Thunderbird Club

[Count Bassie]

There's still a little bit of Thursday left, so...
View attachment 7514074

And nice!

 

[Gaolee]

Curious to anyone's opinion on the old Epiphone T-Bird Active Pros (with the 2 band EQ, & high mass style bridge). Always thought they were solid instruments, loved the look of the lighter coloured bursts vs the natural or black editions.

I have one. I still have the non electronic part. It is fretless. I hated the active pickups and preamp. They are gone. It had a completely scooped sound that was an unpleasant yellow-green. I don't know how else to describe it. With different pickups and no preamp, it is a perfectly good Thunderbird. It has Lace Alumitone pickups in it, and I want to put a Dimarzio One up in mudbucker position. Mine is refinished. It was originally dark burst. If it had been the light version, it would probably have its factory finish still.

 

[TBird1958]

Thursday, long time ago now.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I’ve heard there’s a real art to wiring an amp and knowing which wires to bundle or twist together and where to route and not route certain wires to obtain the best sound and performance. Dont know if that’s actually true, but it looks like you’re doing something similar with the single wire vs ribbon wire application. Very cool.

There is both art and science. At the very least you want to route power wiring away from low level signal wiring (to avoid hum and line noise), and outputs away from earlier inputs (to avoid feedback). There’s less worry about general capacitive effects, but that’s where you get into voicing. And you *can* use feedback (generally negative feedback) to your advantage, but you want to know you’re doing so. That’s usually done with the circuit itself, though.

I have all three (and a number of others) here’s my take on the relative differences…

On a scale of dark to bright - I’d put the Reissue on the darker side and the VP on the brighter side with the 64 in the middle.
So ranked from darkest to brightest I’d list them (along with a few others for reference) as:
Stock Goth - 10
TB+ - 9
Reissue and Greco - 8
64 - 7
VP - 6
ChinaBucker - 5

On a scale of more rich and full vs less rich and full - I’d put the Reissue towards the rich and full end and the VP towards the lesser end with the 64 in the middle.
So ranked from most rich and full to less rich and full I’d list them (along with a few others for reference) as:
Greco - 9
TB+ - 8
Stock Goth - 7
Reissue - 7
64 - 6
VP - 5
Chinabucker - 4

Keep in mind, many of these rankings are splitting hairs and string selections can impact results dramatically.

Thanks! This is good stuff. Should be in the wiki.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

@Miles_ONeal
You mentioned adding the wiring schematics I used for the BlingBird to the Wiki page - the same wiring will work with any bass where you want to have dedicated stacked volume/tone controls and specific tone caps for each pickup.
View attachment 7513878

Thanks! That’s pretty much what I was expecting to see. Are all pots audio or just the volume pots?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I’ll sketch up a correct one and post it tomorrow. The correct wiring made a HUGE difference in the sound of Marshall’s bicentennial. I think his was wired per a schematic floating around on the internet that isn’t quite correct. I gotta say, I’m lovin my 1979. It’s every bit as good if not better than my 1967 NR.
That said, my first gen BaCH which I converted to a full on bicentennial with vintage 1976 pickups and period correct wiring sounds nice but not as good as the 1979. Makes me wonder if the pickups were a bit different between 1976 and 1979.

Are the pickup locations identical?

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Curious to anyone's opinion on the old Epiphone T-Bird Active Pros (with the 2 band EQ, & high mass style bridge). Always thought they were solid instruments, loved the look of the lighter coloured bursts vs the natural or black editions.

I had the 5 string. The bridge was mis-installed at the factory and warped so I had to replace it with a Hipshot. The neck was stupidly huge and my hands hated it. That was a shame because it was a gorgeous (oiled finish) bass. The pickups/preamp had a very clean, modern sound. It wasn’t really what I wanted, but that’s a taste issue. I’ve heard a few people disparage the preamp but can’t recall why. The owners of 4 strings I see around TB seem happy with them.

 

[godofthunder59]

After a few shifts at The Bass Shop/Thunder road, I gotta say, music store is a fun gig - except having to hear crappy guitarists.......
There's a cool Epi Rivoli hanging in the shop, it's$ 999.00 and I have at least 400.00 in store credit...........

Lol yeah guitar players are wildly un self aware, no lie I carry ear plugs at all times I'm presuming it's a 90's South Korean Epi Rivoli. They are good basses and a reasonable option to the original. I'd pop a 60s muddy in there. Man $400 in store credit that'd be burning a hole in my pocket like a kid with thier allowance.

 

[ectoflanger]

A couple of things in this Icehouse video some of you might find interesting - a very young Guy Pratt playing his Steinberger L2. Can anyone tell me what amp he's using and whether his two single cabs have 12 or 15 inch speakers (maybe larger?)

Also at 7:41 you see three people waving sparklers in the audience then you see one whiz past the keyboardist at around 7:54. Don't think the crowd was being hostile since they were waving them in time with the music. At 8:34 someone else throws one at center stage. Perhaps a little stoned and exuberant? I'm impressed that the band took it in stride without making a scene.

 

[godofthunder59]

I'm happy they are out there again. It's thier band, thier legacy they can do whatever they want , good for them. Miles crushed it, did anyone think they would pick someone who couldn't cut it?

Nilles the name is Nilles.

 

[godofthunder59]

So I txtd Skully (John Macintosh) Geddy's guitar tech and he has confirmed that the Cardinal Red '64 Thunderbird does have a Badbird Bridge installed, the Inverness Green Nonreverse doesn't but he's not satisfied with the intonation and during a break in the tour he's going home to grab one. He had some nice things to say " Bottom line never play a vintage Thunderbird without a Badbird Bridge!" Skully is going to take some pictures for me.
I really didn't expect Geddy to bring his Thunderbirds out on the road again, he really must have taken a shine to them. I'm beyond pleased by all this, just knowing my little bit of metal is out there doing it's job is pretty satisfying.

 

[Instagator]

I was going to try to get oysters classified as a religious topic so it was banned, but I heard there's a mod i the group who loves oysters, so ...

 

[dagrev]

@Miles_ONeal
You mentioned adding the wiring schematics I used for the BlingBird to the Wiki page - the same wiring will work with any bass where you want to have dedicated stacked volume/tone controls and specific tone caps for each pickup.
View attachment 7513878

You, Sir, would have made a pretty fair draftsman!

 

[Count Bassie]

A couple of things in this Icehouse video some of you might find interesting - a very young Guy Pratt playing his Steinberger L2. Can anyone tell me what amp he's using and whether his two single cabs have 12 or 15 inch speakers (maybe larger?)

Also at 7:41 you see three people waving sparklers in the audience then you see one whiz past the keyboardist at around 7:54. Don't think the crowd was being hostile since they were waving them in time with the music. At 8:34 someone else throws one at center stage. Perhaps a little stoned and exuberant? I'm impressed that the band took it in stride without making a scene.

That kind of thing didn't used to make a scene as I recall.

 

[Lammchop93]

Facebook is down right now, so I can't find the picture I saw earlier. Looks like Geddy also played a NR Thunderbird the other night. I am trying to figure out what song it was for

 

[Lammchop93]

Facebook is down right now, so I can't find the picture I saw earlier. Looks like Geddy also played a NR Thunderbird the other night. I am trying to figure out what song it was for

Found it!

 

[GonePlaid]

That kind of thing didn't used to make a scene as I recall.

Yeah. B4 cell phones and their light function.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Yeah. B4 cell phones and their light function.

People throw their cell phones at the band now?

 

[GonePlaid]

People throw their cell phones at the band now?

Prolly make the band some good $$.

 

[MCF]

View attachment 7514174

You’re a classy guy Glenn, drinking California’s finest.