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NGD - Traditional Pro II. And a question...


Chris Blaze

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pwrmac7600,

 

Yup, I gave the Gibson rep my serial number over the phone and he followed up with an e-mail; he told me a burstbucker 3 in each case. I would blame both Gibson and Guitar Center for not having the proper specifications prior to the time of sale. Also, I recognize that you are not trying to coerce me into making the swap, you have expressed that you have had a similar premonition as me when it came to what you were told you had vs. what you actually had. I will go back to GC tomorrow and will see about swapping, I may take you up on that offer of trading p'ups if all ends poorly ;)

 

Bryan Sutherland,

 

In terms of style, I dabble in funk, blues, jazz, rock, metal, country, and gospel. I actually love the open/flabby tone of the super '57 for some of the more distorted stuff, but I sorta miss the clarity when played through the clean channel. Sounds like the BB3 may be what I want, so we shall see.

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Be aware that the burstbuckers sold aftemarket aren't the same as the ones fitted in factory with the latter having no wax potting.

 

When I bought my Bonamassa Studio, it had BB3/2's in it. I absolutely LOVED the BB3, so I put the same set in my Trad. It sounded nothing like the Bonamassa... probably due to the wax potting. I don't play at loud volumes, that's probably why I prefer non-wax-potting, I like the microphonics/feedback. I can imagine at full volume it might be a bit difficult to tame though.

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I have an early 90's set of bb2 & 1 in my standard that are not wax potted and believe it or not at stage volume through a 100 watt boogie with a lot of gain I never had a problem with microphonics, feedback was very controllable, never had issues of unwanted feedback. But the bb2 is not as hot as the 3, so I cant speak for unpotted bb3's.

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So I am curious, what did you end up doing, getting the pickup swapped of keeping the super57? if you got it swapped, what do you think?

 

So I decided to try and go for the swap, but Gibson Customer Service prevented that from occurring. Guitar Center was willing to swap, but needed verification from Gibson that a swap was warranted and in Gibson's eyes it was not.

 

As I have stated, I purchased the guitar based on the tone palette available in my hands and not necessarily what the hangtag said or didn't say. If I fell in love with this guitar with a Super 57 then I'm more than content with a Super 57. They didn't have any first generation Traditional Pro guitars there so I could not compare with a real (wax-potted) burstbucker 3, but I suppose these things happen for a reason :)

 

Thanks for your insight and support, pwrmac7600, it's been very helpful!

 

On another note, I did catch glimpse of a used double cutaway LP Standard the other day that was probably calling my name... ;)

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Well sorry to hear that your local GC wasn't as accommodating as mine was, but glad to hear you are happy with the one of the pickups that came in the guitar, that is really all that matter in the end.

If you do decide you want to try a BB3 in there, I purchased one through a guy on ebay who sells pickups most that are slightly used, and he lists the resistance of the pickup in each listing. I picked up a almost brand new BB3 from him for $80.00 and free shipping. which is a great price compared to what gibson is asking for them new.

The guy was easy to deal with and everything went smooth with him.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/bjboydent?_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2754

As of now he only has one BB3 listed buy it's double black. for 74.00

P.S. I am in no way affiliated with this seller, just passing along who I picked up some of my stuff from.

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Well sorry to hear that your local GC wasn't as accommodating as mine was, but glad to hear you are happy with the one of the pickups that came in the guitar, that is really all that matter in the end.

If you do decide you want to try a BB3 in there, I purchased one through a guy on ebay who sells pickups most that are slightly used, and he lists the resistance of the pickup in each listing. I picked up a almost brand new BB3 from him for $80.00 and free shipping. which is a great price compared to what gibson is asking for them new.

The guy was easy to deal with and everything went smooth with him.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/bjboydent?_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2754

As of now he only has one BB3 listed buy it's double black. for 74.00

P.S. I am in no way affiliated with this seller, just passing along who I picked up some of my stuff from.

 

Thanks, I may have to grab one then!

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Reading this thread this morning, I'm beginning to understand why the Trad Pro II I tried in a GC Thursday sounded a little livelier in the bridge than my Trad Pro II that's sitting at home. The tech did say that the bridge pickup in this model is questionable.

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Reading this thread this morning, I'm beginning to understand why the Trad Pro II I tried in a GC Thursday sounded a little livelier in the bridge than my Trad Pro II that's sitting at home. The tech did say that the bridge pickup in this model is questionable.

 

The new trad pro II's (mine is a 2013) come with the super57 in them, and I personally do not like them. the older trad pro models came with BB3's in them, which to my preference sounds much better, much tighter in the low end, over the rather loose sounding super 57. The problem is Guitar Center still has them all marked as having BurstBuckers in them when they really don't.

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yup 4 wire is what you will need to keep the coil splitting.

did you end up getting from the guy on ebay? just curious.

 

No I did not, I found a chrome covered one since it was 4 wire and thought it would look better than an all black pickup. I believe that guy's version also had a solderless connection on it, not sure if I would have been able to connect that to mine.

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No I did not, I found a chrome covered one since it was 4 wire and thought it would look better than an all black pickup. I believe that guy's version also had a solderless connection on it, not sure if I would have been able to connect that to mine.

 

Yeah I saw that, but you could have always cut the quick connect off. well good luck let me know how you like the sound.

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Reading this thread this morning, I'm beginning to understand why the Trad Pro II I tried in a GC Thursday sounded a little livelier in the bridge than my Trad Pro II that's sitting at home. The tech did say that the bridge pickup in this model is questionable.

 

 

The new trad pro II's (mine is a 2013) come with the super57 in them, and I personally do not like them. the older trad pro models came with BB3's in them, which to my preference sounds much better, much tighter in the low end, over the rather loose sounding super 57. The problem is Guitar Center still has them all marked as having BurstBuckers in them when they really don't.

That's PART of the problem, in this case both Trad Pros were 2012 models. Gibson hasn't been true to this model from the beginning. Same with the picguard tints and the bindings.

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Reading this thread this morning, I'm beginning to understand why the Trad Pro II I tried in a GC Thursday sounded a little livelier in the bridge than my Trad Pro II that's sitting at home. The tech did say that the bridge pickup in this model is questionable.

 

So which one did you prefer? Does your TP2 have a burstbucker in it or a super 57?

 

Also, pwrmac7600, I now see that the seller has a zebra bb3 for sale.

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So which one did you prefer? Does your TP2 have a burstbucker in it or a super 57?

 

Unfortunately, the first one was a quality-control lemon and I had to send it back:

http://bit.ly/1zuuuuJ

The current one, which I've named "Chocolate Thunder," probably needs a couple of shots of contact cleaner for the bypass knob, otherwise it sounds great. I think it's the Super 57 pickup in the bridge, I'll have to physically check since the case had the card for a different LP in it.

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I'm one of the lucky, non-USA residents that managed to get his hands on a TP2 in November 2013. A few made their way over here thanks to GC ordering too many and then selling a few batches to European stores, not that I'm complaining! Neck fits hand like a glove and the pickups (I find) have a great sound which works well at low volumes and driving a crunch. I think the only issue is the volume drop caused by the splitting of the coils, but this is of course unavoidable :)

 

Having said all that; I've recently done some tweaking and a cleaning of the beauty, and the pickups were stamped as 57 Classic for the neck and Super 57 for the bridge. This was the same for someone else I know who gutted his TP2 when purchased and put in a Bare Knuckle set without all the splits and boost option.

 

Sorry if I'm late to the party with that statement [biggrin]

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1407104339[/url]' post='1548832']

I'm one of the lucky, non-USA residents that managed to get his hands on a TP2 in November 2013. A few made their way over here thanks to GC ordering too many and then selling a few batches to European stores, not that I'm complaining! Neck fits hand like a glove and the pickups (I find) have a great sound which works well at low volumes and driving a crunch. I think the only issue is the volume drop caused by the splitting of the coils, but this is of course unavoidable :)

 

Having said all that; I've recently done some tweaking and a cleaning of the beauty, and the pickups were stamped as 57 Classic for the neck and Super 57 for the bridge. This was the same for someone else I know who gutted his TP2 when purchased and put in a Bare Knuckle set without all the splits and boost option.

 

Sorry if I'm late to the party with that statement [biggrin]

 

Pics? What color did you get?

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