Thunderbird Club

[BklynKen]

Went back to old faithful. The 400 through the SWR 810 was just too much power to really push in that small space. I know my way around the B-15 and how to easily get my tone.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

indeed....
View attachment 7221381

My friend Martin loaned me his (left side type) and that’s what I really learned guitar on.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Went back to old faithful. The 400 through the SWR 810 was just too much power to really push in that small space. I know my way around the B-15 and how to easily get my tone.

View attachment 7221477

sweet, what year is that?

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Ok did the surgery.
New pots and capView attachment 7221315
Went with modern wiring
Original A500k tone pot audio taper
View attachment 7221306
The original wiring harness
View attachment 7221319

New harness
View attachment 7221307View attachment 7221308View attachment 7221309View attachment 7221310

***process notes:
2x500k Tocos 10% tolerance Linear taper pots
1x250k Tocos 10% tolerance Audio taper pot.
1x.047 cap.
Skipped shielding , mainly because I ran out of tape which comes Friday , but did not want to wait.

Wired traditional “modern” wiring.
Made all wires only as long as necessary.
The shafts are US spec, so the holes in the body needed to be opened up.
The original harness used shielded TINY gauge wire coax.
Replaced with thicker fine strand tinned high grade silicone jacketed wire at all points.

Reassembled, assessment:

The pots have a pleasing amp control like smooth resistance.
With the new knobs this feels particularly solid.

Tone:
Audibly not much/no tonal change all controls dimed, no surprise.

The stock pot did little to nothing most of the rotation , even fully shut it was still too bright.

Start to dim the tone, and the taper cuts treble smoothly to about 6/8’s of the rotation after that it progresses a bit faster. The .047 cap shaves off more of the treble, but leaves the mids alone till about that same 6/8’s and then starts to pull down high mids. Exactly as I wanted it!

The volumes:

There is SO much more range, blending the pickups works more effectively. The volume drops smoothly: when one pickup employed, and the other shuttered.
Bring up the turned down pickup, and almost immediately its influence can be heard.
The loading from the other pickup becomes more evident at about the 3/4 to full volume.

With the stock alpha pots, there was SO LITTLE room at the end of the rotation, that it was fiddly to find the sweet spot.

Now there is 1/4 of the turn to blend !

That’s all for now.

nice work, I would have left a little more lead length on the cap since polypropylene dielectrics can degrade with the high temperatures associated with soldering to a potentiometer casing....

 

[Mvf]

I see this and realize how many basses I have NO interest in at all. I just no fan of modern basses. I’ve tried quite a few over the years and they are just not for me.

I do see an Ibanez Roadstar up there. My first good bass was a brand new (1985) Ibanez Roadstar II, black with a black pg. I very quickly had a J pickup routed in and used an EMG P/J set. Eventually the bridge got swapped for a black Schaller and the tuners changed to black. Very ‘80’s… funny to think that my MO of modding my basses started from the get-go.

I actually picked up a black 1985 Roadstar II a few weeks ago. All original with original case, sets up perfect, plays excellent but something lacking in the sound.. So I’ve been thinking about the EMG P/J set for that too.. After all I have good experience with the EMG Geezer in my 1971 Greco P.

 

[Mvf]

And to stay on the topic, Thunderbird Thursday!

 

[/\/\3phist0]

nice work, I would have left a little more lead length on the cap since polypropylene dielectrics can degrade with the high temperatures associated with soldering to a potentiometer casing....

Noted , and You are right. And thanks.
I tried mitigate:
I made the pad, melted it and dropped the cap lead into it held by hemostats as a heat sink, then clipped off the after length.
I had the iron cranked up so touch time was minimal to mitigate heat creep.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

I actually picked up a black 1985 Roadstar II a few weeks ago. All original with original case, sets up perfect, plays excellent but something lacking in the sound.. So I’ve been thinking about the EMG P/J set for that too.. After all I have good experience with the EMG Geezer in my 1971 Greco P.View attachment 7221555View attachment 7221556View attachment 7221557View attachment 7221558View attachment 7221559

My first REAL bass!
Those are DiMarzios in it now.

 

[Mvf]

My first REAL bass!
Those are DiMarzios in it now.

I don’t know.. I think they are the original DiMarzio lookalikes, unless Ibanez actually used DiMarzios? Please inform, if someone knows.
Anyway, they sound ok, but just ok… or maybe it’s the strings?
The seller had put on a new set of Elixirs. I never tried Elixirs on bass before, but I know I don’t like them on my acoustic guitars. So I’ll first put on a set of strings I know, and then see how I like it.

 

[JJR58]

Safe travels!

Thanks Ken!
Back in Germany

 

[JJR58]

Safe travels Jeff!!

Thank you Andy

 

[JJR58]

A belated Tubesday. Playing with the Mesa 400.

View attachment 7221302

View attachment 7221303

Hell yeah!

 

[JJR58]

@bylar13 I didn't forget about you and your gang.
What a pleasure to see and hear you all!

 

[JJR58]

Miss ya buddy! Safe travels!

Miss.you more.

 

[JJR58]

Bo

Bon Voyage mon frere.

You, I will see soon.

 

[dagrev]

Wait. GC by you actually has strings other than DA Nickels, Chromes or regular EB Slinkys? Go figure.

Didn't notice, but that would be odd here as well.

 

[dagrev]

Their CEO is overhauling the brand to focus more on working musicians and people with more money than most beginners.

Good idea, if it works. Musicians used to love hanging out at shops. Hardly a thing now. The environment at GC (Walmart of music stores) and others isn't conducive to that. Hanging out doesn't necessarily sell things, but but people don't buy things if not there.

 

[MCF]

Ok did the surgery.
New pots and capView attachment 7221315
Went with modern wiring
Original A500k tone pot audio taper
View attachment 7221306
The original wiring harness
View attachment 7221319

New harness
View attachment 7221307View attachment 7221308View attachment 7221309View attachment 7221310

***process notes:
2x500k Tocos 10% tolerance Linear taper pots
1x250k Tocos 10% tolerance Audio taper pot.
1x.047 cap.
Skipped shielding , mainly because I ran out of tape which comes Friday , but did not want to wait.

Wired traditional “modern” wiring.
Made all wires only as long as necessary.
The shafts are US spec, so the holes in the body needed to be opened up.
The original harness used shielded TINY gauge wire coax.
Replaced with thicker fine strand tinned high grade silicone jacketed wire at all points.

Reassembled, assessment:

The pots have a pleasing amp control like smooth resistance.
With the new knobs this feels particularly solid.

Tone:
Audibly not much/no tonal change all controls dimed, no surprise.

The stock pot did little to nothing most of the rotation , even fully shut it was still too bright.

Start to dim the tone, and the taper cuts treble smoothly to about 6/8’s of the rotation after that it progresses a bit faster. The .047 cap shaves off more of the treble, but leaves the mids alone till about that same 6/8’s and then starts to pull down high mids. Exactly as I wanted it!

The volumes:

There is SO much more range, blending the pickups works more effectively. The volume drops smoothly: when one pickup employed, and the other shuttered.
Bring up the turned down pickup, and almost immediately its influence can be heard.
The loading from the other pickup becomes more evident at about the 3/4 to full volume.

With the stock alpha pots, there was SO LITTLE room at the end of the rotation, that it was fiddly to find the sweet spot.

Now there is 1/4 of the turn to blend !

That’s all for now.

You do nice work.

 

[dagrev]

This what you all had in mind?

View attachment 7220983

You should be banned.
Or promoted to the highest position after finding that pic.
I'm going with the latter....

This was not on the farm was it?

 

[MCF]

I don't know what that means, but it sounds like a pretty good population control device.

Funny how we survived.