The Last Bass Outpost

I also posted this in Bill's repair section but figured some of you Gibson experts here may have heard of this before and may have a solution.

Anyone here good with Thunderbird wiring? This is a year old NR T-Bird. I'm getting 60 cycle hum when I have both volumes below full with it in an amp I use at a weekly gig, it's not the amp as other basses don't do it there. I'm in Lima, Peru.

The power out here is 220 with one hot wire and a neutral, no grounds.

This one bass also will do it at home with Ampegs but reversing the plug solves the problem with them and none of my other basses hum here with both volumes below full on. I'm pretty sure it's something internal as diming both volumes increases any buzz pickup but eliminates the hum. No bass out of 6 I have here does this besides this T-Bird. The bass sounds great and both pickups sound normal. Any tips appreciated. This is with the same cord, I frequently play a Jazz at this club, also a Fender P/J with both volumes down too and no hum at all.
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Long time no post, how you doing everyone, especially Dave? I have a question. I bought a 1970 EB3-L last year and warned the mor.....er seller to please be careful shipping it as the headstocks tend to go flying off if not packed well during shipping, of course all he did was wrap the headstock in one single piece of bubble wrap which did nothing and it came clean off during shipping. I'm in the Boston area when I'm back in the states and would like to have this thing fixed by a luthier who knows Gibsons and can do a good enough job that it won't be noticeable. It broke in two clean pieces. I've gotten some recommendations here before but forget them. I see that when I went to put the subject in I may have already asked this, if so apologies.

How do I post a photo here? I chose the file and it's a jpeg and in attach I don't think it's a huge file but it won't attach.

I wired my EB-3 back to stock the other day. I had clipped the choke where it goes onto the Varitone switch taking it out of the circuit. I had done that thinking that when I used both pickups there wasn't enough bottom but I started thinking that most of them years ago were stock and they sounded good so it must be me, which it was! haha! I think the thing sounds great stock now and the pickups blend better although the bridge pickup still completely blanks out the neck mudbucker past about 8 or 9 on the knob. You would think it would be the other way around wouldn't you? I think part of the reason I get more bottom out of the pickup blend with the choke back in is that I put some La Bella Deep Talkin' flats on it. Anyone here have a similar experience to mine?

Anyone here know what i can use for the felt for a bass mute? I bought a 66 EB-2 last week and just bought a mute for it with no felt, anyone have any tips on what to do for a mute?
Also does anyone know what type of screws hold it into the body? The holes are pretty small.

My output VR3 won't balance,the tubes bias up nice and they're brand new Russian Tungsols. I can also only get about 15 V out rather than the 25 you're supposed to get. I've checked just about all the resistors and caps and everything seems good including the VR3 pot. I'm following the procedure correctly using a voltmeter across VR1 and VR2 with a 40 hz signal into a 4 ohm load, I just did my other head and it came out nice, 25 V out and balanced to 0V. With a voltmeter in the VR1 bias checkpoint to ground as the applied signal goes up so does the bias from 72 mv as it's supposed to, the other side VR2 stays right at 72 mv now matter how much signal that side gets which is obviously why it won't balance. I've checked most of the voltages and they seem in the ball park, so anyway I'm stumped for now anyway, any ideas Psycho? (or anyone else?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkKeZ1z8zGk&feature=feedlik

It looks kind of like an EB-2 with a Fender neck on it but the knobs are wrong and maybe the headstock. It certainly doesn't sound like an EB-2 though.

I thought this is what they should have done all along:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=28857666&blogId=490220164

He's the guitarist who wrote all the music on Raw Power and pretty much invented that style of guitar playing love or hate it.

No pic yet but i may be forced to sell my slothead EB-3, the serial number says it's a 69 but the guy who I bought it from said it was a 71. The neck is straight, truss rod works well although it is tight, frets are very good, cover over tailpiece is missing, the finish is decent, it has a small amount of buckle rash but is not real visible unless you look at it, has various dings but nothing that really sticks out, this color hides imperfections well. I did the mod which opens up the big humbucker's sound and also makes the bridge pickup louder which are simple reversible mods and are detailed in this forum. It has the original case which is fair, the action on the bass is good and there is room to go lower on the bridge. It currently has Chromes on it and sounds good. The reason I say maybe is because I really don't want to sell it but may have to. So if anyone is interested drop me a note or e-mail me, I'll get some pictures together.