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Peavey Foundation Super Ferrite Pickups in my Thunderbird???

meandnooneelse

meandnooneelse

Jun 12, 2009
50
35
49
Albany, GA
#1
OK, so for years I played a 1995 Peavey Foundation. These have large super ferrite single coil pickups, they are essentially large Jazz style pickups. I loved the way they sounded, deep with crisp highs (although I cut the highs back with the tone control).
Well, when I tried an Epiphone Goth Thunderbird I had to have one because the neck and body shape was so much easier for my big clumsy buffalo fingers to play. However I HATE the way the stock humbuckers in the thing sound. They're loaded with high mids (I guess for a better sound with distortion?)
So later on down the line I took the Peavey pickups out of the Foundation and put them in the Thunderbird. They didn't sound as good in the T-Bird but were still much better than the stock humbuckers. Well, I had bills to pay so I sold that T-Bird. (The biggest regret EVER!!!)
So once I started playing again I bought another Goth Thunderbird and ordered some 1995 Super Ferrites from Peavey. I put them in the T-Bird and they sound very different from my original Foundation pickups. There is a lot more mid-range and less low-end to these new ones. In addition there is a third wire which appears to be a ground (it's bare) where my original pickups only had 2 wires. Could I have been sent the wrong pickups? Is there any thing I can do to improve the bass response and/or cut back the mid range? The pickup cavities need shielding, which I will get around to, but my understanding is this will not make a big difference. What do you suggest?
 
#2
All the superferrites I have seen have the three wires. It is a ground strap and the only modification to sound it would create is less electrical interference(hum). I have found that inorder to get a better tonal balance I have upped the capacitor from Peavey's .02 to .082. This allows me to roll off more highs. Also check the pots in the epiphone. SF's seem to be more sensitive to resistance than some pickups. If the Epiphose has those 500K minipots I would switch them out with quality 250k pots.

I am in the process of doing a similar modification to a MIM Jazz, but my routing skills suck, so I am waiting on my favorite local luthier(should be done this weekend). How about some pictures of the Bird?
 
#3
I bought all new pots from guitar parts depot. They are 100K pots for volumes and 250K w/Sprague .047 Orange drop cap for the tone. These are passive pickups but I went with 100K pots to give me a dark tone knowing in advance that they would shunt a lot of the highs to ground. Could they also be shunting low-end? Or possibly accentuating mids? It seems to have just too much punch around 400Hz.
 
#4
I don't have any pics of the current one, but here is the previous custom T-Bird with Peavey super ferrites that I sold.

BassSnakeEyes001.jpg


BassSnakeEyes002.jpg
 
#6
MNAirHead said:
Ferrites rock.. there may be a better option for you T Bird..

You didn't note what you're playing or what sound you're going for.
Click to expand...
I play hard rock/industrial thrash metal. For most songs I like a deep P-bass type of sound. For faster songs I like a dual pickup jazz sound. Hmmm, let me give some examples... keep in mind these are sound examples not examples of great playing... For the P-Bass sound I'd say a good example is Ministry's "So What". For the Jazz sound Id' say the perfect example is The Bloodhound Gang's "I Hope You Die"

I was able to get either sound when I played the Peavey Foundation, but the sound is just not there with the T-Bird. I would go back to playing a Foundation but the design of the T-Bird is so much easier for me to play.

Just incase it helps to know I play through a Hartke HA2000 head and a Peavey 2X15 cabinet, no horn/tweeter.

I'm thinking I will have to invest in some super-high quality 250K pots and shield the pickup routes in order to improve the sound, but I'm afraid of investing all that time and money and it won't do the trick.
 
#9
CTS are good pots, I use these for all my basses and have never had a problem. The value of the POT you choose will affect the tone of the bass...rule of thumb is that higher values like 500K will sound brighter than 250K's, especially with humbuckers. I tried 1 meg POT's at one time but they acted so much like an on/off switch that I went back to 250K's. I personally would not use a 100K pot because they tend sound dull...rolling off the high end. BTW I had a '76 Thunderbird that had Peavey super ferrites as well. They sounded good in that bass!
 
#10
4stringjim said:
CTS are good pots, I use these for all my basses and have never had a problem. The value of the POT you choose will affect the tone of the bass...rule of thumb is that higher values like 500K will sound brighter than 250K's, especially with humbuckers. I tried 1 meg POT's at one time but they acted so much like an on/off switch that I went back to 250K's. I personally would not use a 100K pot because they tend sound dull...rolling off the high end. BTW I had a '76 Thunderbird that had Peavey super ferrites as well. They sounded good in that bass!
Click to expand...
That seems like it would be one badass bass! Believe it or not I actually like the diminished highs from the 100K pots. I just want to know why this thing is putting out so much mid-range. It seems that the lows are diminshed and well as the highs. I'll try new pots and put in 250K's. We'll see what happens. Now I just gotta wait till the end of the month for the money to replace 'em.
 
#11
I still have not made any modifications yet, do to both time and money, so as I'm looking into doing this now, does anyone know if the 1995 Peavey Super Ferrites contain their own internal shielding? If they do there's no sense in shielding the pickup cavity, right?

I think what I'll do is buy a wiring kit from Rothstein Guitars. However this kit does not contain shielding materials. So I would have to buy that seperately if the pickups aren't already shielded internally. I may also try their passive mid-range cut mod.
 

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