust up enough. I actually did this with own Tbird build years ago. I built it with too much neck pitch and the Badass1 I put on it wasn’t tall enough. I had to fabricate an 1/8” plate to shim up the bridge.

 

[Engle]

Question for the electrical engineers. My Sunn Concert Bass amp and 215m cabinet has a hum. I took the head to a highly recommended solid state amp repair shop and they tested it and said it was clean. I watched as they pulled it into another cabinet and no hum.

So I figured it was just dirty power since the line the amp is on shares intermittent loads with a motor and 300w transformer.

But, I plugged in another amp on the same circuit and no hum. Any thoughts on what might be going on? The hum isn’t noticeable when playing.

I would think the other amp has better filtering.

 

[Stealth57]

I would think the other amp has better filtering.

1976 Sunn vs 2022 Ampeg Micro VR? Anyway to add a filter between the amp and cabinet?

 

[KaraQ]

Question for the electrical engineers. My Sunn Concert Bass amp and 215m cabinet has a hum. I took the head to a highly recommended solid state amp repair shop and they tested it and said it was clean. I watched as they pulled it into another cabinet and no hum.

So I figured it was just dirty power since the line the amp is on shares intermittent loads with a motor and 300w transformer.

But, I plugged in another amp on the same circuit and no hum. Any thoughts on what might be going on? The hum isn’t noticeable when playing.

When you tried your second amp, was it through the same cabinet?
Is the cabinet something you had the shop check also?
If no, then maybe something in the cab wiring, or a speaker(s) issue?

 

[Stealth57]

Sunn Concert Bass amp into Sunn 215m gives hum. Ampeg Micro VR into Sunn 215m no hum. Ampeg Micro VR into Ampeg 210av cabinet no hum.

I’ve never had the cabinet checked as couldn’t think of what could go wrong in the cabinet to cause hum. Now, no hum with a different head.

 

[Stealth57]

P.S. tomorrow I’ll check Sunn amp into Ampeg cabinet.

 

[GBassNorth]

So maybe I'll give it one more go at trying to get the 3 point more playable. I really need to clean that bass anyhow. Might throw in a Duncan BO pre I have laying around while I'm at it. Plus just did the bills and I'm bleeding money right now so...can't do much else!

The stock 3 point should work just fine.
Warning: if you remove the strings and turn the bass over the bridge will most likely fall off the body and/or the saddles will fall out of the bridge. If that happens you’ll need to put the saddles back in the correct locations, they’re numbered. It’s a known issue for Tbird players and easy enough to avoid - just don’t flip the bird over without strings on it.

I think we are on the same page.
With more neck pitch, the bridge saddles are higher. So you need a taller bridge.
Less neck pitch requires a shorter bridge. So a three point is in danger of not being able to go low enough.
It’s a classic problem with Fenders where lack of neck pitch means the saddles are all the way down and the strings are sometimes still too high off the fingerboard. Adding a shim at the closed end of the neck pocket creates more pitch and if you leave the bridge as-is, the action will be lower. Ideally you want it at a point where you have room to adjust the saddles.

Too much neck pitch could lead to a problem with low action that you can’t adjust up enough. I actually did this with own Tbird build years ago. I built it with too much neck pitch and the Badass1 I put on it wasn’t tall enough. I had to fabricate an 1/8” plate to shim up the bridge.

Yep, you got it.

 

[RedVee]

Thunderbird II.

yes, but Bones Hillman has passed away now. RIP.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Question for the electrical engineers. My Sunn Concert Bass amp and 215m cabinet has a hum. I took the head to a highly recommended solid state amp repair shop and they tested it and said it was clean. I watched as they pulled it into another cabinet and no hum.

So I figured it was just dirty power since the line the amp is on shares intermittent loads with a motor and 300w transformer.

But, I plugged in another amp on the same circuit and no hum. Any thoughts on what might be going on? The hum isn’t noticeable when playing.

is the hum 60Hz? is it still there with no input connected?

 

[Stealth57]

is the hum 60Hz? is it still there with no input connected?

The hum is there with or without anything connected. Volume and EQ makes no impact. It is constant with no apparent cycle. I’ll try to figure out how to post the audio clip.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Anyone here mind help identifying this Thunderbird-esque bass?
Got it for cheap at a store, and i'm fairly certain it's been refinished.

Neither I nor the store owner knows what brand it could be.
It's got two volume pots, quite bad ones, and two humbuckers which are 5 string sized.
Anyone here have a clue?

Obviously the mfr is Thunderbolt & Lightning. The model is the Very Very Frightening. Serial number GGGGGF