How? They sell a lot more basses, that’s how. Listening more, marketing better, etc.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
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
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
-
- Tags
- club thunderbird
Need some help from Mr. Wizard. I am no longer getting notifications on new posts. I end up 5+ pages behind. I have looked at settings and nothing appears to work. Any suggestions? It went from getting an email after a few posts since my last visit, to a notification for every post, to no notifications at all.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,967
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
It's the mantra of tech - "if it works, change it"
Original note posted on different forum from @Tim Skaggs
I have a stock / original ‘91 Gibson Thunderbird that has 60 Hz hum like a Jazz Bass with two bridge pickups.
It’s shielded to death with conductive paint AND aluminum shielding tape in the control cavity and the pickup cavities. Everything is grounded and has been checked with a meter to verify good continuity.
The internet says the original ‘91 TBirds have “humbuckers” in both neck & bridge positions. I have my doubts about that. Either one of the pickups turned on, or both on
and it hums to high heaven.
The wires from both pickups are single conductor with a shield, and both the shield and the single conductor make up the electrical connection to the pickups. The wire goes into an epoxy glue filled back about of the pickups so there’s no way to visually confirm anything with the pickups.
I’m tempted to wrap both pickups in aluminum foil to see if it helps, but it would probably keep them from picking up the string vibration and they would probably still hum…
Anyone have any info on ‘91 Tbird pickups? Are they really single coils?
It wouldn’t be the first time. I also have a Gretch Electromatic 220 that the manufacturer claimed for 10 years had humbuckers & then @LowEndLobster discovered otherwise.
GBassNorth response…
I don’t know for a fact, but I suspect they are humbuckers. My 1991 Gibson Tbird 3 is all humbucker.
Keep in mind, many humbucker pickups can also be wired in single coil by the factory or owners. The easiest way to check if your pickups are wired in humbucker mode is to do a tap test on each pickup.
How to do a tap test:
Connect bass output jack to your amp and power on.
Turn your on board tone knob to full bright.
Turn your on board volume up about halfway.
Note:
Most Thunderbird humbuckers will have two magnetic bars or banks of poles that run the width of the pickup. One magnetic bank on the neck pickup will be nearer the neck (north bank) and the other magnetic bank will be nearer the bridge (south bank). This applies to the bridge pickup as well. You can see the magnetic fields caused by the bars in these pics below…
The Thunderbird exception would be the bicentennial model (made from 1976 to 1979), it’s a totally different beast called a sidewinder.
Using a screwdriver lightly tap the tip of the driver against the neck pickup cover near where the string crosses over the pickup, maybe as much as a half inch back from the leading edge of the pickup. Do this at each string area for the north bank of the neck pickup. You should hear an audible pop or clack as you tap the pickup cover with the screwdriver at each string area along the length of the north bank of the neck pickup. If so, you have confirmed that magnetic bank is active, and you have at the very least a single coil pickup. If you hear no sound you have confirmed that magnetic bank is dead or not there or not wired into the volume pot.
Now do the exact same tap test across the south bank of the neck pickup at each string (maybe as much as half an inch before the bridge side of the neck pickup) to confirm it’s active as well. If you hear an audible pop or clack when you tap the screwdriver in this area under each string you have confirmed the South bank is in fact there and working.
If both the north and south magnetic banks respond to the screwdriver tap test with an audible pop you have confirmed your neck pickup is built and wired as a humbucker. If for some reason you only get an audible pop across one of the two banks but not the other you have confirmed that your pickup is either a single coil pickup or a humbucker wired as a single coil.
Repeat the same test with the bridge pickup (be sure to turn its volume on first).
You should find you have two functioning humbuckers wired and operating in humbucker mode. If so, you can rule out the hum source as being caused by single coil pickups. If you in fact have single coil pickups or pickups acting like single coils in the tap test then post a picture of the inside of your control cavity so we can see how it’s wired.
If you have confirmed working humbuckers are in place but still have noticeable hum it is quite possibly a grounding or external interference problem.
Common Grounding problems…
Thunderbirds equipped with the three point bridge are grounded on the rear treble side bridge body insert. If that insert has ever pulled loose in the past (not common on Gibson basses but it does occasionally happen) it may have been reinserted and glue added that is insulating the ground wire from the anchor. This can easily cause a hum.
Nylon or coated strings will on rare occasions cause a grounding issue as well.
A grounding wire not properly attached to each pot and the shielding inside the control cavity can cause a grounding issue.
Common External interference problems…
This can come from fluorescent or neon lighting, noisy circuits, bad house wiring, proximity to high power lines and transformers, proximity to exceptionally strong radio signals, and proximity to cell phones and mobile devices.
Hope this helps, we want happy bird owners in this club!
I have a stock / original ‘91 Gibson Thunderbird that has 60 Hz hum like a Jazz Bass with two bridge pickups.
It’s shielded to death with conductive paint AND aluminum shielding tape in the control cavity and the pickup cavities. Everything is grounded and has been checked with a meter to verify good continuity.
The internet says the original ‘91 TBirds have “humbuckers” in both neck & bridge positions. I have my doubts about that. Either one of the pickups turned on, or both on
and it hums to high heaven.
The wires from both pickups are single conductor with a shield, and both the shield and the single conductor make up the electrical connection to the pickups. The wire goes into an epoxy glue filled back about of the pickups so there’s no way to visually confirm anything with the pickups.
I’m tempted to wrap both pickups in aluminum foil to see if it helps, but it would probably keep them from picking up the string vibration and they would probably still hum…
Anyone have any info on ‘91 Tbird pickups? Are they really single coils?
It wouldn’t be the first time. I also have a Gretch Electromatic 220 that the manufacturer claimed for 10 years had humbuckers & then @LowEndLobster discovered otherwise.
GBassNorth response…
I don’t know for a fact, but I suspect they are humbuckers. My 1991 Gibson Tbird 3 is all humbucker.
Keep in mind, many humbucker pickups can also be wired in single coil by the factory or owners. The easiest way to check if your pickups are wired in humbucker mode is to do a tap test on each pickup.
How to do a tap test:
Connect bass output jack to your amp and power on.
Turn your on board tone knob to full bright.
Turn your on board volume up about halfway.
Note:
Most Thunderbird humbuckers will have two magnetic bars or banks of poles that run the width of the pickup. One magnetic bank on the neck pickup will be nearer the neck (north bank) and the other magnetic bank will be nearer the bridge (south bank). This applies to the bridge pickup as well. You can see the magnetic fields caused by the bars in these pics below…
The Thunderbird exception would be the bicentennial model (made from 1976 to 1979), it’s a totally different beast called a sidewinder.
Using a screwdriver lightly tap the tip of the driver against the neck pickup cover near where the string crosses over the pickup, maybe as much as a half inch back from the leading edge of the pickup. Do this at each string area for the north bank of the neck pickup. You should hear an audible pop or clack as you tap the pickup cover with the screwdriver at each string area along the length of the north bank of the neck pickup. If so, you have confirmed that magnetic bank is active, and you have at the very least a single coil pickup. If you hear no sound you have confirmed that magnetic bank is dead or not there or not wired into the volume pot.
Now do the exact same tap test across the south bank of the neck pickup at each string (maybe as much as half an inch before the bridge side of the neck pickup) to confirm it’s active as well. If you hear an audible pop or clack when you tap the screwdriver in this area under each string you have confirmed the South bank is in fact there and working.
If both the north and south magnetic banks respond to the screwdriver tap test with an audible pop you have confirmed your neck pickup is built and wired as a humbucker. If for some reason you only get an audible pop across one of the two banks but not the other you have confirmed that your pickup is either a single coil pickup or a humbucker wired as a single coil.
Repeat the same test with the bridge pickup (be sure to turn its volume on first).
You should find you have two functioning humbuckers wired and operating in humbucker mode. If so, you can rule out the hum source as being caused by single coil pickups. If you in fact have single coil pickups or pickups acting like single coils in the tap test then post a picture of the inside of your control cavity so we can see how it’s wired.
If you have confirmed working humbuckers are in place but still have noticeable hum it is quite possibly a grounding or external interference problem.
Common Grounding problems…
Thunderbirds equipped with the three point bridge are grounded on the rear treble side bridge body insert. If that insert has ever pulled loose in the past (not common on Gibson basses but it does occasionally happen) it may have been reinserted and glue added that is insulating the ground wire from the anchor. This can easily cause a hum.
Nylon or coated strings will on rare occasions cause a grounding issue as well.
A grounding wire not properly attached to each pot and the shielding inside the control cavity can cause a grounding issue.
Common External interference problems…
This can come from fluorescent or neon lighting, noisy circuits, bad house wiring, proximity to high power lines and transformers, proximity to exceptionally strong radio signals, and proximity to cell phones and mobile devices.
Hope this helps, we want happy bird owners in this club!
Last edited:
You didn't get the note you were on "the list"? It's called a NCO, I think.
Marshall can help.
I never opted to get notifications because you people can't leave it alone.
Last edited:
When that happened to me, I turned off email notifications and now keep a browser tab open to https://www.talkbass.com/watched/threads (FIXED) . I check it however often, refreshing the page each time I look. I can follow the thread links or go to my name at the top of th page where the number of notifications displays. Clicking on that shows notifications, including those for private messages.
Last edited:
Says page doesn't exist. I guess that means TB thinks I'm not watching any forums now.
I have never turned on email notifications. I pretty much rely on the upper right corner where the mini avatar, the lightning bolt, and search magnifying glass are. A little circle lights up on the right corner of the avatar pic to say how many new notifications there are. Click on the avatar and there are recent notifications. It is hit or miss. Activity in the Mesa Subway group for example, never shows up there. But occasionally something from a watched thread that I haven’t looked at in months will have a random notification and there will be pages of activity. It is what it is.
Last edited:
My issue is I get busy and then the message counter says 148 this morning. There is no way to figure out where to start as the list doesn’t go back that far.
Right now, mine go back to March 11 when clicking “show all.” It shows several hundred through to the page which is 24.
“This can come from fluorescent or neon lighting, noisy circuits, bad house wiring, proximity to high power lines and transformers, proximity to exceptionally strong radio signals, and proximity to cell phones and mobile devices.”
To this add dimmer switches.
“Thunderbirds equipped with the three point bridge are grounded on the rear treble side bridge body insert. If that insert has ever pulled loose in the past (not common on Gibson basses but it does occasionally happen) it may have been reinserted and glue added that is insulating the ground wire from the anchor. This can easily cause a hum.”
This is what immediately popped into my head when I read the post.
Yes, solid glossy black epoxy. Nothing else visible.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
You going for the wah effect?
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I have a 1991 that had those in it. There was no noticeable hum from that bass while it had those pickups. I have subsequently replaced them with Thunderbuckers. There wasn't anything specifically wrong with the pickups except that they had black plastic covers instead of chrome or nickel. I'm very shallow. My thought is that you have a bad ground somewhere or that one or both pickups have internal shorts or discontinuities. One thing to look for in grounding is solder joints in the control cavity. The ground for those pickups is by the shielding on the cable. Shielding for each pickup wire should be grounded by a solder joint to its volume pot. Another place to look is the ground wire to the output jack. The bass will still make plenty of noise even if that has come off. It just won't be grounded.
Ha! It is impossible to mimic his tone. Need a stereo Ric, a Harmonizer, an envelope filter and his hands. Just playing the notes at tempo is difficult enough.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
This sounds like a money spending quest to me. We are here to enable.
A bit of Aussie Rock n Roll. I’d call it Pub Rock but that scene is long dead. Although the song originated in that timeframe.
Rose Tattoo - Hard Road offical video. It’s a Vanda Young song originally written for Stevie Wright. I think Rod Stewart might have covered it back then as well. Still this version has the Tatts all over it!
Putting the video up because I thought Donnie @dagrev might dig the Valiant convertible.
Great tune. Thanks ,I didn't know about those guys. Love that the singer in the car had to slide the seat all the way forward to reach the peddles.
Cheers!
Many of those are just likes. I only go there for private conversations. I use the watched threads list for things like this thread.
