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Thunderbird Club

#320,362
Matt Kustom said:
Untill i can find Thunderbird bobbins this is how the bobbins are made as of now. These get high temp epoxy and 3M Washi taped before winding. Im going to contact a guy in China and ask if his company is willing to sell bobbins. The ones in the offshore T birds that are actually real nice for the price
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Would you say that your pickups have a strong magnetic pull?

I have almost all variety of boutique vintage style T-bird pickups in my ‘birds, including Lollar, Novak, Thunderbucker Ranch, Gemini UK, and Gibson re-issues. I had a set of Dunable D-Bird pickups that I put in my ‘99 Ebony ‘bird, and I spent A LOT of time trying to make that bass playable, including starting with a pro-setup, fret level, PLEK, and a second look from a second shop, but that friggen bass was a buzz monster… a kind of zingy buzz, especially accentuated with new Boomers. It made it no fun to play when not plugged into an amp. I frequently play my basses in the early mornings, just acoustically, so the fret buzz that is not normally noticeable when playing plugged into or especially with the band, is very noticeable. Then when trying a different set of strings, I noticed as a started to loosen the string it “snapped” down on the pickups. I took a small screwdriver and did an informal magnetic pull test on all my thunderbird pickups and found that the Dunable had a significantly stronger pull than the others. I drove the pickups down in the body and it seemed to help a little, but I wasn’t happy with how far away the pickups were from the string.

Since I had a set of Gemini UK “Devastators” sitting in their box waiting for my next (at that time, to be determined) Thunderbird, I decided to drop them in, and, almost immediately that bass was playing way better with no zingy buzz. I left those pickups in it and now it’s one of my best players.

The only other bass I have with this buzzy problem is my 2013 Gibson EB, which has the stock DeCola’s. These are also pickups with a very strong magnetic pull on the strings. Again with this one I drove the pickups deeper in the body, but it’s still “buzzier” than I like. That one stays at my rehearsal space and is only played with the full band at volume. It’s a great sounding bass for sure.

So, is there a way for you to compare the magnetic pull of your pickups to that of say a set of stock TB+ or Gibson Vintage Re-Issue pickups?
 
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#320,363
Wednesday it is.

AFL31Wr.jpg
 
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#320,364
Ringhammer said:
Would you say that your pickups have a strong magnetic pull?

I have almost all variety of boutique vintage style T-bird pickups in my ‘birds, including Lollar, Novak, Thunderbucker Ranch, Gemini UK, and Gibson re-issues. I had a set of Dunable D-Bird pickups that I put in my ‘99 Ebony ‘bird, and I spent A LOT of time trying to make that bass playable, including starting with a pro-setup, fret level, PLEK, and a second look from a second shop, but that friggen bass was a buzz monster… a kind of zingy buzz, especially accentuated with new Boomers. It made it no fun to play when not plugged into an amp. I frequently play my basses in the early mornings, just acoustically, so the fret buzz that is not normally noticeable when playing plugged into or especially with the band, is very noticeable. Then when trying a different set of strings, I noticed as a started to loosen the string it “snapped” down on the pickups. I took a small screwdriver and did an informal magnetic pull test on all my thunderbird pickups and found that the Dunable had a significantly stronger pull than the others. I drove the pickups down in the body and it seemed to help a little, but I wasn’t happy with how far away the pickups were from the string.

Since I had a set of Gemini UK “Devastators” sitting in their box waiting for my next (at that time, to be determined) Thunderbird, I decided to drop them in, and, almost immediately that bass was playing way better with no zingy buzz. I left those pickups in it and now it’s one of my best players.

The only other bass I have with this buzzy problem is my 2013 Gibson EB, which has the stock DeCola’s. These are also pickups with a very strong magnetic pull on the strings. Again with this one I drove the pickups deeper in the body, but it’s still “buzzier” than I like. That one stays at my rehearsal space and is only played with the full band at volume. It’s a great sounding bass for sure.

So, is there a way for you to compare the magnetic pull of your pickups to that of say a set of stock TB+ or Gibson Vintage Re-Issue pickups?
Click to expand...

Loosely related, you might want to consider the Fender Mustang Micro headphone amp for silent playing. It plugs into the bass, you plug headphones into it, and it has bluetooth to stream audio to it so you can play along with it. It's been invaluable for me for practicing later at night in a NYC apartment.
 
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#320,367
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#320,370
Stealth57 said:
When I get the new SGT-DI box, I am going to redo my pedal chain and ditch the Zoom B3n. My thoughts are to connect my Donner tuner to the "Thru" output of the DI box. That is the send for a completely dry signal meant for tuners. Then, use the Line Out to go into a Chorus and finally the Pitchfork. My thoughts are that the last two pedals are modifying the output of the DI box, not feeding a modified signal into the box. Putting the Pitchfork at the end makes sense to me as it will shift the pitch of the final tone. Do I have that right?

The above is for FOH or our rehearsal headphone amps. If I use my Rumble, then I would just move the DI output from Line Out to Preamp out and use the FX loop on the amp.

Update: or should I have the tuner on the input so I can use the bypass/shut off so I can tune without the signal going into the DI?
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I wouldn't use a tuner up front and as part of the chain....you're then limited to the audio specification of a device that's used randomly....further, if you are using a passive bass with a long cable, the potentially augmented noise to signal ratio may confuse the tuner....FX loops are there for a reason.....
 
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#320,372
Chucky Stiletti said:
I wouldn't use a tuner up front and as part of the chain....you're then limited to the audio specification of a device that's used randomly....further, if you are using a passive bass with a long cable, the potentially augmented noise to signal ratio may confuse the tuner....FX loops are there for a reason.....
Click to expand...
So, tuner connected to "Thru." Mostly, the pedal board is going directly into a digital mixer (rehearsal setup) or a DI box like was used at our first gig. If I am using my own amp, I definitely will use the FX loop.
 
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#320,374
Ringhammer said:
Would you say that your pickups have a strong magnetic pull?

I have almost all variety of boutique vintage style T-bird pickups in my ‘birds, including Lollar, Novak, Thunderbucker Ranch, Gemini UK, and Gibson re-issues. I had a set of Dunable D-Bird pickups that I put in my ‘99 Ebony ‘bird, and I spent A LOT of time trying to make that bass playable, including starting with a pro-setup, fret level, PLEK, and a second look from a second shop, but that friggen bass was a buzz monster… a kind of zingy buzz, especially accentuated with new Boomers. It made it no fun to play when not plugged into an amp. I frequently play my basses in the early mornings, just acoustically, so the fret buzz that is not normally noticeable when playing plugged into or especially with the band, is very noticeable. Then when trying a different set of strings, I noticed as a started to loosen the string it “snapped” down on the pickups. I took a small screwdriver and did an informal magnetic pull test on all my thunderbird pickups and found that the Dunable had a significantly stronger pull than the others. I drove the pickups down in the body and it seemed to help a little, but I wasn’t happy with how far away the pickups were from the string.

Since I had a set of Gemini UK “Devastators” sitting in their box waiting for my next (at that time, to be determined) Thunderbird, I decided to drop them in, and, almost immediately that bass was playing way better with no zingy buzz. I left those pickups in it and now it’s one of my best players.

The only other bass I have with this buzzy problem is my 2013 Gibson EB, which has the stock DeCola’s. These are also pickups with a very strong magnetic pull on the strings. Again with this one I drove the pickups deeper in the body, but it’s still “buzzier” than I like. That one stays at my rehearsal space and is only played with the full band at volume. It’s a great sounding bass for sure.

So, is there a way for you to compare the magnetic pull of your pickups to that of say a set of stock TB+ or Gibson Vintage Re-Issue pickups?
Click to expand...
DeCola pickups have magnets that could lift a Volkswagen. They have to be set fairly low or you get a strange chorusy effect that sounds awful. And they will yank on the strings like what you are experiencing. It's the downside of super strong magnets. Those pickups sound great, so it's worth it. I have been playing the 2013 EB a lot lately. It's an ash body and set maple neck with DeCola pickups. It doesn't balance like a Thunderbird, so that's a bit of a problem in my world. Not a killer, though, obviously.
 
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