Power transformer replacement for Thunderbird

mavuser

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that is the old Tbird amp with the Jensens and the 7591s.

not the script logo and not the same "silverface" like the thunderstar/superstar/later Tbird w 6L6, that all match each other. this should be the older (first) one (even if it uses the same tubes as Thrunderstar)
 

mavuser

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here is a Maverick schematic
 

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As it turns out EVH did in fact triumph over Jimi and while my wife may be thrilled I am just amazed......The finals are Jimmy Page versus EVH but I have a pretty good idea how that vote will go given todays ballots. I now take refuge in one of Jimi's greatest gifts to us, Live at Berkeley, and drink in a spectacular eleven minute Voodoo Child, on vinyl.
I was able to locate a part number on the pt and confirmed the number on the Thunderbird/Superstar schematic, # 007021. Here are some pics of both chassis.
Call me a romantic but the wiring in the preamp is pure artwork.
 

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fronobulax

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As it turns out EVH did in fact triumph over Jimi and while my wife may be thrilled I am just amazed......The finals are Jimmy Page versus EVH but I have a pretty good idea how that vote will go given todays ballots.

<veer>
Picking 32 or 64 items and having them face off in a single elimination tournament is a popular way to generate interest in whatever the items are or in the entity hosting the tournament. So there are lots of them and they have no meaning beyond what promoters and participants give them.

In that spirit there was once a bracket that pitted local breweries against each other. As a consumer of local beers various breweries were telling me about the contest and asking for my support. In the second round a brewery I very much like was pitted against one I loathed. The voting rules were lax - you could vote often but votes from the same IP address had to be about an hour apart. My brewery was losing so I wrote something that would submit a vote every hour. It worked but someone else was doing the same thing so my brewery was not winning. I enlisted the help of a couple of friends. One friend, who had similar opinions on the breweries decided to leverage the technologies he knew best and the end result was a series of bots hosted in the Amazon Cloud that generated about 100 votes per hour and could scale to produce more if needed. Our brewery won by about 30,000 to 10,000 which I attribute to my friend being a better technologist than whoever was supporting the losing brewery. We continued to support our brewery until it won the bracket, although we scaled the bots back so the results were closer. What was interesting was that the 40K total votes in one round were greater than the sum of all of the other votes.

So I tend not to invest anything based upon the results of online brackets and my understanding of the relative merits of Jimmy Page and EVH will remain unchanged.

:)

Here endeth the Veer

P.S. - Since then I have moved and the loathed brewery is one of two breweries within walking distance. They are not the best beer in town but my opinion has softened and they do have an oatmeal stout and a Belgian Tripel that I will draw me in when they are on tap.

</veer>
 

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Seeing as how this is a tech thread and veering is not helpful at all in this context.



That is a voltage doubler in the power supply, so be careful what transformer you sub in there. If you put in a standard Fender transformer, you may end up with 600 volts or more in the b+. That would be catastrophic...
 
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Thank you for the warning, I will proceed accordingly.
Regards,
Johnny
 

Rambozo96

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I feel your pain!
Eddie VH was a natural guitar player and his style set the standard for the 80's which I enjoyed greatly and I didn't associate his playing as that of the "hair band" genre inspite of Diamond Dave's antics.

Jimi was, as Jack Bruce said "a force of nature"! His musical output in such a short four years of time was equal to or exceeded the Beatles and established a synergy between his hands, guitar, amp, songwriting, technique and musicality that still amazes guitarist to this day.

Nothing against EVH as I listen to his music often but James Marshall Hendrix's is the Blues/Rock master to this day and for decades to come! (IMHO)
M
Diamond Dave was a carbon copy of Jim Dandy Mangrum. Even Dave admitted to that.
 
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As it turns out EVH did in fact triumph over Jimi and while my wife may be thrilled I am just amazed......The finals are Jimmy Page versus EVH but I have a pretty good idea how that vote will go given todays ballots. I now take refuge in one of Jimi's greatest gifts to us, Live at Berkeley, and drink in a spectacular eleven minute Voodoo Child, on vinyl.
I was able to locate a part number on the pt and confirmed the number on the Thunderbird/Superstar schematic, # 007021. Here are some pics of both chassis.
Call me a romantic but the wiring in the preamp is pure artwork.
I’m working on repairing a similar Thunderbird. Did you do the recap and grounded plug install? Curious about the wiring of the plug and the death cap removal. I think I found the death cap but not sure. Looking at your grounded plug install, did you have to do anything to bypass the polarity switch built into the power switch? I’m a bit lost on that because of this split design.
 

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Hot on the three prong plug goes first to the fuse, then to the power switch. Polarity switch is bypassed completely. It's not used for anything but cosmetics and screwing with people.
 

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Death cap is connected to one of the 120volt leads from the power cord. Cut that out completely.
 
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Death cap is connected to one of the 120volt leads from the power cord. Cut that out completely.
Thanks much. Will do. I highlighted the suspected cap below. After I cut that out and rewire the lead from the grounded plug I should be good to go? I wasn’t sure if I had to do any rewiring of the plug connector that goes from the preamp to power section or any rewiring of the power/polarity switch since they are on the preamp section and the death cap & cord are on the power section. For reference I have a 69 or 70 Thunderbird 3rd revision with 2x12” Jensons and 2x 6l6 power tubes.
 

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Yes, you can get rid of that cap. I would check to see if there is a ground connection between the upper and lower chassis. if there isn't, the grounded plug won't help. I would run a 18 gauge wire connecting the upper chassis to the lower chassis if there isn't.
 

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Don't want to hijack - but - similar question. I have a 66/67 Thunderbird (1x12, 1x8). I moved to Europe, and would like to replace the transformer. I have the schematics, but, I'm no pro at reading them. Is there anybody here willing to point me to what I need to buy? My email is cabell64@gmail.com... I'll send you the schematics.

Thanks.

PS - here's my cabinet rebuild project..
 

Nuuska

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Hello from Finland

If you moved to Europe to stay - then replacing mains x-former could be best solution - and they can be easy to get - like https://www.tme.eu/fi/ - just select your country and language at upper right corner.

Just pm me the schematics - and I'll try my best to help.

If you plan only to stay for an year or so and return to US - then you might wanna try a 230-115V stepdown transformer.
 
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