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Thunderbird Club

#4,344
T
GBassNorth said:
Not sure how much experience you have with Schallers but I have them on most of my basses and they've been problem free. Here's some tips and tricks that apply to their use...
- use the original screw that came with the bass if at all possible. Its typically bigger and better than what Schaller gives you.

- if you have a thick leather strap you're going to find out that the threads on the strap end of the device barely come in contact with the nut after they've gone through the thick strap and the backing washer. Ideally you should be able to tighten the strap end nut all the way down on the threads such that you can see at least a portion of the threads exposed above the nut. I normally set my strap on a concrete floor or bench vise and give the area where the strap lock will be fitted through the strap a few good hits with a ball peen hammer before I install the strap locks. This flattens out the leather and makes it a bit more supple and usually brings the overall thickness down to something that works well with the Schaller short shaft thread.

- when you put the strap ends on you'll need to make sure they're good and tight. I normally wrap some tape around the sides of the female fitting to protect it (dont get any tape between the strap and the fitting) then either clamp the fitting in a vise or use channel locks to hold it steady while I install the strap, washer and nut. Use an open end or crescent wrench (not pliers) to tighten the nut. If you don't get it tight it will eventually work loose and fail, defeating the purpose of having a strap lock system.

- make sure the female ends on both ends of the strap are positioned such that the open end of the cup is pointing straight up when the bass and strap are in their normal playing positions. This eliminates a lot of the off angle strain the cup or female end puts on the nipple or male end.

- once or twice a year check the nipple screws and the cup nuts on the body and strap to ensure nothing is working its way loose. I do it out of habit when I replace batteries or strings or when I'm oiling the fretboard.

Do all that and you shouldn't ever have a Schaller failure. I'm at 10 plus years with no issues on my Schallers.
Click to expand...
hank you sir: all excellent info that I hadn't thought about. I know I will have to trim a little bit from the strap as well.
 
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#4,345
Both my Birds (and my Charvel 4B) are tuned CGCF. The Usta Bea Goth has Dunlop Heavy Core "Heaviest" on it, and the Charvel has the "Heavier" set, which is what they'll all get once the cash flow improves after the hollow days and new strings get purchased. Neck is as stable with those big ol' cables on it as it is with the stock strings, which on my Epi TB IV are probably a .100 E (or in this case, C) string. That's the one I'm most interested in swapping strings on because it's got the Tone Monster preamp in it. Matt, who's one of the guys that worked on installing that thing and is the one who turned me on to it in the first place, said that preamp is...sensitive (not really the right word but I can't think of a better one) to string changes. The tone will change quite a bit depending on what strings are on it.
 
#4,350
:woot:I think its priced about right. If you look closely at the eBay ad you'll see that it has a 34 foot scale, no wonder its called the Beastbird. It takes a lot of wood to make a bass that size. He did a real good job of making everything about the bass relatively proportionate. Those knobs must be the size of dinner plates. Besides, think of all the cost the seller has to cover in shipping something that size. ;)
 
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#4,352
So I am still in love with my thunderbird. I use only the bel pickup and pick or pluck right above the pickup. So much fatness.

I experimented with some few years old chromes and I really liked the mid range girth and angry low end although I found the high end a bit distasteful and the E string pretty lifeless, especially when open. Anyone else use flats? I was thinking maybe T.I's or fender flats since Ive heard they have a bit of drive, or try them both etc. I put my dr Lo riders back on and they sounded seriously good just not quite the same THUMP as the flats.
 
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#4,353
Mikaelbass said:
So I am still in love with my thunderbird. I use only the bel pickup and pick or pluck right above the pickup. So much fatness.

I experimented with some few years old chromes and I really liked the mid range girth and angry low end although I found the high end a bit distasteful and the E string pretty lifeless, especially when open. Anyone else use flats? I was thinking maybe T.I's or fender flats since Ive heard they have a bit of drive, or try them both etc. I put my dr Lo riders back on and they sounded seriously good just not quite the same THUMP as the flats.
Click to expand...

I've been using TIs on my '76 bird lately in a soul/classic rock band. Sounds great. If you like midrange girth you'll probably like them.
 
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#4,354
Klondike said:
Today my Schaller Strap Locks arrived and the nipple that mounts to back of the neck will NOT work!:( The replacement screws are all over an inch short, and a totally different diameter (smaller). So that should be an easy fix, drill out the new nipple to accommodate the old screw, brilliant idea! Nope! The head of the screw is to big to fit inside the throat of the hole... No Lockie-Lockie for Klondike. Anybody have a good ideas? Have any of you run across this? Thanks.
Click to expand...

I had this happen as well. Just take the screw head to a bench grinder and reduce the diameter till it fits. I'm at work right now so I can't get you a pic right now but just let me know and I'll get you one if needed.
 
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#4,355
I hope everyone has had a great holiday season! I've been barely around the internet these last two weeks and I haven't been to TB because of Tapatalk being dropped. I do realize that I could get to TB with my Safari browser so it's not because I couldn't but I always was driven to the thread through Tapatalk notifications. I read the thread about the decision but honestly, I think it stinks. I'll have to get my notifications switched over for email notifications I guess. Anyone else having heartburn over this?
 
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#4,356
I got these for my 'bird. From Allparts. I like them.
 

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#4,357
Larry V said:
I had this happen as well. Just take the screw head to a bench grinder and reduce the diameter till it fits. I'm at work right now so I can't get you a pic right now but just let me know and I'll get you one if needed.
Click to expand...
I got it taken care of yesterday. As was suggested earlier I put screw into my drill (threads first of coarse) and hit some emry cloth I had laying around. It fits perfect. I also used my handy dandy Ball Peen hammer on the HD Black Learher strap and my fittings went on without a hitch. Perfecto! Thanks everyone for the input. You all are helping a newb achieve his ultimate goal - take over the world! ~:)
 
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#4,359
Klondike said:
I got it taken care of yesterday. As was suggested earlier I put screw into my drill (threads first of coarse) and hit some emry cloth I had laying around. It fits perfect. I also used my handy dandy Ball Peen hammer on the HD Black Learher strap and my fittings went on without a hitch. Perfecto! Thanks everyone for the input. You all are helping a newb achieve his ultimate goal - take over the world! ~:)
Click to expand...
Glad it all worked out for you! And here's some inspirational motivation for your quest to take over the world...
mondayminion-297x300.jpg
 
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#4,360
Klondike said:
Btw I have been working very hard to read this entire thread... Holy crap this thing is long. I'm on something like page 35 or so.
Click to expand...

There are 7 (I think) 1000 post threads before this one...........That's ambition!
 
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