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Messages - vates

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16
Gibson Basses / Re: Bassbuckers. Again
« on: September 18, 2015, 04:19:21 AM »
Thanks! I know that pickup. Not exactly the sound (and looks) I'm after.

17
Gibson Basses / Re: Bassbuckers. Again
« on: September 18, 2015, 12:35:46 AM »
Wow! That's a thorough and very helpful advice. Thanks!

18
Gibson Basses / Re: Bassbuckers. Again
« on: September 18, 2015, 12:09:27 AM »
Thank you, Dave!

I think there must be more options out there, I'll keep looking.


19
Gibson Basses / Re: Bassbuckers. Again
« on: September 17, 2015, 02:36:09 PM »
The guts are completely encased in epoxy, so that's not really an option. I would find a replacement you like, then sell the TB+ pups. There are a lot of options, though I don't know who uses ceramic magnets and who doesn't. Rio Grande has one called the Pitbull that's basically 2 P Bass (original style) single coils in a humbucker chrome housing.

Thank you for your advice!  Rio Grande is not a cheap alternative but at least it is readily available compared to Fralins. I'll try to snatch the pitbull ;)

Are there any other options?

20
Gibson Basses / Bassbuckers. Again
« on: September 17, 2015, 05:08:03 AM »
Haven't been here for a long time (almost 2yrs).
Hope everyone's doing well. I missed some of you, dear friends :)

So let me get to the point.
My Les Paul DC bass has almost no use recently. How come?
There was something in its tone that bothered me a lot. I didn't understand what exactly.
But then I realized it by comparing my observations of another basses (Ps, Js, Spectors, G&Ls, EBMM etc.).
There's some thing I really hate in how ceramic pickups sound. All such pickups have some kind of hiss and harshness that langsam aber sicher drive me crazy.
So the last one in my stable with ceramics is my Gibson. Either I'll figure out how to fix it or else I'm going to sell it.
Which I really don't want to because this is my only Gibson bass... and most probably I won't buy another one soon (I'm pretty much loaded)... and because I really like how it plays and feels... and because it matches so nice with my Gibson electric and acoustic guitars...  d'oh!

I know that there were AlNiCo replacements - Bassbuckers by Lindy Fralin. Though I can't find them anywhere.
Were they any good? How can one find them now?
Are there any other direct drop-in alternatives?

Would be much grateful for your inputs.


Cheers,
Serge

21
Gibson Basses / Re: The placing of Thunderbird II pickup
« on: July 16, 2013, 09:08:45 AM »
Thank you all for your suggestions! Other issues like woods, pickup type, finish etc. will be disclosed in a dedicated build thread.

Here I wanted to get the exact figure for the neck pickup position of '64 TBird II.

The most valuable info was provided already on the first page:

3 1/4" from the fretboard to the side of the neck pup on the sixties ones, 3" on the Bicentennials, 2 1/2" on the post 87 ones. It crept forward over time.
One reason I am not a big fan of the modern Thunderbird is the neck pickup placement. 3 1/4" from the base of the neck to the front edge of the pickup is the optimum location at least for me.
VoilĂ , from the 20th fret to the front edge of the neck pup in metric:
 Sixties bird: 9,5 cm
Bicentennial: 9,0 cm
Post-87 Bird: 7,8 cm
On both of my 64s (a II and a IV): from the center of the 12th fret to the centerline of the pickup, 10 7/8" (277mm).
The centerline of the 12th fret wire.






The picture of the non-rev bird with different figures just confused everything.


22
Gibson Basses / Re: The placing of Thunderbird II pickup
« on: July 16, 2013, 04:05:19 AM »
If you want to pick nits look at it again. If the front edge of the pickup is at 10" and the back edge is at 11 1/2" the centerline must be 10 3/4 or it is not the center line, it is the off-center line ;D

You're right. All those measures don't correspond to each other. For example, pickups' widths are different, and their centerlines are all over the place. Gonna forget about this picture and stick to the initial data :)

23
Gibson Basses / Re: The placing of Thunderbird II pickup
« on: July 16, 2013, 03:46:21 AM »
AFAIK, Gibson misaligned the bridge on T-Birds due to the bad engineering of the bridge design: they did not take into account the mutes (maybe that bridge was designed without mutes and then thy added mutes due to marketing reasons: I've encountered different interpretations). So they had to move the bridge a little bit further on the final blueprints.
On the other hand, the calculation of the fretboard's part of the scale were consistent: so the position of the 12th fret should be stable on all T-Birds, rev. or non-rev.

And the only thing that matters in terms of sound is the position of a pickup in relation to the scale. So we should look at the scale's constant, 12th fret. What's wrong with that?

24
Gibson Basses / Re: The placing of Thunderbird II pickup
« on: July 16, 2013, 02:41:30 AM »
This particular measure is from a presumably stable 12th-fret. It is a constant that does not relate to bridge re-positioning and fretboard ends' cuts. Perhaps, Gibson moved the neck pickup closer to the well neck on NRs. That is possible, because on later reverse birds it crawled even further north. However, this comment somewhat ruins such hypothesis:
Quote from: vates on July 15, 2013, 06:03:39 AM
Uwe, could you please check if the placing on your reverse-Tbird II is similar to the scheme above?



It is. Exakt dasselbe.

25
Gibson Basses / Re: The placing of Thunderbird II pickup
« on: July 15, 2013, 03:12:17 PM »
Now that is strange. According to your previous calculations:
On both of my 64s (a II and a IV): from the center of the 12th fret to the centerline of the pickup, 10 7/8" (277mm).

276.22500 mm

The centerline of the 12th fret wire.

And the scheme above shows that there are 10 11/16 inches (271.4625 mm) from the 12th fret to the centerline of the neck pickup.
That is a difference of 4.7625 mm. And it is the latter that made me to renew this thread (after I found that picture and compared it to results of my previous insvestigation)



26
Gibson Basses / Re: The placing of Thunderbird II pickup
« on: July 15, 2013, 05:03:39 AM »
Uwe, could you please check if the placing on your reverse-Tbird II is similar to the scheme above? You've already replied in this topic, so just to make everything clear. Thank you


27
Gibson Basses / Re: The placing of Thunderbird II pickup
« on: July 09, 2013, 05:43:40 AM »
Well, I browsed through this forum (a lot) and found this measures' picture of an original NR TBIV (see attached).

Could someone please verify if the neck pickup position of an NR is identical to reverse IV? (and presumably the neck pickup of the latter is in the same position of the TB-II...)

Or maybe there is a similar picture of a reverse '64 TBird and I've missed it: so please point me in the right direction.

I just want to make everything right  ;D

Thanks!

28
Gibson Basses / Re: Thunderbird pickup dilemma
« on: July 08, 2013, 04:23:15 PM »
Thanks! It's a fun to communicate on two forums simultaneously :)

29
Gibson Basses / Re: Thunderbird pickup dilemma
« on: July 08, 2013, 03:59:22 PM »
Are these somehow different to regular Hipshot HB6 3/8'' Ultralite Tuners? Is it a new product?

30
Gibson Basses / Re: Thunderbird pickup dilemma
« on: July 08, 2013, 02:57:42 PM »
I've found this statement:
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/thunderbird-club-pt-5-a-923476/index22.html#post13612356

So they will fit the pre-modern TB headstocks. With newer 'birds there's only Ultralites way :)

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