ccannon1 Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 i was wondering what my options for pickups were on my thunderbird, i find it's a little muddy and i want more of a p-bass sound which after-market pup's are good? if any even exist and would it be possible to put a split coil precision pup in? (would string spacing work) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hungrycat Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 i was wondering what my options for pickups were on my thunderbird, i find it's a little muddy and i want more of a p-bass sound which after-market pup's are good? if any even exist and would it be possible to put a split coil precision pup in? (would string spacing work) The absolute easiest thing to do to get a P-bass sound would be to trade it for a P-bass. There are several manufacturers that made replacement Thunderbird pickups. but none will really give you a P-bass sound. Try looking Seymour Duncan, Mike Lull, and Bartolini, and EMG. They SHOULD all have at least one model that would fit a T-bird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 That's pretty much it. A 'Bird is a 'Bird and a P is a P. They are both planks, so neither will sound hollow, but that's about the end of the similarities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hungrycat Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 That's pretty much it. A 'Bird is a 'Bird and a P is a P. They are both planks, so neither will sound hollow, but that's about the end of the similarities. This. Although you can get a really nice quasi-upright tone from a P-bass, if you put flats on it and run it though a vintage tweed Fender Bassman... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaolee Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 This. Although you can get a really nice quasi-upright tone from a P-bass, if you put flats on it and run it though a vintage tweed Fender Bassman... If you really want to sound like an upright, an EB-2 with flats through a vintage Acoustic 361 sounds very close to an upright. A P's growl tends to make the woody sound of an upright pretty tough to get, even with some amp and eq messing around. This is just my experience trying to do the occasional Willie Dixon thing, since he played an upright on all those old blues records. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JtheB Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 As it happens, I'm expecting an American SGD pick up I've had made for my modified Goth Thunderbird to arrive in the next week. I'm retaining the standard bridge pick up as I'm more than happy with the treble tones I'm getting from it: this is to replace the neck pick up. I chose SGD as they advertise it as being very similar in sound to a P bass. I'll let you know... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krovx Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 EMG has the DC line and they will put a P or J or whatever in the housing. I plan on trying that in a bird. Need to first wait and measure what the Thunderbird Pro dimensions are first. Here is a link to the different types: I think the EMG pups are slightly shorter. http://www.emgpickups.com/products/category/251/2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassilisk Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 I just saw this the other day: http://www.lollarguitars.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=270 The tones sound pretty good. Nice and clean with grit if you want it. Watch the installation video. I'm considering routing out my '96 LP for a pair of these. Another alternative, a bit pricier: http://www.mikelull.com/t%20bass%20parts.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raven1844 Posted November 1, 2011 Share Posted November 1, 2011 Lot's of options these days for replacement Bird pups: Lull, Lollar, Bartolini, Thunderbuckers, and even EMG now has a Bird shaped pup. I used a Lull in the bridge of my Epi Bird, and kept the neck pup since I always roll the tone off the neck anyway and leave the bridge unaffected (I rewired my controls). For the tone you're looking for - my bet would be to check out the EMG's unless you have a custom one made by SDG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.