Hi guys, I bought recently a 90's Epiphone Thunderbird Non-Reverse, made in Korea (it has that PBass / JBass pickups configuration). The bass is not too damaged and I want to make some mods to make it a masterpiece, most probably a Fenderbird. I'm looking for a vintage deep and sharp sound, then I found out the ThunderBuckers - http://www.thunderbuckerranch.com/ - do you think the body can "hold" these pickups? With the proper shaping/carving, of course. Will I need to get a new pickguard because of the neck pickup size/shape mismatch? If so, where can I found another one? And does anyone tried to do this before? Can you share some samples of your final results? Many thanks in advance and a happy new year! Regards, E. Keats
You may have to replace the pickguard, but it should work. Also, Thunderbuckers have rails, not pole pieces, so string spacing won't matter. Thunderbuckers are very thin, so they only need a very shallow rout.
Look here: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f8/lakland-44-66-thunderjazz-883868/ The bridge jazz pickup is a little wider than the Thunderbucker, so you need a trim ring.
Thank you very much for your help. That ThunderJazz looks amazing. Now I just have to find another pickguard.
If the Thunderbuckers are made to 60's specs just like the Mike Lulls, you can proably get away with mounting them flush on top of the body- no routing required. I have a Lull in the bridge position of my Epi, and it is much much shorter in height than a modern Gibson TB+. I sat it on the face of the body and screwed it into place running the wire through the existing route. The pickup with surrounding ring covered all evidence of the old route nicely, and I used a piece of foam to fill the route to give it just a little more support. {} {}
I highly recommend the Thunderbuckers. These imho truly capture what a good vintage Thunderbird pickup should sound like. I have them in several of my bases. Here is my Thunderbucker MAX equipped Cataldo basses NR {}
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