john_kidder
Senior Member
New 12AX7s throughout, and WE HAVE A WINNER!
Clean, loud, great tone, great tonal range. One new tube was quite microphonic, started to howl after about fifeen minutes, now replaced and the noice is gone. More (pre-amp?) noise on CH2 than CH1, but not distracting. Seems very happy with either a P-90 (X-50) or EMG humbuckers (Nightbird). Speakers could be better - it's fatter through my 2x10 Guild/Hartke cab than through the original no-name 12" main. Reverb doesn't seem completely functional - it's there, but not as pronounced as I think it should be. Happy to get tips on renovating a reverb?
But overall I'm (finally) a happy camper.
When I get the other T-Bird back from the fired/defunct/dead tech who has it now, I'll get to play with it and learn something about these fascinating machines. The Thunderbass is running sparkling clean on the Bass channel, not so good on CH2; one T1-12 makes a whacking great thump with the tremolo, and I have a cabinet to build for Thunderbird 1. Fun, fun, fun, since Johnny got a T-Bird to play.
Clean, loud, great tone, great tonal range. One new tube was quite microphonic, started to howl after about fifeen minutes, now replaced and the noice is gone. More (pre-amp?) noise on CH2 than CH1, but not distracting. Seems very happy with either a P-90 (X-50) or EMG humbuckers (Nightbird). Speakers could be better - it's fatter through my 2x10 Guild/Hartke cab than through the original no-name 12" main. Reverb doesn't seem completely functional - it's there, but not as pronounced as I think it should be. Happy to get tips on renovating a reverb?
But overall I'm (finally) a happy camper.
When I get the other T-Bird back from the fired/defunct/dead tech who has it now, I'll get to play with it and learn something about these fascinating machines. The Thunderbass is running sparkling clean on the Bass channel, not so good on CH2; one T1-12 makes a whacking great thump with the tremolo, and I have a cabinet to build for Thunderbird 1. Fun, fun, fun, since Johnny got a T-Bird to play.