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Gibson T-bird IV too dark. tone pot?

L

Low Sound Love

Mar 25, 2010
397
19
Ghent, Belgium
#1
hi all

I have a 2008 Gibson T-bird, and while I love its look and feel, I find the tone to be just way too dark. In comparison to my Fender P an J, it's like it puts out no highs at all and has a huge low mids bump.
I tried swapping the 250k tone pot for a 500k, figuring that it would let more highs pass, but the results is faint, if not inaudible.

So what are my options to get this bass to sound the way I want it to (which is ... well a bit more Fender-ish, I guess)?

Throw in a 1M tone pot? I doubt it will change much, seeing as how there wasn't any major difference going from 250 to 500k.

Get other pickups? I know the Thunderbucker 63's sound more like Fenders, but with mounting rings and shipping etc. that 'll cost me around $400 :bawl:

Now the true question is: is there any other option that I'm overlooking? Anyone else had this problem (and fixed it)? Thnx for any hints!
 
#3
Either new pups or a a mpreamp that lets you cut bass or increase desired treble range. I assume you tried raising bridge pup and/or lowering neck pup to get brighter tone with both pups on full? But you are right, tbirds are dark tone basses by nature not very suited to brighter voicings stock.
 
#4
infect said:
I mean, you're basically trying to change the signature tone of that bass. They are intended to be dark like that, but I suppose new pickups could help. Perhaps EMG soapbars, but it'd probably require some routing.
Click to expand...

I know it's kinda going against its nature. I was happy with it for a few years, but now I wish I could combine the sound of my P/J with the looks and feel of the Tbird. Best of both worlds, you know.
 
#5
You know, My Gibson Thunderbird was sounding a little dark tonight. Mine, an '05, is usually growling with a great mid range. Anyway, I adjusted the pickups, raising both the neck and bridge pup about 4th of an inch. Doing that got it back to its usual sound. I don't know why, but it remedied the problem.

Maybe adjusting your pickups will do the same for you..
 
#6
NOT said:
You know, My Gibson Thunderbird was sounding a little dark tonight. Mine, an '05, is usually growling with a great mid range. Anyway, I adjusted the pickups, raising both the neck and bridge pup about 4th of an inch. Doing that got it back to its usual sound. I don't know why, but it remedied the problem.

Maybe adjusting your pickups will do the same for you..
Click to expand...

I'll mess around with 'em some, thanks for the suggestion!
 
#10
Well, I have a bass that came with T-bird pickups, I'm not sure if they're Gibson ones (plastic covers, three screws, & the same size), but I had the bass fitted with the Thunderbird "drop in" pickups, I had to have abit of routing done, but the bass does sound brighter now. But, I did also wire it with just an on/off switch & no pots.
 
#11
No, the OP has a point, and a good one.

The pickups that Gibson puts into today's Thunderbirds are ceramics high-resistance heavy-hitters. That's not supposed to be, well at least not supposed to be the only option.

Replacing them without spending major amounts of money is difficult. It is a bit unclear which of the random soapbars fit how. And that doesn't begin to ask which ones have the "proper" construction which changes over vintage times but should generally start with a humbucker that has a bar magnet inside the coils, a construction that is very rare compared to bar magnet at bottom or passive polepieces or passive rails in the coil. None of the regular price manufacturers document this properly so you don't know what you get.

Known good boutique replacements like Thunderbuckers and SD custom shop thunderbird pickups are very expensive. Then you have the messy question whether to go with a chrome ring or not on your hands, because once the ring is on the screw holes are drilled.
 
#12
What strings are you using? A brighter set of strings could help quite a bit. Also raising your pickups on the treble side, and lowering on the bass side can also help. But to answer your question a 1M pot will help, but I don't know if it will give you the results you are looking for.
 
#13
A while back I was in a no pot phase, and asked which value pot would be the closest to not having one. I was thinking 1M, but was told that it would act more like a switch and was recommended the 500k. I wanted it for a volume knob (I used a cap switch with no pot for tone) and it works fine.

You can screw up the sound of a $3k guitar with $10 of pots.
 
#15
Thanks for all the input, guys! Last night I put new d'Addario Prosteels on (very bright strings) and messed around with the pickups (bridge pickup almost as high as it can, neck pickup quite a bit lower).
Tonight it will be put to the test. (My signal runs through a buffered pedalboard, but the tone was just as dark going directly into the amp.) My P is out for a good setup, so the Bird is on duty for the night. Amp 'll have to be tweaked quite a bit too. (Switching between a P and a J is easy, different flavors but same ballpark. switching between a P and a Tbird is more troublesome, grrrr.)
If it still doesn't work out the way I want it to, I'll start saving up for a pair of Thunderbuckers.
 
#16
Low Sound Love said:
Thanks for all the input, guys! Last night I put new d'Addario Prosteels on (very bright strings) and messed around with the pickups (bridge pickup almost as high as it can, neck pickup quite a bit lower).
Tonight it will be put to the test. (My signal runs through a buffered pedalboard, but the tone was just as dark going directly into the amp.) My P is out for a good setup, so the Bird is on duty for the night. Amp 'll have to be tweaked quite a bit too. (Switching between a P and a J is easy, different flavors but same ballpark. switching between a P and a Tbird is more troublesome, grrrr.)
If it still doesn't work out the way I want it to, I'll start saving up for a pair of Thunderbuckers.
Click to expand...

this should be the first thing you do. the Gibson won't sound good with the same eq settings that work for Fenders.
 
#18
Man the OP really nailed the description of a thunderbird's sound. I'd try some stainless steel strings if you just want it to sound brighter. Or get an amp with a bright switch. Or just play a p-bass. Or get a custom bass made that's a p-bass that looks like a tbird. IMHO swapping pickups and adding preamps etc will end up a long, exspensive, fruitless journey. You can spend a ton of money and effort on it but you'll never make that Gibson a Fender. Two very different animals. Plus you'll have a hell of a time if you ever try to sell it after doing some of the suggested mods. $0.02.
 
#20
DethByDoom said:
Man the OP really nailed the description of a thunderbird's sound. I'd try some stainless steel strings if you just want it to sound brighter. Or get an amp with a bright switch. Or just play a p-bass. Or get a custom bass made that's a p-bass that looks like a tbird. IMHO swapping pickups and adding preamps etc will end up a long, exspensive, fruitless journey. You can spend a ton of money and effort on it but you'll never make that Gibson a Fender. Two very different animals. Plus you'll have a hell of a time if you ever try to sell it after doing some of the suggested mods. $0.02.
Click to expand...

Bright switch! I totally forgot that my V4bh has that, gonna switch it on tonight!

I do play a P now as my main instrument, but everytime I take the Bird of its hook I sigh: 'why can't you just sound like the P, you're so purdy and your neck feels so great in my hands'.

What I've got now: a P that I love tone-wise and a Tbird that I love for its look and feel. But I want it all!

I saw that Schecter makes a Bird with a P/J set and active eq but A) it looks off to me and B) it has EMG pickups, which I absolutely dislike (not to say hate).

A custom bass may be the best answer, but, you know: big $$$
 

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