If only T-40's came in 5 strings.

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kodiakblair
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Posts: 325
Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 6:05 pm
Location: Scotland

If only T-40's came in 5 strings.

Post by kodiakblair » Mon May 22, 2017 7:03 pm

Over the years I've heard this said,even saw a couple of examples :shock:

One of the finest examples was the work of former Peavey engineer Ronnie Goss. It was never really a thing I gave much thought to,a fella in Wales had one and Ronnie warned me "if you play it,you'll end up buying it :D ". Time was against me that trip to Wales.

Last week a T-40 went on sale here in Scotland and a previous owner had made an attempt at converting to 5 strings. Not a very good attempt and the bass was priced to reflect that. I had a choice either part it out :evil: or finish the job :)

Following advice from Ronnie I opted to finish the job. Bar a couple of points it's a fairly straightforward process. The nut needs swapped and the saddles replaced for singles. A fair bit of filing is required for better action and string spacing. String spacing is 16mm,it's 16.5mm on my Foundation 5,TL-5 and Axcelerator 5 so I don't have a problem missing .5mm :)

Before intonation was set
T405.jpg
T405.jpg (982.12 KiB) Viewed 3722 times
And next to it's brothers
Triplets2.jpg
Triplets2.jpg (606.55 KiB) Viewed 3722 times
Missing knob should be here by end of the week. 8)
Axcelerator,B-90,B-Quad,Cirrus,Dyna,Dyna/Unity,Foundations,Forum,Fury,Gbass,Grind,International,midibase,Milestone III, Millenniums,Patriot,Resolite,RJ-IV,Sarzo,3 T40,T45,T20,TL-5,Tragic,Unity,Void,Zephyr5,3 Zodiac.

captainkfam
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Re: If only T-40's came in 5 strings.

Post by captainkfam » Mon Jun 19, 2017 5:54 am

Nice collection! If you ever decide to sell one of those 4 string T-40s, let me know. I'm in Scotland.

kodiakblair
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Posts: 325
Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 6:05 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: If only T-40's came in 5 strings.

Post by kodiakblair » Mon Jun 19, 2017 2:41 pm

@captainkfam

Can't see me selling any for a long time but if I hear of one for sale you'll get a PM.
If you've linked your email to your account here I'll send it that way,You'll get it faster.
Axcelerator,B-90,B-Quad,Cirrus,Dyna,Dyna/Unity,Foundations,Forum,Fury,Gbass,Grind,International,midibase,Milestone III, Millenniums,Patriot,Resolite,RJ-IV,Sarzo,3 T40,T45,T20,TL-5,Tragic,Unity,Void,Zephyr5,3 Zodiac.

captainkfam
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Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2017 5:50 am

Re: If only T-40's came in 5 strings.

Post by captainkfam » Tue Jun 20, 2017 8:49 am

@kodiakblair

That would be greatly appreciated. Any private messages will forward to my email now that I've adjusted the settings. Cheers!

Layton84
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Joined: Tue Jun 27, 2017 8:30 pm

Re: If only T-40's came in 5 strings.

Post by Layton84 » Wed Jun 28, 2017 6:10 pm

I just bought a t40 that is in pretty rough shape, it is missing some of the string settings for the bridge, which I can't seem to find without buying an entire bridge at around 50 bucks, I noticed you used single string settings on your 5 string mod, wondering if you could shoot a close up of the bridge so I can see how you did it. Also wondering if the machine heads holes are compatible with standard size bass machine heads. I know this has nothing to do with your original post, just hoping for some pointers as I attempt to restore this bass.

kodiakblair
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Posts: 325
Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 6:05 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: If only T-40's came in 5 strings.

Post by kodiakblair » Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:52 pm

Hi @Layton84

Let's see what we can do to get your 40 playing :D Here's a close up of the single saddles fixed to the bridge base plate.
T40_5 bridge 2.jpg
T40_5 bridge 2.jpg (3.35 MiB) Viewed 3609 times
As I was using 5 saddles it meant string through body wasn't an option but my Grind 5 has mono saddles and it's through body strung so I'm certain there's saddles come with 3 holes. 2 fixing holes and 1 for string.

The winding shaft of the tuners is just over 1/2" so look for something close. Easier to bore the hole wider.
Axcelerator,B-90,B-Quad,Cirrus,Dyna,Dyna/Unity,Foundations,Forum,Fury,Gbass,Grind,International,midibase,Milestone III, Millenniums,Patriot,Resolite,RJ-IV,Sarzo,3 T40,T45,T20,TL-5,Tragic,Unity,Void,Zephyr5,3 Zodiac.

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