Tacoma Thunderchief Pickup/Preamp problem

Russell Decker

Russell Decker

Mar 1, 2017
6
0
4,551
#1
I recently bought a used Tacoma CB10 Thunderchief Acoustic Electric Bass Guitar and noticed that there is a lot of distortion on some notes when I 'plug in'. Does anyone know if I can just bypass the on board LR Baggs pre-amp by going directly from the pickup underneath the bridge saddle into 1/4" end plug input? I have two other off-board preamps that I would like to use. I think the LR Baggs preamp on the guitar is bad, but have no idea how to test it.

One other thing....the string height toward the bridge is quite high. It seems to me that the bridge saddle could be shaved down to bring the action of the strings down to a more comfortable playing experience, but I am not sure how high (or low) the strings should be above the fretboard.

Thanks,

Russell Decker
 
#2
Piezos need a preamp to properly eq things or you get that harsh "quackey" sound.
 
#3
bholder said:
Piezos need a preamp to properly eq things or you get that harsh "quackey" sound.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I was thinking about bypassing the on board LR Baggs preamp that came installed on the bass, and routing the piezo pickup leads directly to the plug in making it a 'passive' system. I have two preamps, one, a ParaAcoustic D.I. made by LR Baggs, and a EDB-2 Pre-amp made by Headway. Will this power up the piezo okay, so I will not be using the onboard LR Baggs?
 
#4
Russell Decker said:
Thanks. I was thinking about bypassing the on board LR Baggs preamp that came installed on the bass, and routing the piezo pickup leads directly to the plug in making it a 'passive' system. I have two preamps, one, a ParaAcoustic D.I. made by LR Baggs, and a EDB-2 Pre-amp made by Headway. Will this power up the piezo okay, so I will not be using the onboard LR Baggs?
Click to expand...
I can't really say either way, are either of those external preamps tuned for piezos? Probably couldn't hurt to try (though it takes some effort, everything should be reversible, I would think.)

How sure are you that the preamp is the problem? Maybe it's the pickup itself, I'm not sure how do to problem isolation other than to give it a try and see if bypassing avoids the noise (useful experiment even if the resulting sound isn't good, at least tells you which piece has gone bad).
 
#5
bholder said:
I can't really say either way, are either of those external preamps tuned for piezos? Probably couldn't hurt to try (though it takes some effort, everything should be reversible, I would think.)

How sure are you that the preamp is the problem? Maybe it's the pickup itself, I'm not sure how do to problem isolation other than to give it a try and see if bypassing avoids the noise (useful experiment even if the resulting sound isn't good, at least tells you which piece has gone bad).
Click to expand...
I wish I knew how to troubleshoot this sort of thing.
 
#8
Russell Decker said:
Yes, that was the first thing I did after buying this instrument!
Click to expand...

Well...dang. The way those preamps are installed on the pop-out it could be difficult to swap one unless it was a matching model, and even that may not be it if the pickup itself is wonky. Have you tried reaching out to LR Baggs themselves, to see if they have any troubleshooting steps you could attempt? Worth a phone call.

Good luck, and let us know what you come up with for a solution. I have a CB10 too, so I'm always watching out for info like this, considering there's no manufacturer to back them up any more....sadly.
 
#9
Russell Decker said:
I recently bought a used Tacoma CB10 Thunderchief Acoustic Electric Bass Guitar and noticed that there is a lot of distortion on some notes when I 'plug in'. Does anyone know if I can just bypass the on board LR Baggs pre-amp by going directly from the pickup underneath the bridge saddle into 1/4" end plug input? I have two other off-board preamps that I would like to use. I think the LR Baggs preamp on the guitar is bad, but have no idea how to test it.

One other thing....the string height toward the bridge is quite high. It seems to me that the bridge saddle could be shaved down to bring the action of the strings down to a more comfortable playing experience, but I am not sure how high (or low) the strings should be above the fretboard.

Thanks,

Russell Decker
Click to expand...


Well, after removing the on board pre-amp, then trying to connect the piezo pickup wires directly to the end plug.....lots of hum. So, It looks like all of that is going to be removed, then the quest of a replacement begins. I am hoping I can find something that can replace the existing system, or cover it so it doesn't look like an 8 yr old did the work.
 
#10
Russell Decker said:
Well, after removing the on board pre-amp, then trying to connect the piezo pickup wires directly to the end plug.....lots of hum. So, It looks like all of that is going to be removed, then the quest of a replacement begins.
Click to expand...
uh, i'd just stop right there and take it all in to somebody that knows what they're doing; this could all be something that's easily fixed.

that person should also know how to get the action right as well.

those tacoma basses were amazing sounding, i've never heard an acoustically louder ABG. it would really be worth getting fixed by a pro.
 
#11
walterw said:
uh, i'd just stop right there and take it all in to somebody that knows what they're doing; this could all be something that's easily fixed.

that person should also know how to get the action right as well.

those tacoma basses were amazing sounding, i've never heard an acoustically louder ABG. it would really be worth getting fixed by a pro.
Click to expand...


Well, I have been back and forth from the guys at LR Baggs. There is not much that can be done at this point with the existing LR Baggs electronics. So, my plan is to put a new piezo pick up in as a replacement to the original, but instead of making it an 'active' system, I will explore a 'passive' one like the passive system I installed on my Gibson SJ-200 taht works pretty well. So, on to Monday, and hoping to hear back from the folks at LR Baggs.
 
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