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Thunderbird Club

#247,861
Chucky Stiletti said:
same goes for your 66P, it took all but 3 seconds…..
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Exactly - I've told this story before but when I first saw it on the floor of Real Guitars here in SF, I fell in love with it's looks. When I plugged it in - I knew I had to have it. 3 seconds - yes, that seems correct.

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#247,862
Thumper said:
My thoughts exactly. I took it to a luthier to see about having it lightened, he said he couldn't remove enough wood to make a big difference. I have a better luthier now, he's currently putting together a Fenderbird with EB PUPs and VTVT and coil taps for me, maybe I'll get his opinion...
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You can only do so much if it's just removing wood under a pg. But from scratch - you can do a lot. If new wood - this is an option.

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#247,865
TBird1958 said:
Nice score, IIRC they came in this clear finish, also a good potential bass to modify. let me know if you'd like a club number :)
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Exactly. That's the oil finish. Mine is really thick poly that's going to cost a bit to remove. It will be refinished pretty soon. Not to mention that it is fretless now and passive. Yeah, modifications.
 
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#247,866
Gaolee said:
Exactly. That's the oil finish. Mine is really thick poly that's going to cost a bit to remove. It will be refinished pretty soon. Not to mention that it is fretless now and passive. Yeah, modifications.
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Go for it. The only bass I have that I go out of my way to do nothing irreversible to is my 1976 BC Rich Bodine. 24-30 of them were made that year, and probably only 2-4 of them left-handed. Kind of just out of respect for its rarity. 2013 NR Thunderbird? Yeah, that's pretty much FUBAR in the best sense.
 
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#247,867
Gaolee said:
Exactly. That's the oil finish. Mine is really thick poly that's going to cost a bit to remove. It will be refinished pretty soon. Not to mention that it is fretless now and passive. Yeah, modifications.
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Removing it requires focus, but a heat-gun, a flat-blade and patience will get it done for free.

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#247,875
bobyoung53 said:
I've never tried a new V4-B but the seventies heads had almost identical settings on the preamps as an SVT, on 70's SVT's the mid center frequencies for the switch are 220 hz & 800 hz, vs the 300 & 1000 on the V4-B the third position on both is 3000 hz. Ultra hi and ultra lo are identical. They sounded pretty similar to each other except for volume. V4-B's were not as common as SVT's back then, that's why they stopped making them.

Top is a 70's V4-B, below it is a 70's SVT, look at the frequencies right above the mid pots. V4-B's only had one channel with two inputs and two volume controls, SVT's had two separate inputs with their own set of volume and tone controls. Neither amp is stereo, only the preamps on the SVT has two channels, they combine and both use the power amp.




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Thanks. I'll see if I can find any of those comments from any Ampeg gurus, but one was this.

The newer V4B reissues are different. More like the original V4 circuits. The BH models I believe we're closer to an SVT-CL preamp with a 4x 6L6 power amp

I have no (very little and it's been a while) experience with the 70s V4s. I'm assuming my reissue is pretty close, but not exact. I know it's voiced differently than my V4-BH. Which was making me believe there was a real difference between the two.

I've love compare the schematics, but I wouldn't know what I was looking at! I have them for the V4-BH if you have the V4-B to compare. Very little of it do I understand.

My BHs are big and creamy smooth, the V4-B reissue is not as big, but is more aggressive and really loud for 100w.

Thunderbirds sound great through either.

Pre Nylons...
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