- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,964
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Nice sharp focus pics! Yes, Epi shamed Gibson with this one.
Like your Eden rig too!
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
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- club thunderbird
Nice sharp focus pics! Yes, Epi shamed Gibson with this one.
Like your Eden rig too!
You're not crazy Glenn. Unless after another year you don't have another Thunderbird!
We clamped down early, considering how few cases we have compared to many places. Not like that here (Louisville), generally. There's a limit on people in a few places. 3-4 to a lobby, etc., there were a few lines early on for certain items.
- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,896
- 142,217
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
Congratulations on your new Thunderbird, I'm happy to add you to the club if you wish. Love your other basses and rig too!
CVS here in SoCal is pretty much the same as normal except 6 foot spacing marks on the floor at each register (just enough room to swing a strapped on TBird around). All employees wearing face masks and rubber gloves. All the shelves relatively well stocked.
Beautiful VP! Very nice rig as well, always loved the Eden stuff. As far as strings on a VP go a lot of us love Cobalt Flats, I've also had very good luck with Fender 7150 nickel rounds on my VP.
If you're not already a club member, feel free to join the rest of us here at the best of the best of Talkbass.
Waiting with baited breath and hoping you'll shove that mudbucker right up to the neck where it belongs.
I run DR LowRider SS on mine, which is white as well btw, and really liking them.
Good Luck!
Nah. If I were to get another VP, it would not only look different, I'd do something different with it. As much as I love the VP, I just don't need multiples. I wouldn't mind a Classic Pro, but I also don't need one, and there are plenty of things I'd rather spend my money on right now, like supporting friends out of work.
Most stores here that stayed open went to that even before the state urged it and local governments demanded it.
I just need to replace the p'up's on my white one. Then i'm all set with my 2 Birds.
Oh, and new tuners for each as well.
All three are gorgeous!
Interesting but very loaded question. You do notice a trend after going through thousands (literally) of amps. Some due to design problems, other due to where technology (and knowledge thereof) was at the time of manufacture. Early tube guitar amps (although some built in the 30's and 40's I'm referring to 50's and up) are pretty rugged due to simplicity and the maturity of tube technology at the time. Early transistor amps (60's)were less reliable due to designer's (who were experienced in tube implementation) lack of experience with transistor thermal management and the less than optimum ruggedness of the germanium transistors available at the time. Later, when manufacturers started using PCBs for tube amps a new myriad of problems emerged mostly due to the misunderstood flexing of FR4 PCB material due to the heat tubes generate. So, one learns to gauge (guesstimate) what the problem with an amp will be by firstly observing it's vintage. Parts will wear as in a car and will ultimately fail if not properly maintained. This pertains to ALL amps.
Design problems fall in a different category, (Polytones, early GKs, CBS Fenders, early Marshalls, Vox and early Ampegs) for example, early SVTs used 6146 tubes but suffered from a phase splitter voltage feed point design error which resulted in a condition where if the amp was driven hard the output tubes would slam full on momentarily (ignoring the control signal from the 'miswired' phase splitter) resulting on output tube failures. Ampeg's brilliant marketing dept. solved this issue by 'quietly' fixing the splitter problem, blaming the issue on the 6146 output tubes and going to 6550s. In truth there was NO problem with the 6146s when properly operated but unlike the 6550, it's anode (high voltage terminal) was connected by way of a cap (as in many RF transmitter tubes such as the 6146, for ease of assembly to the transmitter) unlike the 6550 which had this anode connection by way of one of the pins in the base. Truth is, musicians were being dangerously shocked when they were replacing 6146s because they were not allowing cap discharge from the anode supply and were handling this cap not understanding the dangers. So in a nutshell, Ampeg fixed this by offering a 'safer' alternative....
..Apologies for the verbosity and hope this sheds some light?
6146 tubes with the anode cap (on top of the glass envelope)
So, I had never bought a new bass and decided I would. Always had a crush on Thunderbirds, from Nikki Sixx to Kim Gordon.
She’s really pretty. I should not have been surprised by the difference in quality from my other two (one is an upgraded, late 80’s BC Rich, and the other is a higher end BC Rich from the late 2000’s), but I was. The Epi Vintage Pro’s reputation was no joke.
I’ve been trying to figure out strings. The stock ones are good, but missing something. I tried Fat Beams and Roto 66’s, but they didn’t do it. Boomers are next on the list, and exposed core are a temptation also.
Nice! Congratulations!
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,964
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Interesting but very loaded question. You do notice a trend after going through thousands (literally) of amps. Some due to design problems, other due to where technology (and knowledge thereof) was at the time of manufacture. Early tube guitar amps (although some built in the 30's and 40's I'm referring to 50's and up) are pretty rugged due to simplicity and the maturity of tube technology at the time. Early transistor amps (60's)were less reliable due to designer's (who were experienced in tube implementation) lack of experience with transistor thermal management and the less than optimum ruggedness of the germanium transistors available at the time. Later, when manufacturers started using PCBs for tube amps a new myriad of problems emerged mostly due to the misunderstood flexing of FR4 PCB material due to the heat tubes generate. So, one learns to gauge (guesstimate) what the problem with an amp will be by firstly observing it's vintage. Parts will wear as in a car and will ultimately fail if not properly maintained. This pertains to ALL amps.
Design problems fall in a different category, (Polytones, early GKs, CBS Fenders, early Marshalls, Vox and early Ampegs) for example, early SVTs used 6146 tubes but suffered from a phase splitter voltage feed point design error which resulted in a condition where if the amp was driven hard the output tubes would slam full on momentarily (ignoring the control signal from the 'miswired' phase splitter) resulting on output tube failures. Ampeg's brilliant marketing dept. solved this issue by 'quietly' fixing the splitter problem, blaming the issue on the 6146 output tubes and going to 6550s. In truth there was NO problem with the 6146s when properly operated but unlike the 6550, it's anode (high voltage terminal) was connected by way of a cap (as in many RF transmitter tubes such as the 6146, for ease of assembly to the transmitter) unlike the 6550 which had this anode connection by way of one of the pins in the base. Truth is, musicians were being dangerously shocked when they were replacing 6146s because they were not allowing cap discharge from the anode supply and were handling this cap not understanding the dangers. So in a nutshell, Ampeg fixed this by offering a 'safer' alternative....
Apologies for the verbosity and hope this sheds some light?
6146 tubes with the anode cap (on top of the glass envelope)
View attachment 3767651
Wow - really informative! I only peripherally comprehend it but appreciate and admire your understanding of the subject/topic. I had a Polytone Mini-Brute w/1-15" for years but it failed, was fixed by a local SF amp-repair company and I sold it as soon as I got it back. I think double-bass guys liked it, I never thought it sounded that good. It was ss.
I knew a UB player that had one(12"?). Sounded good for him, sounded like crap for my TBird.
Thanks JIO! PTones are an interesting topic. You are right, they were the craze with the upright guys when they came out, in fact I saw my first one being played by Ray Brown. Like on 360s the power amp was mounted at the bottom of the enclosure and the preamp on top. The amps actually sounded pretty good for what they were imho, unfortunately that mounting scheme created problems due to the vibration of the speaker rattling components loose, causing arcing and ultimately bad smoky, sparky failures. This was one of the main reasons for their demise imo...
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A mudbucker, a Model One, and a bolt-on Epibird walk into a bar.
The mudbucker looks at the Jazz pickup behind the bar and says, "Let's make some music." The bartender points to a sign behind the bar that says, "NO CHEESY PICKUP LINES".
The Model One winks at the Jazz and says, "You're not even wearing a G string." The bartender takes the sign off the wall and uses it to slap the Model One clean off his barstool.
The bartender looks up at the Epi, who says in a low, thunderous voice, "Pardon my friends' bass attitude. A round for everyone in the house."
The Jazz winks up at the Epi. "Now that's my kind of pickup line."
The Epi shakes his headstock. "Sorry. You're not my type. Too thin."
Do you always wear your THUNDERBIRD to go shopping? Gonna have to try that.
Early Kalamazoo Model One and Model Two amps had a 1K to 1.5K power supply resistor at the output tube's screen grid. These tended to overheat. Rather than go to a larger resistor, CMI just upped the value to 2.2k or 3.3k (seemingly at random), reducing the power dissipated while keeping their cost the same. I never heard of one that actually failed because of this.
