Thunderbird Club

[GBassNorth]

Second post in the series re the guts in bolt-ons.

Today is the ‘09 Limited Edition-Custom Shop Silverburst. Unsung factory in Korea. As far as I know, it’s all stock. I believe I’m the third owner. Like the PB I posted yesterday, it’s wearing 45-105 Dunlop Superbrights. The two basses do not sound the same. This one is a bit “clearer” sounding than the PB, which has a bit more growl. Particularly on the D and G strings. The E string is ballsier in this one, it’s kind of hard to describe. Maybe like the low E on a Stieinway? I’m not sure if the PUPs are the same in this one as in the ‘07. I’ve been told these were originally guitar pickups. String height and pickup height are essentially the same.
View attachment 3993086
I was able to see the number on the cap. Per the interweb, it looks to be a 0.068uF attached at the center post of the tone pot. So now I’m wondering about the cap in the ‘07 PB; it looks more orange and a bit fatter. Is it swollen? I need to get a dental mirror and go back in to that one.
View attachment 3993108

The pots are the same, Alpha A500 tone, B500 vols. The wires have been secured with a tie. The paint around the jack is untouched, unlike in the ‘07 PB where it had been removed.
View attachment 3993099
So two Thunderbirds from the same factory, in the Limited Edition - Custom Shop Series, that sound noticeably different. Same strings, pickup height, bridges, amp settings. Both sound great.

I know the answer to the question, what’s the best Thunderbird for metal? MCF’S Silverburst. It just looks the part.

Love the looks of that Silver Burst! Also love the nice clean soldering job inside.
LOL - I need to post a pic of my Goth guts, the wad of solder on the tone pot probably adds a pound to the weight of the bass. I think the previous owner must have had stock in a solder company. Once I settle on the right cap value I'll probably try to clean it up a bit.

So you’ve got what, about $240 into this? Upgraded bridge. I know you’re not flipper, but that should be valued at about +or- $400.*

Rock it in good health my friend.

*Note: the value of my time is about $250/hour. I never factor that in, no matter how much time I spend on my basses making them great.

Yep. $150 in the bass, $87 in the bridge and maybe a couple of bucks in caps and an output jack. Worth every bit of $400 or more. No flippin in this house, I'm stuck with it and quite happy with that.

 

[PillO]

As Vice President of the Princess Fingers Club it's part of my responsibilities to send a box of bandages and some kind of weird smelling ointment the President (PillO), concocted in his basement when someone installs a set of Cobalt Flats. Due to exorbitant shipping cost you won't be receiving anything this time. Play at your own risk!

Sometimes, it is better not to know...

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Cap testing complete.
To my ears the stock .068uf cap sounded very good but if you rolled the tone knob to zero you had to increase the volume pot to 4 or greater to get any useable volume, then at 9 plus on the volume you start to get more mids and highs rolling in.

The .1uf Orange drop sounded pretty good, but again impacted the volume knob more than I'd like. Not too many highs, maybe more mids though.

The .047uf Orange drop and Emerson paper and oil sounded pretty much identical. Tone was going further away from my goal so I didn't spend much time there.

The .022uf Orange drop wasn't drastically different from the .047, but again it was going in the opposite direction from what wanted.

For the fun of it I installed a 153K orange drop and it sounded interesting. Lots of useable space on the volume knob with the tone set on zero. Plenty of mids and low mids and very loud, tons of grind, manageable top end, but loud. Decided to leave this cap in and play the bass for a few days to see how it fits in various settings. Even though it wasn't the sound I was after.

I suspect a cap with a value between .068uf and .1uf will give me exactly what I'm looking for. Unfortunately I don't have any of those so I'll have to purchase some and give it a try.

Good news is the grounding hum is gone now along with the majority of the rats nest. Still more solider on the pots than I'd like but it's not hurting anything and trying to remove it probably runs a risk in overheating and damaging a pot. It ain't broke so I'm not fixing it.

In the unlikely case it hasn’t been said, there is no standard cap value between .068 and .1 . You could put a .068 and .022 in parallel for .090, or .068 and .011 in parallel for .079, etc. For caps in parallel, just add the values. It works for more than two; two .022 with a .033 would be .077. You won’t hear any difference between that and .079.

Also, so long as you avoid electrolytic caps, the type won’t generally matter here because the cap is not in the signal path; it just determines what bleeds to ground. Just use a decent quality cap.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

DUDE! TOES!

But bare feet are my favorite shoes!

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

Really digging these guys lately..

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Really digging these guys lately..

I can see why; very cool stylistic meld!

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

I can see why; very cool stylistic meld!

posted without even realizing the bass player (Will Carruthiers) was playing a Bird! bought a brand new one just like that in 80 for 770 with hsc ....thought his may have been a Lull at first cause the lack of PG confuses....apparently he can are less about the exposed routing....LOVE his tone on this...quite a bit of bridge pup going on there.....

 

[Rchy7]

Second post in the series re the guts in bolt-ons.

Today is the ‘09 Limited Edition-Custom Shop Silverburst. Unsung factory in Korea. As far as I know, it’s all stock. I believe I’m the third owner. Like the PB I posted yesterday, it’s wearing 45-105 Dunlop Superbrights. The two basses do not sound the same. This one is a bit “clearer” sounding than the PB, which has a bit more growl. Particularly on the D and G strings. The E string is ballsier in this one, it’s kind of hard to describe. Maybe like the low E on a Stieinway? I’m not sure if the PUPs are the same in this one as in the ‘07. I’ve been told these were originally guitar pickups. String height and pickup height are essentially the same.
View attachment 3993086
I was able to see the number on the cap. Per the interweb, it looks to be a 0.068uF attached at the center post of the tone pot. So now I’m wondering about the cap in the ‘07 PB; it looks more orange and a bit fatter. Is it swollen? I need to get a dental mirror and go back in to that one.
View attachment 3993108

The pots are the same, Alpha A500 tone, B500 vols. The wires have been secured with a tie. The paint around the jack is untouched, unlike in the ‘07 PB where it had been removed.
View attachment 3993099
So two Thunderbirds from the same factory, in the Limited Edition - Custom Shop Series, that sound noticeably different. Same strings, pickup height, bridges, amp settings. Both sound great.

I know the answer to the question, what’s the best Thunderbird for metal? MCF’S Silverburst. It just looks the part.

i also have a Limited Edition - Custom Shop Series but in black...i'm still getting used to the pickups. im still playing with the amp setting and stuff.,,but i was baffled with the pick up.it looks like a guitar pickup?

 

[GBassNorth]

In the unlikely case it hasn’t been said, there is no standard cap value between .068 and .1 . You could put a .068 and .022 in parallel for .090, or .068 and .011 in parallel for .079, etc. For caps in parallel, just add the values. It works for more than two; two .022 with a .033 would be .077. You won’t hear any difference between that and .079.

Also, so long as you avoid electrolytic caps, the type won’t generally matter here because the cap is not in the signal path; it just determines what bleeds to ground. Just use a decent quality cap.

Yep, that's pretty much what I did. I had a couple of Emerson .047uf oil and paper caps laying around so I wired them in parallel for a .094uf value (close enough to .1 for me).

 

[MCF]

Really digging these guys lately..

A Bay Area treasure. Have you watched the movie? It’s Kind of dated....

 

[dagrev]

Really digging these guys lately..

I like the music!

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

A Bay Area treasure. Have you watched the movie? It’s Kind of dated....

yeah, fun movie. like you said, a San Fran act with connections to the Warhols from Portland.......all in all, a pretty west coast sound....wouldn't be surprised if @JIO knows some of them in person..

 

[LetItGrowTone]

Just my opinion but wanted to tell someone:
G** P*******w**** (name of product hidden from search engines) sound rubbery to me. I'm surprised and disappointed. Also, although they're possibly the smoothest round (smoother than TIJRs), that doesn't miraculously reduce string noise to zero. So I can put that out of my mind.

I'm accustomed to TIJF, TIJR (sample size 1), La Bella/Dunlop flats and the random rounds that come on new basses.

 

[GonePlaid]

Just my opinion but wanted to tell someone:
G** P*******w**** (name of product hidden from search engines) sound rubbery to me. I'm surprised and disappointed. Also, although they're possibly the smoothest round (smoother than TIJRs), that doesn't miraculously reduce string noise to zero. So I can put that out of my mind.

I'm accustomed to TIJF, TIJR (sample size 1), La Bella/Dunlop flats and the random rounds that come on new basses.

I have a set of their Brite Flats coming-SS for my EB-0. Will report findings.

 

[PillO]

Just my opinion but wanted to tell someone:
G** P*******w**** (name of product hidden from search engines) sound rubbery to me. I'm surprised and disappointed. Also, although they're possibly the smoothest round (smoother than TIJRs), that doesn't miraculously reduce string noise to zero. So I can put that out of my mind.

I'm accustomed to TIJF, TIJR (sample size 1), La Bella/Dunlop flats and the random rounds that come on new basses.

String noise is a technique problem, not a string problem...

I used to hate string noise. Then I discussed it with my teacher. It is sometimes a feature and the rest of the time, it is an opportunity to work on technique.

 

[TBird1958]

String noise is a technique problem, not a string problem...

I used to hate string noise. Then I discussed it with my teacher. It is sometimes a feature and the rest of the time, it is an opportunity to work on technique.

Wow, you guys worry about string noise? I don't record much is that why? In a live setting I'm not even aware of it.

 

[LetItGrowTone]

It was the "rubbery" part that motivated the post. Didn't see a hint of that in the many reviews here.

Thanks for the other advice. On one of my basses I might work around zing, yes, but I want to have clean sliding available.

 

[GonePlaid]

This is interesting. Eastwood to Bring Back the Rocket Bass

 

[GonePlaid]

It was the "rubbery" part that motivated the post. Didn't see a hint of that in the many reviews here.

Thanks for the other advice. On one of my basses I might work around zing, yes, but I want to have clean sliding available.

Yeah. I've been playing bass since '67. I'm certain I have habits that I'm not gonna correct now.

 

[GBassNorth]

Another Heads up for installing a Hipshot bridge on Epiphone birds.

Recall yesterday I meticulously prepped my Goth for the new Hipshot bridge installation. I let everything dry over night and went to tighten it up this morning. Just as the bridge screws started to snug down - POP! Out came the anchor. I was even careful to use the Allen wrench in the vertical position vs horizontal to minimize the torque on the bolts.

I removed the bridge and noticed something I hadn't taken into account - the depth of the recess on the bottom of the bridge is substantially greater than the thickness of the anchor shoulders. In other words, the bridge as it stands is a perfectly designed anchor extractor!

No big deal, just had to find some washers that would fit in the bridge recess and be the exact thickness needed to let the bridge contact the body without lifting the anchors. Turns out the closest thing I had with nearly the proper thickness and nearly the right diameter was a lock washer. Out came the dremel grinder again, and 15 minutes later we have a perfect fit (ugly but it won't be seen by anybody).

So, glue again this morning and drive the studs back in. And tighten up everything tomorrow, hopefully for the last time.

In honor of Kara and MCF here's some pics this time...

Under side of bridge, stud on left sits deep in the recess, stud on the right has been corrected with makeshift spacer...

Makeshift spacer (lock washer flattened out, ground to proper thickness and proper outer diameter...

Planets aligned, shoulders now sit flush with the bottom of the bridge! Installing this type of bridge without the proper spacers runs the risk of extracting the anchors. May or may not happen to you, all depends on the quality of the friction fit and the amount of torque applied by the user.