EB Bass Pickups vs. Thunderbird 2015 Pickups

[kommando84]

Does anybody know yet whether the pickups on the new 2015 Thunderbird are the same as the ones on the EB Bass? I bought an EB and LOVE it, and I wonder if they took those pickups and the coil taps and put them on the new T-Bird.

[Bassilisk]

Does anybody know yet whether the pickups on the new 2015 Thunderbird are the same as the ones on the EB Bass? I bought an EB and LOVE it, and I wonder if they took those pickups and the coil taps and put them on the new T-Bird.

 

My guess would be yes. TBird pickups were ceramic - now they're touting Alnico. I wonder if they'd do a special wind for the TBird vs the EB....

[kommando84]

I hope they're the same, as I really like the EB Bass sound and would be excited to be able to justify adding a Thunderbird to my lineup. I currently play a 1987 Gibson IV bass as well, so that pretty much nails the old classic Thunderbird ceramic sound. A 2015 would round out the lineup nicely. I'll hand it to Gibson, they do a pretty good job of innovating and using the Epiphone and one-off Gibsons to test-bed their new ideas before integrating them into the main lines. As opposed to Rickenbacker who basically take the "well, what we've done for the past 50 years is working so let's not change anything at all" approach which is less appealing to me.

[capmaster]

Does anybody know yet whether the pickups on the new 2015 Thunderbird are the same as the ones on the EB Bass? I bought an EB and LOVE it, and I wonder if they took those pickups and the coil taps and put them on the new T-Bird.

Hello Kommando, and welcome here.

 

What about the tone of your EB when fretting E4th or A3rd on higher frets? The beats of E4th past the 7th and A3rd past the 10th fret were unbearable on mine. I tried four different string makes of three different brands, no way. It was the string pull of the big AlNiCo magnets. As an experiment, I removed the front pickup and tried, with only a slight betterment. They had a great tone otherwise, but I wanted identifyable notes, not noises.

 

I replaced them with EMG TB-HZ pickups and upgraded the circuit for separate series/parallel options and a commonly switched capacitor-tuned coil split. What a difference! I guess they could be even better by using ceramic magnets. Later I bought a second EB 2013, same pickup problems as expected, and did the same mods. One is strung with roundwonds, the other with flatwound strings.

 

I have to say that these DeCola bass humbucker are the only badly misdesigned Gibson pickups I ever encountered. I don't understand they continue making them. It is even worse they give up making the original Thunderbird pickups. I would have loved replacing my EB's pickups with a four-conductor version of them. In my opinion, Gibson Thunderbird pickups are among the best bass pickups ever made.

[kommando84]

Hello Kommando, and welcome here.

 

What about the tone of your EB when fretting E4th or A3rd on higher frets? The beats of E4th past the 7th and A3rd past the 10th fret were unbearable on mine. I tried four different string makes of three different brands, no way. It was the string pull of the big AlNiCo magnets. As an experiment, I removed the front pickup and tried, with only a slight betterment. They had a great tone otherwise, but I wanted identifyable notes, not noises.

 

I replaced them with EMG TB-HZ pickups and upgraded the circuit for separate series/parallel options and a commonly switched capacitor-tuned coil split. What a difference! I guess they could be even better by using ceramic magnets. Later I bought a second EB 2013, same pickup problems as expected, and did the same mods. One is strung with roundwonds, the other with flatwound strings.

 

I have to say that these DeCola bass humbucker are the only badly misdesigned Gibson pickups I ever encountered. I don't understand they continue making them. It is even worse they give up making the original Thunderbird pickups. I would have loved replacing my EB's pickups with a four-conductor version of them. In my opinion, Gibson Thunderbird pickups are among the best bass pickups ever made.

 

Hey Capmaster,

 

I didn't have those issues you described with mine, possibly because of the setup of the pickups from Sweetwater (which is where I bought mine). The neck pickup came set pretty low by my usual reckoning, but the sound was great so I didn't mess with it. It could be to try and counteract what you experienced. Their pre-sale instrument inspection is really good, so I imagine their techs caught the issue before it shipped if it existed.

 

The other thing is, I rarely have to play up that high on the fretboard, so it's possible I overlooked it.

 

Tone is a pretty subjective thing, and if your new setup makes it work for you, I'm glad to hear it. I also like the tone of my 1987 Gibson IV, but it's less versatile to my ear. What it does it does well, but I find myself happier with the EB overall.

 

Cheers!

[capmaster]

Hey Capmaster,

 

I didn't have those issues you described with mine, possibly because of the setup of the pickups from Sweetwater (which is where I bought mine). The neck pickup came set pretty low by my usual reckoning, but the sound was great so I didn't mess with it. It could be to try and counteract what you experienced. Their pre-sale instrument inspection is really good, so I imagine their techs caught the issue before it shipped if it existed.

 

The other thing is, I rarely have to play up that high on the fretboard, so it's possible I overlooked it.

 

Tone is a pretty subjective thing, and if your new setup makes it work for you, I'm glad to hear it. I also like the tone of my 1987 Gibson IV, but it's less versatile to my ear. What it does it does well, but I find myself happier with the EB overall.

 

Cheers!

I tried with lowering pickups as much as possible. Since my string action is fairly stiff, there was lots of space between strings and magnets - no significant improvement. :( However, I liked the tone of the "pure" bass, i. e. when just taking strings and wood into considerations. So I didn't return it but definitely wanted passive replacement pickups, and there are very few Thunderbird sized passive pickups available.

 

The two EB basses of mine are the only Gibson instruments of mine with replacement pickups, and the only instruments of a quality brand with third-party pickups. All of my thirteen Gibson sixstring guitars and the two SG basses of mine are stock.

[kylehsings]

Hello Kommando, and welcome here.

 

What about the tone of your EB when fretting E4th or A3rd on higher frets? The beats of E4th past the 7th and A3rd past the 10th fret were unbearable on mine. I tried four different string makes of three different brands, no way. It was the string pull of the big AlNiCo magnets. As an experiment, I removed the front pickup and tried, with only a slight betterment. They had a great tone otherwise, but I wanted identifyable notes, not noises.

 

I replaced them with EMG TB-HZ pickups and upgraded the circuit for separate series/parallel options and a commonly switched capacitor-tuned coil split. What a difference! I guess they could be even better by using ceramic magnets. Later I bought a second EB 2013, same pickup problems as expected, and did the same mods. One is strung with roundwonds, the other with flatwound strings.

 

I have to say that these DeCola bass humbucker are the only badly misdesigned Gibson pickups I ever encountered. I don't understand they continue making them. It is even worse they give up making the original Thunderbird pickups. I would have loved replacing my EB's pickups with a four-conductor version of them. In my opinion, Gibson Thunderbird pickups are among the best bass pickups ever made.

 

Capmaster, do you have a pic? I have a new SG Special and have considered a pup replacement for the bridge T-Bird humbucker. My issue is that if I play with thumb on the bridge pup, my preferred way, the tone loses a significant amount of warmth. But thumb on the neck pup is uncomfortable for me. One alternative is to put a thumb-rest in the middle, but that seems cheesy. But I think the size of the soapbar TB-HZ won't work in that bridge slot. Nor do I know if it would fix the issue. Guh!

[capmaster]

Capmaster, do you have a pic? I have a new SG Special and have considered a pup replacement for the bridge T-Bird humbucker. My issue is that if I play with thumb on the bridge pup, my preferred way, the tone loses a significant amount of warmth. But thumb on the neck pup is uncomfortable for me. One alternative is to put a thumb-rest in the middle, but that seems cheesy. But I think the size of the soapbar TB-HZ won't work in that bridge slot. Nor do I know if it would fix the issue. Guh!

Hello Kyleh, and welcome here.

 

The term "TB" used by EMG means "real" Thunderbird pickup shape and dimensions. The naming of both the SG Bass pickups as "TB Plus" and "TB Mini" is misleading which has been discussed here in at least one topic before.

 

However, I don't think that a different pickup would solve the problem since the attack position would stay the same.

 

As for thumbrests, I added one each to my Ibanez Blazer "P-style" bass already in the 1980s, and to my Fender '65 Mustang Reissue Bass. Although using them often for supporting my thumb, I also pick closer to the bridge on them sometimes.

 

I'm happy with playing my SG and EB basses as they are. Like you, I think a thumbrest on them would look cheesy, and so I'm glad they work for me without. To be honest, when considering my actual playing style, I think I could have left my Ibanez and Fender basses without thumbrest, too. <_< Perhaps I will try to get new pickguards for them hiding the holes in the body after removing...

 

Hope this helps.

[Gaolee]

I have only had an EB for a day, but I spent a fair amount of time messing with it last night. I did't notice the issue you describe. I'm certainly not saying your bass(es) didn't suffer from some kind of weirdness. I'm just saying I must have got lucky, since mine doesn't. It has another issue, namely that the tone knob acts like a master volume knob, so maybe somebody monkeyed with it. It is certainly different, but I'm finding the neck feels much more Gibson than Fender or Ric.

[MrNylon]

I'd say the EB pups are installed on the 2015 Thunderbird. In place of the dual control knobs on the EB, the 2015 T-Bird has two Mini-Switches. I like the pups on the T-Bird, and the Mini-Switches.

[Kelvinator]

I have a new SG Special and have considered a pup replacement for the bridge T-Bird humbucker. ... I think the size of the soapbar TB-HZ won't work in that bridge slot. Nor do I know if it would fix the issue. Guh!

 

It wouldn't help with the thumb position, but you can put in any size pup you want (if you're not a "purist"); all you need is a router and a template. Not a fan of the mini humbucker, I routed mine for a full-size HB. I have a Lace Hemi guitar pup in it right now, and it sounds very good - even when used alone.

 

[Beate]

It wouldn't help with the thumb position, but you can put in any size pup you want

 

But ordering a custom minihumbucker is easier than a routing job. I replaced the mini of my EB-11 by something roughly resembling the original T-Bird pickups: two coils with blades from Alnico, overwound to 7.5 kOhms each coil, and possibly some fine tuning of the resonance peak.

 

I would possibly go for a real mudbucker clone with 15 kOhms per coil, maybe ceramic magnets but a 6x6 mm steel bar instead of the pole pieces and that wired in parallel (not in series). And then a mini like the one described above - great, and both PUs play together nicely even in parallel. That would be the rebirth of the EB3 without its disadvantages.