Thunderbird Pro Electronics

[Icarus_147]

Hi guys,

I'm looking at buying another bass in the next few weeks, and I played a Thunderbird Pro a couple of months back and loved it to bits. I'm going shopping again this week to try to properly make up my mind, but I can see myself walking away with the Thunderbird quite easily.

HOWEVER!

I have a bit of a concern. It's the active electronics. Now, all of the basses I've had have been passive, so I've never had to worry about batteries and such. Also, the most I've ever done to change my bass's hardware in any way is installing straplocks, so this is why I'm coming to you guys.

I saw a Warwick a while back, I forget which one, but it was primarily active, however it had a push-pull pot that switched it between active and passive modes. I'd be interested in installing something like this into the Thunderbird, if I were to get it, the problem is, I don't know how easy that would be to do. I have very little knowledge of electronics, so I don't know how costly this would be to do (If possible at all), and, naturally, I'd be looking at having someone do it for me because this doesn't seem like the kind of thing I should try to do myself without any previous experience.

Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated! If I wasn't particularly clear about anything just let me know and I'll try to explain what I was going on about.

Thanks!

[icastle]

It's perhaps a little fiddly to do but perfectly achievable if you have some basic soldering skills.

Personally, I'd recommend having a play with it in 'active' mode before going down the passive conversion route - it's not such a big deal really.
You just need to treat the tone controls a little more gently is all.

Batteries typically last for at least 6 months (and probably longer but I change mine every 6 months to make sure I'm never caught out) with 3 hours playing a day.

The biggest single point that people get caught out on is leaving the bass plugged in when it's not being used.
As soon as you push a jackplug into the bass the active circuitry switches on.
I reckon that's one of, if not [b]the[/b] biggest cause of 'battery in active bass' woes we see here on BassChat.

[Icarus_147]

Oh, wow, I had no idea they'd actually last that long. That's pretty helpful, thanks! I was thinking I'd be having to change batteries every month or so. [i]Really[/i] tempted to get the Thunderbird now...

[icastle]

Nah - the batteries last for ages unless you leave the bass plugged in, the socket has a defect or the electronics are screwed.

I've managed to track down some possibly useful diagrams - I can't grab the images off of the Gibson forum, but the first post in the thread below shows the wiring as it is (or should be!) from the factory.

The third post has a diagram showing how to fit a push pull switch to defeat the active electronics should you decide to go down that route anyway.

[url="http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/62347-thunderbird-pro-wiring-diagram/"]http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/62347-thunderbird-pro-wiring-diagram/[/url]

[Icarus_147]

Ah, that's excellent, thank you! It's probably not something I'd do just yet, but it would be nice to have all those tonal options I guess.

[neepheid]

The Epiphone Thunderbird Pro has a latched battery door, so even if the battery did die at an unfortunate moment it would be a snap to change. Just remember to carry a spare if you go gigging with an active bass.

Most of my early active basses require a screwdriver to take a cover off in order to change the battery, so you've got nothing to worry about. They hadn't fully thought it out at that time

[Icarus_147]

Yeah, I had noticed a few active basses with screw down covers. It did seem like a bit of a stupid idea, really.

[[email protected]]

It's not stupid at all... I've had one of those plastic latched doors break on me onstage and my battery fell out mid gig...Nightmare!
Nail that door shut I say, if not then gaffa it shut, I don't trust those plastic things.
Before performing, I give my 9v battery's a little lick if there getting on a bit, just to check if they still have enough zing in em!
Plus I get little extra buzzz before going on stage
if your going from passive to active basses or vice verser on stage then just remember to go in relevant inputs on the amp.
(-15db inputs for active)

[RhysP]

You might not be able to have the bass operate in passive mode - it depends on whether the pickups themselves are active or passive.
If the pickups are passive then you can do it as all you'd effectively be doing is switching the tone circuit off. If the pickups are active however you'd be switching it all off & you'd have no sound.

[icastle]

[quote name='[email protected]' timestamp='1334541499' post='1617426']
Before performing, I give my 9v battery's a little lick if there getting on a bit, just to check if they still have enough zing in em!
[/quote]

...which on an alkaline battery means nothing at all as their discharge characteristics are totally different from the manganese oxide batteries that this somewhat hit and miss test was used on...

Best bet is to change them regularly and always carry a spare - I write the date that the battery was last changed on the spare as a prompt.