• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Thunderbird Club

#320,262
Miles_ONeal said:
???
Click to expand...

The only drop-in lightweight replacement tuners for my BC Rich's super heavy ones are the Schaller M4S. They work fine, but after a while the chrome from one of them started peeling off. The owner and CEO said, "I see at the button that your sweat is very aggressive. Please try Nickel surface, might be better." Sorry, dude, I've never experienced this with anything else, and the three other tuners are fine. Maybe your product is just crap. And it was out of the one-year warranty, so no replacement. Maybe I'll just put on the heavy originals so I don't have to look at these again.

tuner.jpg
 
  • Like
  • Wow
  • Sad
Reactions: MCF, dagrev, JJR58 and 5 others
#320,263
GBassNorth said:
No, I added both belly and forearm contours.
On the ThunderWick I’m even considering significantly changing the body edge contour to something much more rounded (similar to a Warwick or Spector NS2 edge radius). I’ll be using a metallic pearl paint so I really need to “un slab” this bass as much as possible to get the pearl highlights to show.
Click to expand...
I will be adding a forearm and belly contour, plus a couple smaller places and hopefully it will reduce the weight a little.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MCF, dagrev, JJR58 and 3 others
#320,265
BklynKen said:
The only drop-in lightweight replacement tuners for my BC Rich's super heavy ones are the Schaller M4S. They work fine, but after a while the chrome from one of them started peeling off. The owner and CEO said, "I see at the button that your sweat is very aggressive. Please try Nickel surface, might be better." Sorry, dude, I've never experienced this with anything else, and the three other tuners are fine. Maybe your product is just crap. And it was out of the one-year warranty, so no replacement. Maybe I'll just put on the heavy originals so I don't have to look at these again.

View attachment 7237354
Click to expand...
When i built guitar/bass i tried Schaller thinking the German stuff would be best. I was very disappointed in their machining and their customer service is terrible.

I tried all the top hardware and the Awards go to Gotoh.
 
  • Like
  • Love
  • Wow
Reactions: BuddhaFingas, /\/\3phist0, Gaolee and 7 others
#320,268
bylar13 said:
I have been playing and really liking the P -bass I have. The down side is the pickup is where it feels most comfortable to play.
I use a pick and I get hung up on the pickup frequently.
I was curious if I moved the pickup forward a bit if it would change the sound in a meaningful way.
Click to expand...
It would. I kind of like the idea. Pbasses can be a little aggressive in the mids and moving the pickup closer to the neck just a little could balance that out a bit and give it more of a bigger, less mid tone. Go too far and it could get hollow sounding. I'm not one who favors pickups approaching the neck as they tend to sound hollow to my ear. But a Pbass pickup has plenty of mids and an inch or so might not dull the sound too much. Interesting idea.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedVee, JJR58, Chucky Stiletti and 4 others
#320,269
MCF said:
Thank you. You’re correct. I went to GC yesterday and picked up a set. I was shocked they had them in stock. Installed the female on the Gibson Slingshot strap. Four birds in the rack had the male pins. Including the BaCH Andy owned at one time. I haven’t checked downstairs or at the other place. A little clunky, but they work well. So I guess I’m now a Schaller guy by default. I’ll probably put the new pins on the ‘15. And get a couple more sets.
View attachment 7237271
Click to expand...
Thanks for having the decency to have socks on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GBassNorth, Miles_ONeal and MCF
#320,270
GBassNorth said:
This pair…
View attachment 7237299
Recall, I was trying to match a set of Blue Steels from ages ago to come as close as possible to my existing Warwick BO5 sound on my new ThunderWick build. The strings on the Warwick were probably installed around 2005 or earlier. The general consensus was that they were probably Blue Steels (bought a set of those just in case) but that those strings were reformulated years ago, so the potential closest I could get in sound would have maybe been the Apex set. Won’t know if that’s true until I finish the build, maybe in a couple of months.
Click to expand...
It's been decades since I played the earlier version of DMBSs, but I have a set on a bass and they sound really good. Less good than decades ago, who knows? Clear but not harsh at all (never were), and very punchy with tight lows. What's not to like!
 
  • Like
Reactions: JJR58, Chucky Stiletti, GBassNorth and 2 others
#320,273
Matt Kustom said:
When i built guitar/bass i tried Schaller thinking the German stuff would be best. I was very disappointed in their machining and their customer service is terrible.

I tried all the top hardware and the Awards go to Gotoh.
Click to expand...
Gotoh are nice and will be on the '66 restore that the 916 pickups are going on. (Resolite)
1748353828969.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedVee, Nocturnal, Matt Kustom and 4 others
#320,274
BklynKen said:
Sounds like the SIT Power Steel?
Click to expand...
Yes in that the highs are very pleasant. No in that the DMs seem to have tighter lows (or more perception of some mids). I find the Power Steels (and Power Wounds for that matter), to be generous in the lows. Very full. That's what I'm hearing through my amps anyway. I A/B a set of Power Wounds recently and would say the same compared to those.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedVee, GBassNorth, Miles_ONeal and 2 others
#320,275
GBassNorth said:
This pair…
View attachment 7237299
Recall, I was trying to match a set of Blue Steels from ages ago to come as close as possible to my existing Warwick BO5 sound on my new ThunderWick build. The strings on the Warwick were probably installed around 2005 or earlier. The general consensus was that they were probably Blue Steels (bought a set of those just in case) but that those strings were reformulated years ago, so the potential closest I could get in sound would have maybe been the Apex set. Won’t know if that’s true until I finish the build, maybe in a couple of months.
Click to expand...

I was a big time user of Blue Steels, it was all I used. I was (still am) sitting on a few sets of them, probably from the early 2000’s, and they still have the blue silks. In 2013, I decided to purchase a lot of sets, like 15 each, of 45-105 and 50-105. When I got them, they did not have the blue silks and essentially they just were not the same string. I think I eventually sold the lot of them for what probably equated to $5 a pack.

Still have a few of the originals in both 45-105 and 50-105.

I wish I would’ve known about Apex.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedVee, GBassNorth, dagrev and 2 others
#320,276
BklynKen said:
The only drop-in lightweight replacement tuners for my BC Rich's super heavy ones are the Schaller M4S. They work fine, but after a while the chrome from one of them started peeling off. The owner and CEO said, "I see at the button that your sweat is very aggressive. Please try Nickel surface, might be better." Sorry, dude, I've never experienced this with anything else, and the three other tuners are fine. Maybe your product is just crap. And it was out of the one-year warranty, so no replacement. Maybe I'll just put on the heavy originals so I don't have to look at these again.

View attachment 7237354
Click to expand...
Wow. Looks like an obvious manufacturing defect in the plating process. Hard to believe he wouldn’t replace the single tuner, even though the one year warranty expired. Lost a good customer and maybe others who will think twice about doing business with him. Saved himself what, $30?
 
  • Like
Reactions: BuddhaFingas, Nocturnal, Gaolee and 3 others
#320,277
MCF said:
Wow. Looks like an obvious manufacturing defect in the plating process. Hard to believe he wouldn’t replace the single tuner, even though the one year warranty expired. Lost a good customer and maybe others who will think twice about doing business with him. Saved himself what, $30?
Click to expand...

And another one of them got replaced under warranty because it grinded when turning, as if it had no lubrication inside. Just really bad products, with horrible customer support to back them up. It pains me that there's no other lightweight option for the BCR tuner. I don't want to drill holes into it for new ones. Maybe I'll have to.
 
  • Like
  • Sad
Reactions: Nocturnal, Gaolee, GBassNorth and 3 others
#320,279
BklynKen said:
And another one of them got replaced under warranty because it grinded when turning, as if it had no lubrication inside. Just really bad products, with horrible customer support to back them up. It pains me that there's no other lightweight option for the BCR tuner. I don't want to drill holes into it for new ones. Maybe I'll have to.
Click to expand...
That’s a shame. The locks seem ok. I guess they’re popular, given I had basses with their pins on them. I noticed there is a black one on the neck heel position on the BaCH that I got from George and was once Scott’s. There are normal pins on the bottom and the bout.
 
  • Like
Reactions: GBassNorth, dagrev, BklynKen and 1 other person

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back