Thunderbird Club

[Gaolee]

Indeed!! AKA "Polydextrious"
BTW your son paid you quite a compliment

Maybe, or maybe not from him. He says only drummers think about things like that. Other musicians think about other things that audiences actually notice. Either way, it amused both of us.

 

[Chucky Stiletti]

I guess I'll have to update my profile pic asap, as I have both a new bass as well as a new (practice) amp, after all these years, a very nice Line 6 LD 150, that I picked up for only $ 125 and that's capable of making a helluva racket in combination with my new buddy, the T-Bird..

think I recognize that amp...

 

[Captain Rumble]

think I recognize that amp...
View attachment 4012222

Yess! I still miss that one, had to let go of it a couple of years back..

 

[GonePlaid]

Hellllloooooo everybody, I'm back again, sort of! I joined this club and introduced myself a couple of months ago, during the first wave of the C-19 pandemic, sometime in march it was, if I'm correct. I talked about an Epi T-Bird being up for sale here in northern Norway at a very reasonable price, but I missed out on that one, due to travel regulations at the time and bad winter conditions (seller live some 100 miles away from me), resulting in the bass getting sold to someone else. But, of course ha, this was meant to be, as I found me another one one week ago, in better - almost new condition - at a totally ridiculous price..
I was with our son at the playground last sunday, killing some time before we had to pick up our daughter at a friend's place and I was just speedbrowsing ZuckBook's local sales groups in this region, when a picture flashing by caught my eye.. "Hey, is that..?.. Yes, it is! ! I just hit a pic of the T-bird logo! It was the 'main picture' of a listing for a 'bassgitar', no further specifics mentioned. Fixed price, so I immediately responded: "Yes, I'd like to buy this." (in Norwegian, of course ) Got a response via pm, gave my son acute marching orders and off we went. I was afraid someone would beat me at it, so I may have tested the speed limit a couple of times, but it was worth it.. I'll just copy-paste the text accompanying my ZuckBook post on sunday:
"* So, It didn't come with a case or a gigbag, just a lot of dust on top, what looks like factory strings and some original decals to protect the cover on the back..
But hey, no complains here when it cost me no more than the Norwegian equivalent of some €20.. Yes, twenty! View attachment 4012196 View attachment 4012197 "

 

[GBassNorth]

Hellllloooooo everybody, I'm back again, sort of! I joined this club and introduced myself a couple of months ago, during the first wave of the C-19 pandemic, sometime in march it was, if I'm correct. I talked about an Epi T-Bird being up for sale here in northern Norway at a very reasonable price, but I missed out on that one, due to travel regulations at the time and bad winter conditions (seller live some 100 miles away from me), resulting in the bass getting sold to someone else. But, of course ha, this was meant to be, as I found me another one one week ago, in better - almost new condition - at a totally ridiculous price..
I was with our son at the playground last sunday, killing some time before we had to pick up our daughter at a friend's place and I was just speedbrowsing ZuckBook's local sales groups in this region, when a picture flashing by caught my eye.. "Hey, is that..?.. Yes, it is! ! I just hit a pic of the T-bird logo! It was the 'main picture' of a listing for a 'bassgitar', no further specifics mentioned. Fixed price, so I immediately responded: "Yes, I'd like to buy this." (in Norwegian, of course ) Got a response via pm, gave my son acute marching orders and off we went. I was afraid someone would beat me at it, so I may have tested the speed limit a couple of times, but it was worth it.. I'll just copy-paste the text accompanying my ZuckBook post on sunday:
"* So, It didn't come with a case or a gigbag, just a lot of dust on top, what looks like factory strings and some original decals to protect the cover on the back..
But hey, no complains here when it cost me no more than the Norwegian equivalent of some €20.. Yes, twenty! View attachment 4012196 View attachment 4012197 "

I always love a great story, especially with a happy ending.
Enjoy the new bird, and ruffle some feathers with that new rig as well!

 

[MCF]

Hellllloooooo everybody, I'm back again, sort of! I joined this club and introduced myself a couple of months ago, during the first wave of the C-19 pandemic, sometime in march it was, if I'm correct. I talked about an Epi T-Bird being up for sale here in northern Norway at a very reasonable price, but I missed out on that one, due to travel regulations at the time and bad winter conditions (seller live some 100 miles away from me), resulting in the bass getting sold to someone else. But, of course ha, this was meant to be, as I found me another one one week ago, in better - almost new condition - at a totally ridiculous price..
I was with our son at the playground last sunday, killing some time before we had to pick up our daughter at a friend's place and I was just speedbrowsing ZuckBook's local sales groups in this region, when a picture flashing by caught my eye.. "Hey, is that..?.. Yes, it is! ! I just hit a pic of the T-bird logo! It was the 'main picture' of a listing for a 'bassgitar', no further specifics mentioned. Fixed price, so I immediately responded: "Yes, I'd like to buy this." (in Norwegian, of course ) Got a response via pm, gave my son acute marching orders and off we went. I was afraid someone would beat me at it, so I may have tested the speed limit a couple of times, but it was worth it.. I'll just copy-paste the text accompanying my ZuckBook post on sunday:
"* So, It didn't come with a case or a gigbag, just a lot of dust on top, what looks like factory strings and some original decals to protect the cover on the back..
But hey, no complains here when it cost me no more than the Norwegian equivalent of some €20.. Yes, twenty! View attachment 4012196 View attachment 4012197 "

Even if nothing works, for the price that bird cost it is a steal. Nice score! And welcome to the club. It’s nice to have members from Scandinavia here with us (there are at least a couple others here)!

 

[TBird1958]

Hellllloooooo everybody, I'm back again, sort of! I joined this club and introduced myself a couple of months ago, during the first wave of the C-19 pandemic, sometime in march it was, if I'm correct. I talked about an Epi T-Bird being up for sale here in northern Norway at a very reasonable price, but I missed out on that one, due to travel regulations at the time and bad winter conditions (seller live some 100 miles away from me), resulting in the bass getting sold to someone else. But, of course ha, this was meant to be, as I found me another one one week ago, in better - almost new condition - at a totally ridiculous price..
I was with our son at the playground last sunday, killing some time before we had to pick up our daughter at a friend's place and I was just speedbrowsing ZuckBook's local sales groups in this region, when a picture flashing by caught my eye.. "Hey, is that..?.. Yes, it is! ! I just hit a pic of the T-bird logo! It was the 'main picture' of a listing for a 'bassgitar', no further specifics mentioned. Fixed price, so I immediately responded: "Yes, I'd like to buy this." (in Norwegian, of course ) Got a response via pm, gave my son acute marching orders and off we went. I was afraid someone would beat me at it, so I may have tested the speed limit a couple of times, but it was worth it.. I'll just copy-paste the text accompanying my ZuckBook post on sunday:
"* So, It didn't come with a case or a gigbag, just a lot of dust on top, what looks like factory strings and some original decals to protect the cover on the back..
But hey, no complains here when it cost me no more than the Norwegian equivalent of some €20.. Yes, twenty! View attachment 4012196 View attachment 4012197 "

Happy to add you to the club, just let me know

 

[TBird1958]

Later that same day.....................Me and the VP

I LOVE THIS DRESS!

 

[D.M.N.]

I’m rooting for @D.M.N. to win it. He deserves it and it’ll have a good home.

I hope he gets it as well.

Thanks guys, fingers crossed! Some money clearing my accounts today so I'll be calling up the shop to haggle this weekend.

 

[dagrev]

Like every bass player, he stands back in the shadows and fills out the sound without making a big show of things.

He kind of reminds me of myself. Minus the star glasses. Oh yeah, and the talent. Almost forgot that.

 

[dagrev]

I only got opposable thumbs last week. It's a brand new concept.

Stay with it. I hear there's a learning curve.

 

[GonePlaid]

Stay with it. I hear there's a learning curve.

I'll give 'im a .

 

[Nocturnal]

Hellllloooooo everybody, I'm back again, sort of! I joined this club and introduced myself a couple of months ago, during the first wave of the C-19 pandemic, sometime in march it was, if I'm correct. I talked about an Epi T-Bird being up for sale here in northern Norway at a very reasonable price, but I missed out on that one, due to travel regulations at the time and bad winter conditions (seller live some 100 miles away from me), resulting in the bass getting sold to someone else. But, of course ha, this was meant to be, as I found me another one one week ago, in better - almost new condition - at a totally ridiculous price..
I was with our son at the playground last sunday, killing some time before we had to pick up our daughter at a friend's place and I was just speedbrowsing ZuckBook's local sales groups in this region, when a picture flashing by caught my eye.. "Hey, is that..?.. Yes, it is! ! I just hit a pic of the T-bird logo! It was the 'main picture' of a listing for a 'bassgitar', no further specifics mentioned. Fixed price, so I immediately responded: "Yes, I'd like to buy this." (in Norwegian, of course ) Got a response via pm, gave my son acute marching orders and off we went. I was afraid someone would beat me at it, so I may have tested the speed limit a couple of times, but it was worth it.. I'll just copy-paste the text accompanying my ZuckBook post on sunday:
"* So, It didn't come with a case or a gigbag, just a lot of dust on top, what looks like factory strings and some original decals to protect the cover on the back..
But hey, no complains here when it cost me no more than the Norwegian equivalent of some €20.. Yes, twenty! View attachment 4012196 View attachment 4012197 "

Fantastic story and deal on that Bird!! Glad it all worked out for you in the end.

 

[GBassNorth]

Just wrapped up the first leg of the Goth tone cap and pot test where the 500K pots were in the control circuit.

Keep in mind this test was done with fresh Cobalt Flats and stock Goth pups. String or pup changes could give different results. I also limited the tests to finger playing only, between the neck and the neck pup with the neck pup soloed. No adjustments were made to the amp, everything centered.

The first run through was wired with a specific cap and the tone pot set at zero and the volume knob at two, followed by volume settings of 4,6,8,10 with notes taken at each volume setting.
The second run was the same cap with tone set at 3 and volumes at 2,4,6,8,10.
The third run was the cap with tone set at 5 and volumes at 2,4,6,8,10.
That's 15 data points for each cap.

I didn't bother to record data above a 5 setting on the tone pot because I found no significant change in tone with any tested cap above that setting. I eliminated a few caps in pre-testing, the 1.0 cap ended up being nothing more than an off/on switch. At a tone setting of zero there was no signal to the amp, great if you want a mute switch, settings above that were deep and dark but resulted in very little tone change regardless of the setting. I eliminated the caps with values less than .022uf because they seemed to have very little impact on tone, it was nearly the equivalent of hardwiring the pups to the output jack.

The caps that were tested were .1, .082, .068, .047 and .022 (my apologies to those of you who use commas in place of decimal points, I'm sticking to the American standard on this one).

Findings were different than I anticipated but did highlight a huge interplay between the volume and tone knobs. Some of the caps that sounded best at a given volume were completely unuseable at other volumes. And louder is better doesn't always hold true.

Findings:

.1uf cap - tone on zero gives super loud deep lows even at volume settings as low as 4, thunderous at a volume of 6, destructive at 8, then at a volume of 9 the upper mids mix in and you better have hearing protection and a spare set of speakers for your cab. Increasing the tone cap setting drastically increases mids. On this bass this is the cap to use if all you want is lows and low mids and don't mind leaving the tone pot on zero and the volume at 5 or less. Truly makes a one trick pony (or wrecking ball) out of the Goth. Bottom line - "nuke em from orbit"

.082uf cap - smooth, deep and dark, nice low mids BUT very little adjustability. A tone knob setting of zero requires a volume knob setting of 8 to get any useable level of sound, and at a volume setting of 9 or higher it sounds very harsh and unpleasant (my notes actually say "yuck"). This is the cap that I thought would sound best, so much for confirmation bias. Kick the tone knob up to 5 and you have nice smooth useable lows starting at a volume setting of 4 to 6. At a volume of 8 the high mids start to kick in and quickly ruin the party. Bottom line - not ready for prime time.

.068uf cap - this is what the Goth comes stock with. Unfortunately my stock cap got fried in the desolder so I had to wire a couple of orange caps together for a .069uf value, close enough. Good deep tone, a bit muddy at the low tone settings and moving to more mid focused as the tone pot value is increased. Loud and boomy at volume settings of 9 or higher. Sweet spot on the volume knob is between 4 and 8. Below that and not enough useable volume, above that it's boomy and undefined. Bottom line - ok but could be a lot better.

.047uf cap - I found this one surprising. At zero tone it's much to quiet until you get the volume knob up to about 7 or 8. At that point it sounds great, but then takes a massive volume jump when the volume knob hits 9 and sounds harsh as it's maxed. The good news is it takes on a different personality when the tone knob is set at 3. Sounds very nice and balanced, smooth, deep but defined at volumes of 2 to 8 very linear and predictable, then falls apart again at a volume of 9 or higher when an upper mid hump sets in. If the tone knob is set at 5 the mids kick in much sooner and sound nice until you hit a volume setting of 8 or higher. Bottom line - I could live with this one. Lots of useable tones once you get off the zero tone setting.

.022uf cap - not what I expected at all. At zero tone setting it was very smooth and balanced across all strings. At a tone setting of 3 it had very musical lows and low mids, very useable tone at volumes of 3 or higher. At a volume of 9 still quite nice. Volume maxed at 10 brought out the yuck factor with an almost overdriven distortion boomy obnoxious sound. But again, a picture perfect sound from volume settings of 3 to 8 and tone settings of zero to max. bottom line - this is the keeper cap of the bunch for the 500K pots. Will be interesting to see how it works with the 250K pots.

And there you have it (well, half of it, the other half will happen when the 250k tone pot arrives).
TB rules, pic or it didn't happen...
View attachment 4000421

I completed the 250K pot and cap tests today.

Without going into a ton of info and raw data, I can say generally speaking, the 250K pots were in fact darker sounding than the 500K pots and about the same volume, but also had a bit of a scooped sound with a number of the caps. The results from the first Cap test (using 500k pots) pretty much repeated, just a tad deeper and darker this time around. The best sounding cap for the 250K tone pot was the .047uf cap. My overall opinion on the 250K pots regardless of the cap being used was a bit of concern about it getting lost in the mix due to lack of mids and increased lows.

To my ears the Stock Goth 500K volume pots had a much more useable range. The stock 500K tone pot however is an Audio pot and didn't seem to perform as well as a 500K linear pot. The linear pot behaved more predictably than the Audio pot. As noted on the previous test, the cap that worked best for me on the 500k pot was the .022uf cap.

With the test complete I disconnected the test rig, and moved on to permanently wiring the control cavity. The stock tone pot was removed and replaced with a linear one, the stock .068uf tone cap was also removed and replaced with a .022uf cap.

These minor changes transformed my nice (but relatively sedate) sounding Goth into an absolute killer Goth on steroids. Tons of creamy smooth bottom end and low mids, smooth and balanced mids for cutting through the mix, and a bit more upper mids and highs if desired by rolling the tone knob up. Volume levels increased beyond drastically and the bass now plays very authoritatively in a loud mix with the volume knob as low as 2 or 3 regardless of the tone setting (previously I had to run the stock Goth volume at 8 if the tone knob was on zero). This isn't the gritty agressive sound of the VP it's a smoother more traditional bass tone, a bit more low and low mid focused than the VP, more in line with a modern Gibson thunderbird sound except volume levels on tap that allow you to use every bit of the tone knob. Very musical, piano type clarity and tone range.

All in all, an easy mod, well worth the time and highly recommended to other Goth owners that want to get more out of their bass. I'll post a pic of the control cavity later today.

PS - the modified Hipshot Supertone bridge is still holding rock steady.

 

[Larry V]

I always love a great story, especially with a happy ending.

Hey now and AHEM!

 

[KaraQ]

Of course, that's with the DRs on it, still. Not yet been brave enough to try a set of Roto 77s...

Finally put the flats on the GBP - but instead of standard tuning, I robbed my Pro V of its strings and went with BEAD. (I would make a comment about the G-string, but I'm sure you guys know how that would work out )
Really loving the way the 77's sound with these pickups, surprisingly a lot better than on the Pro V

...but with the increased tension of these strings, and the prior trouble I had from the bridge inserts (and the problems @GBassNorth has had...), I was pretty nervous tightening the strings. Especially the D string.
I just kept expecting to hear that "pop"...

But, so far, so good?

 

[PillO]

Finally put the flats on the GBP - but instead of standard tuning, I robbed my Pro V of its strings and went with BEAD. (I would make a comment about the G-string, but I'm sure you guys know how that would work out )
Really loving the way the 77's sound with these pickups, surprisingly a lot better than on the Pro V

...but with the increased tension of these strings, and the prior trouble I had from the bridge inserts (and the problems @GBassNorth has had...), I was pretty nervous tightening the strings. Especially the D string.
I just kept expecting to hear that "pop"...

But, so far, so good?

View attachment 4012915

I have been debating with myself for several weeks. "How useful is BEAD tuning?" I have a bass tuned BEAD. And then I tuned one to DGCF.

I am finding that the bulk of the songs that I want to play with lower than standard tuning are in Drop D. So D standard may be the more useful tuning to me. And D standard doesn't require me do lots of thinking about where the notes are. So I question if I need a BEAD bass.

 

[KaraQ]

I have been debating with myself for several weeks. "How useful is BEAD tuning?" I have a bass tuned BEAD. And then I tuned one to DGCF.

I am finding that the bulk of the songs that I want to play with lower than standard tuning are in Drop D. So D standard may be the more useful tuning to me. And D standard doesn't require me do lots of thinking about where the notes are. So I question if I need a BEAD bass.

I'm the same, just a couple of steps behind
Figured I'd give it a go; partly because I like the extra lows of a 5-string, but not really the extra fretboard width.

But I also came to realize, I really have essentially no use for the 5 highest notes on the G-string.

And, at least in theory, if I need any of the higher tunings, I could use a capo, I suppose. But that would really only matter for open notes, imo.

I'll see how I like it; if I don't, since I used the 5-string set, I can just pull the B, shift the other three, and add the G back in. Won't have to change to a complete set of different strings.

 

[dagrev]

I completed the 250K pot and cap tests today.

Without going into a ton of info and raw data, I can say generally speaking, the 250K pots were in fact darker sounding than the 500K pots and about the same volume, but also had a bit of a scooped sound with a number of the caps. The results from the first Cap test (using 500k pots) pretty much repeated, just a tad deeper and darker this time around. The best sounding cap for the 250K tone pot was the .047uf cap. My overall opinion on the 250K pots regardless of the cap being used was a bit of concern about it getting lost in the mix due to lack of mids and increased lows.

To my ears the Stock Goth 500K volume pots had a much more useable range. The stock 500K tone pot however is an Audio pot and didn't seem to perform as well as a 500K linear pot. The linear pot behaved more predictably than the Audio pot. As noted on the previous test, the cap that worked best for me on the 500k pot was the .022uf cap.

With the test complete I disconnected the test rig, and moved on to permanently wiring the control cavity. The stock tone pot was removed and replaced with a linear one, the stock .068uf tone cap was also removed and replaced with a .022uf cap.

These minor changes transformed my nice (but relatively sedate) sounding Goth into an absolute killer Goth on steroids. Tons of creamy smooth bottom end and low mids, smooth and balanced mids for cutting through the mix, and a bit more upper mids and highs if desired by rolling the tone knob up. Volume levels increased beyond drastically and the bass now plays very authoritatively in a loud mix with the volume knob as low as 2 or 3 regardless of the tone setting (previously I had to run the stock Goth volume at 8 if the tone knob was on zero). This isn't the gritty agressive sound of the VP it's a smoother more traditional bass tone, a bit more low and low mid focused than the VP, more in line with a modern Gibson thunderbird sound except volume levels on tap that allow you to use every bit of the tone knob. Very musical, piano type clarity and tone range.

All in all, an easy mod, well worth the time and highly recommended to other Goth owners that want to get more out of their bass. I'll post a pic of the control cavity later today.

PS - the modified Hipshot Supertone bridge is still holding rock steady.

Really good info! Thanks for doing the test and posting results. Now I'm wondering if different pots might be a distant consideration on the '06. But I will say I find the tone knob on it as useful as on any bass except my '58 Pbass.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

Finally put the flats on the GBP - but instead of standard tuning, I robbed my Pro V of its strings and went with BEAD. (I would make a comment about the G-string, but I'm sure you guys know how that would work out )
Really loving the way the 77's sound with these pickups, surprisingly a lot better than on the Pro V

...but with the increased tension of these strings, and the prior trouble I had from the bridge inserts (and the problems @GBassNorth has had...), I was pretty nervous tightening the strings. Especially the D string.
I just kept expecting to hear that "pop"...

But, so far, so good?

View attachment 4012915

The Cobalt flats from my Pro V are awaiting the same fate! Still haven’t gotten the nut filed on the BO for BEAD.