Now that’s something I’d like to hear!So, I've been mentally preparing to build myself a 51-style P bass this summer/fall. Here's what I've sketched up so far, intending to use 2 Tbird pickups, inspired by @J. Crawford's Bluesman. Front pickup hits the 51P single coil location, and the rear pickup hits the Rickenbacker bridge pickup location.
It'll be a few months before I start on this, but I'll be joining this club eventually...
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Show me your P Bass with Thunderbird pickups
- Thread starter NKBassman
- Start date
Completely hand-built and finished by yours truly. I built a neck last summer, but this would be my first attempt at a complete build. The PG shown is the Warmoth 72 P.
Good note, thanks!
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I built this last summer/fall, and was delayed finishing it until New Year’s Day 2025 after dropping the body and denting it, requiring filling, paint repair, etc.
I was inspired by Mike Watt’s two main basses of the ‘90s, his ‘56 P with Thunderbird pickups (which has Thunderbroom dremeled into the back, done by a fan before a show), and his Pelham Blue non-reverse Thunderbird he played on Ball Hog or Tugboat? and Contemplating the Engine Room.
I wanted to build something that was a mashup of the two, so I got a ‘54 P body from Warmoth out of mahogany, routed for two Lollar Thunderbird pickups and finished in Pelham Blue nitrocellulose.
The neck is from Musikraft. I was a little disappointed with the Tele Style headstock shape when I got it, but reshaped it myself before finishing. Ordered custom decals with Watt in place of Fender, and Precision Bird below that, as well as “Original Thud Staff” at the top for a bit more Watt-spiel.
I tried it with a rotary tone switch, but really wasn’t happy with any of the sounds, so swapped in a Bartolini pre that I had planned for from the get go. I had to route the control cavity deeper, and to the limits of what fits under the control plate to make room for the pre, and had to relocate the preamp’s trim pot that came glued to the side, and it still barely all fits. The battery cavity is hidden under the pickguard.
Controls are master volume with push pull active/passive, pickup blend, and stacked treble/bass boost/cut. With this setup it sounds absolutely incredible. Truly thunderous. With these pickups and a mahogany body it sounds pretty close to the best vintage Thunderbird examples I’ve heard, but is (sort of) disguised as a Fender.
Almost immediately after finishing the build I bumped it into something (didn’t even notice what or when it happened) and put a nice gouge in the side on the back, but I figured Mr. Watt’s basses are some of the most road worn basses on the planet, so I’m embracing it and won’t try to repair any further dings either.
I was inspired by Mike Watt’s two main basses of the ‘90s, his ‘56 P with Thunderbird pickups (which has Thunderbroom dremeled into the back, done by a fan before a show), and his Pelham Blue non-reverse Thunderbird he played on Ball Hog or Tugboat? and Contemplating the Engine Room.
I wanted to build something that was a mashup of the two, so I got a ‘54 P body from Warmoth out of mahogany, routed for two Lollar Thunderbird pickups and finished in Pelham Blue nitrocellulose.
The neck is from Musikraft. I was a little disappointed with the Tele Style headstock shape when I got it, but reshaped it myself before finishing. Ordered custom decals with Watt in place of Fender, and Precision Bird below that, as well as “Original Thud Staff” at the top for a bit more Watt-spiel.
I tried it with a rotary tone switch, but really wasn’t happy with any of the sounds, so swapped in a Bartolini pre that I had planned for from the get go. I had to route the control cavity deeper, and to the limits of what fits under the control plate to make room for the pre, and had to relocate the preamp’s trim pot that came glued to the side, and it still barely all fits. The battery cavity is hidden under the pickguard.
Controls are master volume with push pull active/passive, pickup blend, and stacked treble/bass boost/cut. With this setup it sounds absolutely incredible. Truly thunderous. With these pickups and a mahogany body it sounds pretty close to the best vintage Thunderbird examples I’ve heard, but is (sort of) disguised as a Fender.
Almost immediately after finishing the build I bumped it into something (didn’t even notice what or when it happened) and put a nice gouge in the side on the back, but I figured Mr. Watt’s basses are some of the most road worn basses on the planet, so I’m embracing it and won’t try to repair any further dings either.
Attachments
'54-style P body, 32" scale Jaguar neck, Chinese Thunderbird pickup, strung with Thomastik-Infeld flatwounds.
This is currently my number one bass for stage use, and has killed all my GAS for other basses...
New cheapo project! Hondo 830 Deluxe bought locally from a dude on FB for $80 just because I had assumed these were all plywood. It had 2 broken tuners but the truss rod works and the neck isn’t twisted so I assume it will play. I left the butchered pg on for a while assuming it was probably an odd shape due to being an old cheapie Hondo. I had a standard style P laying around and was shocked the holes lined up!
The brownish tort even goes with the weird grain pattern like it was meant to be brown on brown on brown on brown!
I have these eyguitar tbird pups for another old aborted project and the gears are turning…where to find a cheap unrouted brownish tort guard…?
The brownish tort even goes with the weird grain pattern like it was meant to be brown on brown on brown on brown!
I have these eyguitar tbird pups for another old aborted project and the gears are turning…where to find a cheap unrouted brownish tort guard…?
Nice to see a random revival of this zombie thread...
Anyone who has done this mod on a P bass, have you noticed any string-to-string volume balance issues after switching to TB pickups?
With the traditional split P bass pickup you can individually adjust the pickup height under each string to balance out the response, particularly useful for correcting for the different string heights given the radius of the fretboard. I've gone down a lot of rabbit holes chasing this problem on Jazz basses and others with flat-topped pickups that cannot be adjusted to compensate for the fretboard/string radius. The pickup poles end up closer to the strings on the E and G strings, and further away on the A and D strings, resulting in an uneven response that I just cannot abide.
I know it's nitpicking.... Call it a pet peeve if you must. Just wondering how Thunderbird pickups fare in this regard.
Anyone who has done this mod on a P bass, have you noticed any string-to-string volume balance issues after switching to TB pickups?
With the traditional split P bass pickup you can individually adjust the pickup height under each string to balance out the response, particularly useful for correcting for the different string heights given the radius of the fretboard. I've gone down a lot of rabbit holes chasing this problem on Jazz basses and others with flat-topped pickups that cannot be adjusted to compensate for the fretboard/string radius. The pickup poles end up closer to the strings on the E and G strings, and further away on the A and D strings, resulting in an uneven response that I just cannot abide.
I know it's nitpicking.... Call it a pet peeve if you must. Just wondering how Thunderbird pickups fare in this regard.
I haven't recorded anything with it yet, but it sounds nice. It has way more heft than what you would expect form a guitar pickup generally considered very bright and on the lower side gainwise. The only drawback is that the polepieces are just 51 mm wide, so it's a bit narrow for a regular 19 mm bridge (I converted mine to 17 mm).
To me that's a problem only if you set your pickups too close to the strings (or with very radiused boards). Once you lower the pickups a few mm the differences become irrelevant imho.
bassslinger packard,
my '56 fender pbass for a few years now has inside its tbird pickup cases pbass split pickup designs (bof coils mounted on a 'card' that fits snug in the case) via curtis novak, wound to vintage pbass specs. before this I had in it a chandler's tbird pickup up front and the gibson tbird pickup from my '66 tbird I then gave to curtis cuz he's the man! I replaced my non-reverse '66 gibson tbird's pickup w/a '51 pbass single coil from curtis.
on bass, watt
my '56 fender pbass for a few years now has inside its tbird pickup cases pbass split pickup designs (bof coils mounted on a 'card' that fits snug in the case) via curtis novak, wound to vintage pbass specs. before this I had in it a chandler's tbird pickup up front and the gibson tbird pickup from my '66 tbird I then gave to curtis cuz he's the man! I replaced my non-reverse '66 gibson tbird's pickup w/a '51 pbass single coil from curtis.
on bass, watt
mike watt's hoot page
mike watt's hoot page. here's a page put up on the web by me to let folks know what's up in my wack life. I live in pedro. I work the thud staff. I jam econo.
hootpage.com
That’s awesome, thank you so much for replying Mr. Watt!
You are a huge inspiration to me. I hope to come see you play the next time you’re in Seattle. Maybe I could get you to sign my P-Bird!
