This is a mini review of Nine One Six Thunderbird pickups
www.916pickups.com
I own a 2019 Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbird. A recreation of a vintage 60’s Tbird, equipped with Epiphone 760 ProBuckers, highly regarded as being close to the 60’s Tbird Gibson pickups from the era, although they are a little bass shy according to some.
I upgraded the pots and cap in mine before I got the 916 pickups.
This is how @Matt Kustom describes his product.
I ordered Raw nickel covers.
Stock:
The packaging is neat and professional.
Included a nice capacitor and screws, and 2 stickers
On with installation:
Generous length high quality shielded 2 conductor wire.
The original have a cloth single conductor with a braided jacket that also acts as the ground.
Original pickups supported by neoprene rubber blocks.
I elected to use neoprene with embedded springs.
Man those raw covers look killer.
Final touch.
Sound samples:
Garage Band basic HiFi DI profile
Strung with month old played in SIT power steels. The same set used for both samples. Forgive the sloppy couch playing and material choice!
Open strings: Neck/both/bridge
Neck tone open / pluck behind neck pickup
Neck tone down 70% / pluck neck
Both tone down 25% / pluck bridge
Neck tone down 25% / pluck ahead of neck
Both tone down 25% / pluck over bridge
Picked neck tone open/ fingers over neck pickup
Epiphone 760
916 AlNeo
My impressions in comparison:
Wider range
More dynamic and articulate
More open crisper highs
Firm mids
More output and bottom
LESS sensitive to string proximity which means that I can move the pickups farther away from the strings without loss of tone ! The 760’s sound best close.
The magnetic pull is slightly more than stock, but sustain is not impacted nor is there a chorusing effect at the tail of the notes.
Summarized?
Hot looking and sounding pickups that improved upon an already good bass: it’s now great!
Spoke with Matt at length during the install, really impressed, super nice and supportive.
Highly knowledgeable and forthcoming with information.
@Matt Kustom TRULY cares about his customers! Reminds me of conversations I’ve had with Phil Jones, and interactions with Andy Field.
Will return after my gig on 7/5 with impressions from a live session.
The stock Epi:
T Bird Bass Pickups – Nine One Six Pickups
www.916pickups.com
I own a 2019 Epiphone Vintage Pro Thunderbird. A recreation of a vintage 60’s Tbird, equipped with Epiphone 760 ProBuckers, highly regarded as being close to the 60’s Tbird Gibson pickups from the era, although they are a little bass shy according to some.
I upgraded the pots and cap in mine before I got the 916 pickups.
This is how @Matt Kustom describes his product.
I ordered Raw nickel covers.
Stock:
The packaging is neat and professional.
Included a nice capacitor and screws, and 2 stickers
On with installation:
Generous length high quality shielded 2 conductor wire.
The original have a cloth single conductor with a braided jacket that also acts as the ground.
Original pickups supported by neoprene rubber blocks.
I elected to use neoprene with embedded springs.
Man those raw covers look killer.
Final touch.
Sound samples:
Garage Band basic HiFi DI profile
Strung with month old played in SIT power steels. The same set used for both samples. Forgive the sloppy couch playing and material choice!
Open strings: Neck/both/bridge
Neck tone open / pluck behind neck pickup
Neck tone down 70% / pluck neck
Both tone down 25% / pluck bridge
Neck tone down 25% / pluck ahead of neck
Both tone down 25% / pluck over bridge
Picked neck tone open/ fingers over neck pickup
Epiphone 760
916 AlNeo
My impressions in comparison:
Wider range
More dynamic and articulate
More open crisper highs
Firm mids
More output and bottom
LESS sensitive to string proximity which means that I can move the pickups farther away from the strings without loss of tone ! The 760’s sound best close.
The magnetic pull is slightly more than stock, but sustain is not impacted nor is there a chorusing effect at the tail of the notes.
Summarized?
Hot looking and sounding pickups that improved upon an already good bass: it’s now great!
Spoke with Matt at length during the install, really impressed, super nice and supportive.
Highly knowledgeable and forthcoming with information.
@Matt Kustom TRULY cares about his customers! Reminds me of conversations I’ve had with Phil Jones, and interactions with Andy Field.
Will return after my gig on 7/5 with impressions from a live session.
The stock Epi:
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