Thunderbird Club

[Engle]

Looking at “Chinabuckers” on eBay to make my Pbird into a TBird and there’s this:

Or this set would allow me to try either one and have a spare pickup to install in another bass:

Has anyone bought these?

 

[GonePlaid]

Looking at “Chinabuckers” on eBay to make my Pbird into a TBird and there’s this:
View attachment 3524596


Or this set would allow me to try either one and have a spare pickup to install in another bass:
View attachment 3524597

Has anyone bought these?

Decent prices, but why 2 months delivery on the first one?

 

[PillO]

Why “Eppi” with two “p”s?
“I’m appalled. With two ‘p’s.”

For the same reason Gibby gets two "B"s... because they're extra special.

Wel, now Eye wil bee speling thm Epy and Giby THUNDERBIRDS!

 

[BklynKen]

12+ grams for 4 tuners is less than 1/2 an ounce. I doubt that's going to make much of a difference. Schaller's idea of 'lightweight' is misleading IMO.

Here's the difference between a standard Gotoh sealed tuner and a Gothoh Resolite:

That's almost an ounce (~28 grams) per tuner. Times four is a 1/4 lb, 4 oz.

Expensive but worth it on a headstock like this. Resolites and Stealths for octaves.

Yeah, the number I said sounds low. But we'll see when I get them.

 

[PillO]

Whatever it turns out to be, it's worth some effort. Old, kinda scary looking electrical devices are always worth some effort. I had a couple old valve driven black and white televisions for a while. The CRT portion was no good, so I never got them to work, but it was fun to plug them in and watch the tubes heat up. The picture on one was about two square inches, and the other one got a white dot in the middle of its screen. They got pretty good sound, for televisions. They smelled like ozone and doom when they were plugged in and turned on. I found that completely amusing, no drugs necessary. But, I never played a Thunderbird through one of them. The electrical consequences of my lack of knowledge were potentially dire enough to keep me from trying to wire in an input jack.

Both of those are potentially easy fixes. Of course, there is no more analog signals, so a waste of time now.

 

[Engle]

Decent prices, but why 2 months delivery on the first one?
View attachment 3524616

Slow boat from China?
Actually I just ordered a replacement aux input module for my Tacoma on Amazon and it arrived from China in 10 days. Expected delivery was September 20 to Oct 3.

Hey, @GonePlaid do have all your hatches battened down? Sounds like you might have a Category 4 coming

 

[PillO]

Update on my BC Rich. Turns out the original tuners on it are old Schaller M4S. I ordered a set of their newer lightweight ones that look identical, so they should be a direct drop-in. I'm told I should drop 3.174 grams from the headstock. Hopefully that stabilizes things a bit.

Eagle! Thunderbird!

That is more than two pennyweight! A meaningful weight saving!

 

[BklynKen]

That is more than two pennyweight! A meaningful weight saving!

I'm hoping that figure was off by a decimal place.

 

[GonePlaid]

Slow boat from China?
Actually I just ordered a replacement aux input module for my Tacoma on Amazon and it arrived from China in 10 days. Expected delivery was September 20 to Oct 3.

Hey, @GonePlaid do have all your hatches battened down? Sounds like you might have a Category 4 coming

Yeah, I've got all but the last few panels up. About 20 more minutes of work once this thing decides where it's going so I can decide if the cat and I are going. Hopefully THUNDERBIRDS, LPB25, amps, and house survive.

 

[BklynKen]

12+ grams for 4 tuners is less than 1/2 an ounce. I doubt that's going to make much of a difference. Schaller's idea of 'lightweight' is misleading IMO.

Here's the difference between a standard Gotoh sealed tuner and a Gothoh Resolite:

That's almost an ounce (~28 grams) per tuner. Times four is a 1/4 lb, 4 oz.

Expensive but worth it on a headstock like this. Resolites and Stealths for octaves.

Do you know what the original Schaller M4S weighed? I saw in another thread here that you had some from 1966.

 

[PillO]

Wise man. When I was a kid, I had a Silvertone bass amp that a joint broke on the capacitor. My Dad was really good with electronics and an iron, but instead of him fixing it, he took me to a buddy of his who had an awesome home shop (the guy worked for NASA). The expert gave me a lesson in the dangers of poking around in stuff without knowing what you’re doing. Scared the you know what out of me. After the lesson, he fixed it in about a minute. Worked like a charm and sounded...well like a cheap Silvertone with a crummy speaker.

In electronics shop, we used to charge up capacitors with a few hundred volts then put them away. Good times when someone carelessly took one out.

Thunderbird.

 

[JIO]

We were discussing Silvertone and Danelectro Wasp bass guitars a bit ago. They are somewhat like NR Thunderbirds, except a whole lot lighter, weirder, and smaller. I was wasting time on Reverb at lunch just now, and look what turned up:

Danelectro Wasp 1965? | Music City Asheville

The freebass was black and rattier and didn't have any logo at all on the headstock, but this is what it looked like. It was worth the $300 some guy on St. Mark's Place bought it from me for. And probably still is. It sure wasn't worth any $2500. Still isn't.

That's kinda oddly cool. Does seem a bit steep on the price.

Yes, a very cool bass but it will sit at that asking price. When I saw this post I was expecting something around $1500. Not sure if '65 is correct either - more like '67-'68 from what I've researched.

 

[GonePlaid]

Yes, a very cool bass but it will sit at that asking price. When I saw this post I was expecting something around $1500. Not sure if '65 is correct either - more like '67-'68 from what I've researched.

Aah, what's a coupla years and $1K. (pricing it as a 'collector's item' doesn't make it one)

 

[PillO]

Getting some quality rehearsal time in from my favorite practice spot..fishing in the morning..hit a few tunes..make drinks,catch some crabs..repeat for the next few days..
Chesapeake Bay...Cheers!

Ahem! And find some better women to date.

Thunderbird

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

Ahem! And find some better women to date.

Thunderbird

Fixed

 

[PillO]

Fixed

Goats get Labour Day weekend off? Nice to see you around THUNDERBIRD Club

 

[Dr_Feelgoood212]

Goats get Labour Day weekend off? Nice to see you around THUNDERBIRD Club

I’ve made a post or two recently, here in the THUNDERBIRD Club
But it’s good to be home... at the THUNDERBIRD Club

 

[MCF]

There is nothing like that smell. <3

Kid down the street and his Dad built a Tesla coil and took it to school for show and tell. Fifth grade I think. It was so cool. They’d probably get arrested bringing something like that to school today.

 

[MCF]

In electronics shop, we used to charge up capacitors with a few hundred volts then put them away. Good times when someone carelessly took one out.

Thunderbird.

There you go again! That’s just plain mean!now go play your Thunderbird!

 

[BklynKen]

That is more than two pennyweight! A meaningful weight saving!

Source of my problem was that it was ounces and not grams, but it turns out that weight saving will probably be more than one tuner. According to John K on the forum, who designed the Mockingbird:

the vintage ones weigh 115 grams each, the lightweight ones weigh 69 grams each.

115x4= 460 grams
69x4=276 grams

460-276=184 grams
184grams=6.56096 oz.