Thunderbird Club

[SubHuman]

think we may have found the culprit here……oh yeah and happy day before transistor Tues…….
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Ahhh the old broken kludge wire solder joint. I used to put a dab of hot glue on the PCB to hold the wire to take some strain off the solder joint. Looks like an easy fix. I always preferred those types of problems over intermittent component failures. Do you build and repair amps and electronics? I saw your bench and O’scopes with some open cabs in other photos. I retired from Electronic Design and built many circuit boards and prototypes. Kludge wires were a necessary part of electronics. I really enjoyed that type of work.

Note: Kludge means jumper wire or circuit modification.

 

[GonePlaid]

Plaid...I had a heckuva a time getting on Pickguardian on my iPad/iPhone. Nothing showed up right. I couldn't even see the choice of Pick Guard materials. I even made a log in and it still didn't load right!

After I messed around for quite a while I tried it on my PC and it loaded correctly. Technology...it kinda works!

OK so I am wondering did you send your original T-Bird pickguard in or did you just do a paper tracing?

I like these materials for my Trans-Black T-Bird. It's black opaque so it looks dark brown/black grain depending on the lighting.

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Also, did they inlay the T-Bird emblem or was it Silk-screened? Did you spec the color of the Bird emblem too?

I appreciate any info you can share!

Answered in the PMs.
"Mica" is what's on mine.

 

[SubHuman]

Answered in the PMs.
"Mica" is what's on mine.

Yes thank you. Now I will drive myself crazy trying to decide which pick guard material to choose!

 

[GonePlaid]

The other thing about T-birds is that it can be used for all variety of music, not just 'rock'. It may not look like it fits visually for some genre's - but looks aside, it can fit musically/sonically. I used mine for blues in Chicago, Miles here uses his at church on Sunday - and of course our fearless leader V used her's for '80s new-wave/rock. I recently used mine to play '60s classical pop-songs... no limits to where it will fit in as a great sounding bass.

Adding to that: I've used mine for jazz(trios, quartets, and big band); concert band; and the 60s/70s classic(?) rock/country group I'm in now.

 

[JIO]

Adding to that: I've used mine for jazz(trios, quartets, and big band); concert band; and the 60s/70s classic(?) rock/country group I'm in now.
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Proof in point Mike... it's repeated a lot here on tb in numerous threads - the sound.., the true sound of any bass is in the fingers (as in, the player of that bass) That player can gravitate to a specific bass/basses... but the sound which that player produces comes less from the instrument itself and MORE from the musician playing it. Always has been, always is, and always will be.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Ahhh the old broken kludge wire solder joint. I used to put a dab of hot glue on the PCB to hold the wire to take some strain off the solder joint. Looks like an easy fix. I always preferred those types of problems over intermittent component failures. Do you build and repair amps and electronics? I saw your bench and O’scopes with some open cabs in other photos. I retired from Electronic Design and built many circuit boards and prototypes. Kludge wires were a necessary part of electronics. I really enjoyed that type of work.

Note: Kludge means jumper wire or circuit modification.

yeah same here, in circuit design and applications for decades now, currently with an old, well known european silicon manufacturer pushing product into california fruit……totally agree, fun work, has taken me all over the world in different roles….

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Ouch! His did that scratch happen‽

I don't have an inkling what's wrong there. The green wire needed resoldering?

Bridge?

would seem like a cut and jump manufacturer mod was not performed correctly in that the trace was not cut all the way causing the trace to touch when the PCB gets screwed (torqued) into the chassis….. mechanical design is so often overlooked….would also seem to imply DI (line out) testing was not part of “finished goods”production test suite….

 

[Miles_ONeal]

NPD a few days ago, finally on the board.
The MXR M95 phaser wasn’t going deep enough, so I returned to my roots snd got a flanger. I really wanted a Ross or MXR but my Ross needs the unobtanium chip, and it and the MXR are huge with side jacks. I had a list to try, found a Polychrome to test, and got what the Ross had and then some. Walrus ships without feet; I asked support, and they offered me free feet if I was in the US. So far Texas still is, and the feet showed up today with a sticker and picks. The bigger form factor meant flanger and volume pedals move to the board’s edge, but it all works! Both the Polychrome and the Tumnus Deluxe play really well with Thunderbirds.

 

[SubHuman]

yeah same here, in circuit design and applications for decades now, currently with an old, well known european silicon manufacturer pushing product into california fruit……totally free, fun work, has taking me all over the world in different roles….

Awesome work! I was using a stereoscopic microscope to design and build up to 12 layer, hi-speed PCB’s using 402’s and 201 components with QFP’s and BGA’s.
I still have my solder station, DMM and O’scope.
I am toying with the idea of building a point to point tube amp for fun.
Hey it’s transistor Tuesday at least here on the East Coast!

 

[Miles_ONeal]

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Awesome work! I was using a stereoscopic microscope to design and build up to 12 layer, hi-speed PCB’s using 402’s and 201 components with QFP’s and BGA’s.
I still have my solder station, DMM and O’scope.
I am toying with the idea of building a point to point tube amp for fun.
Hey it’s transistor Tuesday at least here on the East Coast!

I taught myself electronics playing with point to point tube circuits - old radios, tvs, amps, etc. I can do some solid state but hate messing with PCBs. Point me at a tube amp - especially one without a PCB - and I’m a happy camper.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Awesome work! I was using a stereoscopic microscope to design and build up to 12 layer, hi-speed PCB’s using 402’s and 201 components with QFP’s and BGA’s.
I still have my solder station, DMM and O’scope.
I am toying with the idea of building a point to point tube amp for fun.
Hey it’s transistor Tuesday at least here on the East Coast!

yeah it’s nuts, I have an RF background and when I started out, we had a russian designer who had to be kept from going to europe because he was one of two people in the world who could design a 65 GHz mixer……today AD markets chipsets operating at 24GHz for automotive “stay in lane” applications……just crazy…..I’m currently working on USB/4 stuff (40GHz) where data line protection diodes can’t exceed a few femto Farad of parasitic C so as not to disrupt rise and fall times……

 

[SubHuman]

yeah it’s nuts, I have an RF background and when I started out, we had a russian designer who had to be kept from going to europe because he was one of two people in the world who could design a 65 GHz mixer……today AD markets chipsets operating at 24GHz for automotive “stay in lane” applications……just crazy…..I’m currently working on USB/4 stuff (40GHz) where data line protection diodes can’t exceed a few femto Farad of parasitic C so as not to disrupt rise and fall times……

The hidden world of high speed electronics is part art and part Voodoo!

 

[RedVee]

I failed assembling a crystal radio when I was about 6 or so.
Tech Dad never tried again. But I regret not having followed his footsteps - it’s a very cool occupation

 

[Roger W]

Do any of you guys use a “small” dehumidifier? If so, any recommendations? Looking for small and quiet. The room, (insulated and mostly Sheetrocked garage), is not too large, and the humidity runs between 72% and 46%, over the last two weeks, so not terrible. It’s a concrete floor and there are a couple of vents low on one wall. I store almost all my guitars there, mostly in well padded gig bags, but most of the Thunderbirds are hanging out.
Temperature in there has been between 71F and 57F over the last two weeks.

How are you defining small? The one in the below picture is 26” x 11.5” x 11.5”. The height includes the casters. There’s a reservoir that has to be emptied periodically or you can set up a drain hose.

 

[Roger W]

depressing....remember my dad saying, "if it ain't a Boeing I ain't going"...

It’s sad that it went from a company driven by engineers to what it is today. After my grandfather sold his farm in eastern Washington, he got a job on the assembly line at Boeing. His second wife was a seamstress there and sewed the seats.

 

[Stealth57]

It’s not a T-bird, but it ain’t bad

One has a mudbucker.

 

[Roger W]

Yay!
Although large bass on small person isn’t a problem unless you decide it is. Just look at Suzi Quatro!

It’s the flip side of tall bass players saying they look silly playing a short scale. Have they seen 6’4” Josh Homme playing a 25 inch scale guitar?

 

[JJR58]

The Captain also incorporated a 'fish-eyed' lens...

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...and a fish head!
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Love me some BeefHeart.

 

[JJR58]

It’s not a T-bird, but it ain’t bad

One has a mudbucker.

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Meh. You need to get much more creative than that. It’s been done.
This is imagination and stepping outside the box.