Best choice for a thunderbird pickup

[kodiakblair]

@Miles_ONeal

Spend 500% more for 10-15% is a pretty poor return in anyone's book.

I was trapped in the rabbit hole of pickup swapping for a number of years, it's now well down my list of priorities.

These days my advise is look to narrow that 10-15% gap yourself.
Pickup heights may shave a couple %.

Pots/caps are another area. Do you have 500k Vol / 250k tone with 22nF cap like the T-bird II or 500k Vol / 250k tone with 47nF cap like the 60's T-bird IV. 70's T-bird IV had 3 x 100k pots with the 47nF cab , 80's used 2 x 300k Vol with 500k tone and 47 nF cap. Nikki Sixx models sport a 68nF cap. Experimenting here could gain another 5%.

Other factors worth looking at are strings, EQ, are you using a preamp?/should you be using a preamp?


I definitely not saying "Don't buy new pickups" only check all avenues before entering CC details

 

[Carlsefni]

Thinking about getting a set for my (active) Pro IV.

Put me down as another person considering changing things out in their Epi T-Bird Pro IV. I recently got this bass second-hand (having been looking for a T-Bird for a while, though they are relatively scarce in my part of the world), and it plays great, and I can get cool tones out of it -- but, man, the active preamp in mine is noisy!

I'm going to get my regular luthier to take a look when I next take it in to see if anything can be done, but -- if not -- I'm considering just pulling out the preamp and the stock passive ceramic pickups and putting just "normal" passive wiring. It's a shame to see that Thunderbucker Ranch is down, since I had been thinking about those pickups almost as long as I'd been thinking about getting a T-Bird, but I'm a little leary of spending the high-end "US/UK-made" prices (which are a lot of money where I am!) were I to make such a big change anyway.

Although I'm tempted by the Dunable D-Birds (since I admire their guitars and the D-Birds are a little cheaper than many other high-end options), it's difficult to find a reason not to start by trying the Ey Parts/Eric Custom Thunderbird pickups (if I end up ripping out the active electronics) just because ... bang for buck!

 

[KaraQ]

Put me down as another person considering changing things out in their Epi T-Bird Pro IV. I recently got this bass second-hand (having been looking for a T-Bird for a while, though they are relatively scarce in my part of the world), and it plays great, and I can get cool tones out of it -- but, man, the active preamp in mine is noisy!

I'm going to get my regular luthier to take a look when I next take it in to see if anything can be done, but -- if not -- I'm considering just pulling out the preamp and the stock passive ceramic pickups and putting just "normal" passive wiring. It's a shame to see that Thunderbucker Ranch is down, since I had been thinking about those pickups almost as long as I'd been thinking about getting a T-Bird, but I'm a little leary of spending the high-end "US/UK-made" prices (which are a lot of money where I am!) were I to make such a big change anyway.

Although I'm tempted by the Dunable D-Birds (since I admire their guitars and the D-Birds are a little cheaper than many other high-end options), it's difficult to find a reason not to start by trying the Ey Parts/Eric Custom Thunderbird pickups (if I end up ripping out the active electronics) just because ... bang for buck!

I got rid of almost all of the "noisy-ness" of my Pro 5 with a good shielding job. Especially the pickup cavities.
Now it's just as quiet as most of my passive Thunderbirds .
Would definitely try it on your Pro 4 before changing everything out.

 

[Carlsefni]

I got rid of almost all of the "noisy-ness" of my Pro 5 with a good shielding job. Especially the pickup cavities. Now it's just as quiet as most of my passive Thunderbirds. Would definitely try it on your Pro 4 before changing everything out.

Yes, will do. I have read in various forums that the preamp in the Pro 4/5 can be weirdly noisy and sometimes (it ha been said) has odd wiring. I'm no electronics expert but I'll let my luthier loose on it. I don't particularly want to gut it if there's no need -- but, especially given the complication of getting parts where I am, I figure I should think ahead!

 

[KaraQ]

Yes, will do. I have read in various forums that the preamp in the Pro 4/5 can be weirdly noisy and sometimes (it ha been said) has odd wiring. I'm no electronics expert but I'll let my luthier loose on it. I don't particularly want to gut it if there's no need -- but, especially given the complication of getting parts where I am, I figure I should think ahead!

Never hurts to plan ahead


I've considered for a while to replace the pickups & electronics in mine with EMG-stuff, but I've had other, more pressing, mods to do on other basses.
Plus, I don't really dislike anything about the Pro 5 since I did the shielding, so mods for it are not a high priority

 

[Carlsefni]

I've considered for a while to replace the pickups & electronics in mine with EMG-stuff, but I've had other, more pressing, mods to do on other basses.
Plus, I don't really dislike anything about the Pro 5 since I did the shielding, so mods for it are not a high priority

The EMGs seem fairly readily available, though I guess I am biased (unfairly or not!) against active pickups. I've only really considered passives. And although I probably wouldn't have specifically chosen a bass with an onboard active preamp (or ceramic pickups -- though this may, again, be unfair bias!), I have to say that I probably won't make any further changes to my Pro 4 if I can kill the noise.

But T-Bird pickups seem almost as hard to find as replacement Rick pickups.

 

[Thumper]

I had this built in 2019 using Chinabuckers. I liked it so much I had I had the second one made using Chinabuckers again, despite the fact I had a pair of 760 Probuckers available, and could have bought any pickups as $ was not an issue.

 

[Thumper]

Here's #2

 

[KaraQ]

The EMGs seem fairly readily available, though I guess I am biased (unfairly or not!) against active pickups. I've only really considered passives. And although I probably wouldn't have specifically chosen a bass with an onboard active preamp (or ceramic pickups -- though this may, again, be unfair bias!), I have to say that I probably won't make any further changes to my Pro 4 if I can kill the noise.

But T-Bird pickups seem almost as hard to find as replacement Rick pickups.

I think the factory Pro pickups are wired as passive, with only the pre-amp powered up. Not 100% sure.

But, EMG does have a Thunderbird-specific drop-in pickup shape, which the default is passive, but are available with most of their pickup types (active & passive) inside that housing shape.
I've also found them to be very helpful with getting most of their pickups made into most any of their pickup shapes (as long as it will physically fit in the housing), even if not listed as an option on the website.

 

[growlinscythe]

Avedissian makes fantastic thunderbird pickups. I have a few of his "p-bird wind" pickups and they do the vintage angry piano thing very well. The "p-bird" is a jazz style coil on top and blade on the bottom, so it's a beefy humbucker but has a really nice fat single coil type of tone and articulation. Dunable also sells really great sounding thunderbird pickups.

On the more expensive end there's lull, lollar, Duncan, Curtis novak and thunderbucker ranch

been a while, but got any demoes on these?

 

[dsteinschneider]

I had this built in 2019 using Chinabuckers.

Did you buy them from Performance Music on Reverb or elsewhere?

Please tell us more about how the bass plays and sounds.

 

[Thumper]

Did you buy them from Performance Music on Reverb or elsewhere?

Please tell us more about how the bass plays and sounds.

I got them from Performance on Ebay. Mahogany Bass #2 sounds better than alder bass #1. The Chinabuckers have more bass and low mids than the ProBuckers which have more hi-mids and highs. The Chinabuckers growl, the Probuckers snarl. It kind of depends on what you want. The alder body bass doesn't really snarl or growl, but then I mainly use Sunbeams, I'm sure steel strings would lean more in that direction. Also, a pedal or preamp with bass, low mids, high-mids, and treble could alter some of those tendencies ( Ala Darklass tone Capsule (b-lm-hm) or a SushiBox PMLE or Venus also have a treble).