I'm seeing some business about a "new community" on TB? I see in notifications a slew of "achievements". What is that about?
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
Ken had a different gig today.
Or as I say, the other, other gig.
Or as I say, the other, other gig.
Some of the achievements were already there, just with less notifications. The rest is undoubtedly a reaction to expectations from social media, gaming, etc. That’s all just part of the upgraded software Talkbass is built on.
As for “new community”, where did you see that?
If I'm recalling correctly (played a lot of basses in a few days!), the Studio had action a bit higher than I usually like, but it didnt bother me. It was still very playable and sounded great.
have to say, last night the Gibson was the bomb, the Cataldo is a bit easier to play for me because that cheap Jazz neck is so skinny, sonically tho, the Studio Bird ruled the night.
I’ve watched this several times and still get goosebumps. Just thought I’d share. Need to click watch it on YouTube.
Is there already a “how to replace your pickups” tutorial on TB? I couldn’t find one. Here’s a quick run-through on upgrading my Epi IV pcikups. I’m pretty sure there’s a better place for this, but I wasn’t sure where (not the Luthier’s Corner, IIUC). I’ll add very basic sound clips later; I have somewhere to be and have to figure out how to turn a GarageBand file into something I can share on TalkBass and everyone can hear.
The pickups on my 2012 Epi IV weren’t bad; they just weren’t great. Since it was Epiphone’s lowest price Thunderbird, the only surprise was how good they sounded. But compared to many other Thunderbirds, they lacked a bit in the mid, and had less definition and clarity. Andy (I think) pointed out that EY sells a drop-in replacement modeled after Gibson pickups. It wasn’t 100% clear which Gibson pickups, but at the price (less than $70/pair), why not?
The EYs look identical from the top, but not the bottom. They came with nickel screws so I re-used the old black screws. The EYs have heavier connection wiring with better shielding. I was a tad concerned at first, but Epiphone had bored big holes for the wiring so it wasn’t a problem. The EY pickups did not include foam or springs, which I should have thought of but didn’t. I removed the foam from the old pickups with a razor blade scraper and superglued it to the new ones.
To my surprise and delight, Epi did not have a cutout channel under the pickguard; they routed the neck PU wiring through the bridge PU hole, with one large tunnel from there to the control cavity. The old pickups are both marked as to which is which and have color-coded wiring (red for neck, black for bridge).
The control cavity is painted - I assume it has some shielding quality but it’s an odd color so I’m not sure. I didn’t think to check its conductivity. A bit crowded with long wires. I like a bit of extra on the pickups but the purely internal wiring should be shorter. I’ll fix that when I upgrade the pots (these are starting to get noisy). The closeup with the red & black wires shows how large the hole is to the control cavity.
I swapped each pickup start to finish separately other than soldering the new wires in place. I used my trusty Weller; these are great and last forever. This one has built, modded, and repaired dozens of amps. I unsoldered a PU lead and shield/ground, made a slip knot in heavy duty thread, put it on the lead, clamped hemostats on the other end of the thread so it couldn’t go too far, and pulled the pickup out. I then cut off the foam, glued it to the new pickup, waited a minute, pulled the lead into the control cavity, installed the pickup, and inserted the screws with just enough turns to hold it in place.
There’s a problem with the last photo. The cleanest way to route the longer lead was around the outside of the cavity, but that leaves the shield (ground) touching the output jack’s tip (signal) portion, which shorts the pickup output so you get no output. I rerouted it in the final version.
The pickups on my 2012 Epi IV weren’t bad; they just weren’t great. Since it was Epiphone’s lowest price Thunderbird, the only surprise was how good they sounded. But compared to many other Thunderbirds, they lacked a bit in the mid, and had less definition and clarity. Andy (I think) pointed out that EY sells a drop-in replacement modeled after Gibson pickups. It wasn’t 100% clear which Gibson pickups, but at the price (less than $70/pair), why not?
The EYs look identical from the top, but not the bottom. They came with nickel screws so I re-used the old black screws. The EYs have heavier connection wiring with better shielding. I was a tad concerned at first, but Epiphone had bored big holes for the wiring so it wasn’t a problem. The EY pickups did not include foam or springs, which I should have thought of but didn’t. I removed the foam from the old pickups with a razor blade scraper and superglued it to the new ones.
To my surprise and delight, Epi did not have a cutout channel under the pickguard; they routed the neck PU wiring through the bridge PU hole, with one large tunnel from there to the control cavity. The old pickups are both marked as to which is which and have color-coded wiring (red for neck, black for bridge).
The control cavity is painted - I assume it has some shielding quality but it’s an odd color so I’m not sure. I didn’t think to check its conductivity. A bit crowded with long wires. I like a bit of extra on the pickups but the purely internal wiring should be shorter. I’ll fix that when I upgrade the pots (these are starting to get noisy). The closeup with the red & black wires shows how large the hole is to the control cavity.
I swapped each pickup start to finish separately other than soldering the new wires in place. I used my trusty Weller; these are great and last forever. This one has built, modded, and repaired dozens of amps. I unsoldered a PU lead and shield/ground, made a slip knot in heavy duty thread, put it on the lead, clamped hemostats on the other end of the thread so it couldn’t go too far, and pulled the pickup out. I then cut off the foam, glued it to the new pickup, waited a minute, pulled the lead into the control cavity, installed the pickup, and inserted the screws with just enough turns to hold it in place.
There’s a problem with the last photo. The cleanest way to route the longer lead was around the outside of the cavity, but that leaves the shield (ground) touching the output jack’s tip (signal) portion, which shorts the pickup output so you get no output. I rerouted it in the final version.
Excellent post Miles. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Can you put it in the Wiki?
According to Wiki it is Amos Cook.
Thanks! So funny that so many people comment on the hat. I got it purely for when I'm in the sun.
- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,897
- 142,237
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
You have the Blue or Purple? I've forgotten.
Mine's off at The Bass Shop getting a set up, should pick it up next week.
Purple. The lighting/photo editing made it hard to tell, but all the other bassists playing that night were gushing over it. Here's a blurry screenshot from an iPhone video where the white lights were on so you can actually see the purple. Those sparkles really pop under stage lights though!
Attachments
Was. The new community is the Nude Bass Players thread. It crashed after I posted a pic. Something about an overload of laughing emoji’s in numbers never seen before.
Honestly I don't know. Never saw or heard that.
Cool. I've mentioned before that my one of the programs I anxiously anticipated the next episode of was Jacques Cousteau. I thought that was the coolest thing ever.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,589
- 221,971
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Yah, it erupted on my page similarly... who knows. "likes" is now "Relevant somethingorother...
