- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,897
- 142,237
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
It'll go very well with my blue one, thank you!
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
-
- Tags
- club thunderbird
It'll go very well with my blue one, thank you!
@Basvarken
Ok just listened to each sample through my bass rig, which is how I would normally hear these pickups in any of my basses.
I do have EY and TB+ as well as the new TB NR pickups in my basses, so I’m familiar with each pickup, but never installed them in a back to back shoot out like this. Your test was very informative and underscored some of my original thoughts as well as opening my ears to things I wasn’t aware of.
Key Observation - as you noted, they are shockingly close, much more so than I heard on my iPad and much more so than I have experienced in daily use across similar but not identical basses (unlike your more scientific A/B test).
The second recording still sounds a hair darker than the first (which was why I thought it was the Gibson) but when I listen carefully (and I do mean very carefully) to it I don’t hear as much range in each note, I hear more bass but less simultaneous mids and treble on each note with the EY pickup. It’s as though the EY is missing a touch of the attack, finger and fret interaction on each note in the second recording that the Gibson is delivering on every note in the first recording.
In essence the EY turns out to be a richer sounding pickup (very much a surprise to me) but not necessarily a fuller one (not a surprise at all). Based on your recordings, There’s an inherent smoothness in the EY (deeper, more focused range on each note) and there’s an inherent fullness (broader more complex output) on each note of the Gibson.
The challenge is to not confuse smooth with full, which is exactly where I blew it.
With that observation I’ll stick to my advice on not using EY pickups for single pup layouts, but continuing to utilize them in multi pup layouts where the output becomes more full as you dial in the additional pup.
Awesome! Are you finishing this yourself, or is Pat or someone else finishing it? Looking great so far!
Okay. I enjoyed waiting on your verdict.
I'll post the sound clips here again so you don't have to scroll back
Recording A: https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/test_ey_vs_gibson_-_a.mp3
and
Recording B: https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/test_ey_vs_gibson_-_b.mp3
Recording A = Gibson
Recording B = EY
So Mark, your top 10 is upside down?
And @GBassNorth you may want to re-write your advice about using EY on a TBird II?
They are obviously very close to each other, since you guys have a hard time deciding which is which.
@Basvarken was this one of the current chrome covered Gibson pickup or the black TB+?
No but they are pretty tempting at that price!!
Please humor me gang.
I’ve been on this mission to get all my instruments dialed in. Fixing a few things, etc. One of them is the ‘70 Sears 1490 Silvertone (Matsumoku). My first bass. I got it for Christmas when I was 12. So it’s a sentimental thing with me. And it has at least a couple thousand hours on it. Some here played its sibling, Dave’s National, at the recent GTC.
Anyway, the intonation screws are messed up. The screw heads are soft and given my lack of knowledge and experience when I was a kid, I messed them up. It’ll never be in perfect intonation, but I want to get it as close as possible. Thing is, I’ve never been able to find the correct screws with the correct threads. I’ve looked for a replacement bridge for over ten years with no luck.
Lo and behold, the right bridge popped up on Reverb recently. For $35. I hemmed and hawed, but finally offered $25. The offer was accepted so it’s on the way. I know I paid too much for what cost maybe 50 cents to make. Oh well. I can finally get the bass in playing shape. The neck will need shimming to get acceptable action. I have a variety of shims already. And I need to replace the corroded pick guard screws. The strings on it are ancient Roto stainless steel rounds which will I’ll replace.
So @Stealth57, any idea what size the PG screws they are? They’re pretty small.
I’ve been on this mission to get all my instruments dialed in. Fixing a few things, etc. One of them is the ‘70 Sears 1490 Silvertone (Matsumoku). My first bass. I got it for Christmas when I was 12. So it’s a sentimental thing with me. And it has at least a couple thousand hours on it. Some here played its sibling, Dave’s National, at the recent GTC.
Anyway, the intonation screws are messed up. The screw heads are soft and given my lack of knowledge and experience when I was a kid, I messed them up. It’ll never be in perfect intonation, but I want to get it as close as possible. Thing is, I’ve never been able to find the correct screws with the correct threads. I’ve looked for a replacement bridge for over ten years with no luck.
Lo and behold, the right bridge popped up on Reverb recently. For $35. I hemmed and hawed, but finally offered $25. The offer was accepted so it’s on the way. I know I paid too much for what cost maybe 50 cents to make. Oh well. I can finally get the bass in playing shape. The neck will need shimming to get acceptable action. I have a variety of shims already. And I need to replace the corroded pick guard screws. The strings on it are ancient Roto stainless steel rounds which will I’ll replace.
So @Stealth57, any idea what size the PG screws they are? They’re pretty small.
familiar with 5 of those 10, would swap 3 and 4….Some of these are so close that I think they're a dead heat..........
1 Original '60s Gibson
2 Mike Lull
3 Thunderbucker Ranch
4 Greco
5 Gibson - the current ones
6 '76 Gibson
7 Seymour Duncan Custom Shop
8 Epiphone 760
9 TB Plus
10 EY Guitars
To me the first 5 are all excellent with minimal differences between them except for the Greco, it has a very pronounced bass/lo-mid. It is literally splitting hairs, and with other differences like strings or pickup placement it's a lot of conjecture to say which really is best. But, if the real deal is the starting point, '60s Gibson takes it. '76 Gibson are unto their own, nothing else like them, TB Plus are Ceramic, so a bit darker, but in the right bass, like a Studio Bird they're very good. 760's and EY are similar but the Epi's have more zing and top end to them.
They are metric wood screws with a designation of 2.0x9. That's 2mm diameter and 9mm total length.
no and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t lying…dunno, maybe it’s the custom after market speakers in my iPhone….pourquoi?
GEO’s been commissioned….dig his work….
Very interesting. Thanks for doing this and posting clips. This was good.Okay. I enjoyed waiting on your verdict.
I'll post the sound clips here again so you don't have to scroll back
Recording A: https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/test_ey_vs_gibson_-_a.mp3
and
Recording B: https://www.brooksbassguitars.com/uploads/1/3/3/7/13376708/test_ey_vs_gibson_-_b.mp3
Recording A = Gibson
Recording B = EY
So Mark, your top 10 is upside down?
And @GBassNorth you may want to re-write your advice about using EY on a TBird II?
They are obviously very close to each other, since you guys have a hard time deciding which is which.
Interested in how George hears things through an amp.
Last edited:
I might try them in my Epi IV or Explorer. Then again chrome would be nice!
Very well done!
I would guess the EYs would sound better (to me, anyway), in the modern Gibson neck position (adding some fullness--not the best term), and the NR Gibsons would sound better (again, to me), in the original neck position.
I personally thought A sounded better when playing but it sounded too big on the bottom. In a mix it would hit but it felt like it would not be very clear or articulate. I can add body to it but it's hard to add clarity. Just my thoughts from a car listen.
I have a bunch of these shims that I don’t want. I’ll send them to you if you want a few.
I have a different method for raising the pickup, I use the Fender foam in the deeper pocket, both neck and bridge, then thin “spring foams” on each side/edges of the pockets at the neck and thick “spring foams” on each side/edges at the bridge. Then some taller cone springs at the screws.
The spring foams are literally foams with two springs in them.
I’ll send pics in a few days, (like 1000 pages from now!) got a busy couple days ahead and a gig tomorrow night.
Last edited:
As an eBay Associate, TalkBass may earn a commission from qualifying purchases.
That’s actually a very cool looking bass Marshall, kinda has a bit of a Bison vibe going on. Totally worth the cost of bringing it back to life.
Great move! I was wondering how you got that into Pat Wilkins queue so quickly. Last I talked to Pat he was running at about a 3 month turnaround, so I took my NR build to a well known luthier here by me for finishing. Unfortunately, he’s now had my bass since the end of May and hasn’t even started it yet. I’m giving him until the end of the month, if he still hasn’t started it I’m collecting it and looking for another finisher.
Geo does great work on all his builds and pays close attention to the details, I’m sure it’ll be beautiful when he’s done.
That might be the ticket. I can honestly say the EY pups in my BlingBird sound fantastic with all three pickups running at various tone and volume settings simultaneously. Interestingly enough, it’s the only Tbird I have where I dial in all the pups, on nearly all my other birds I’m soloing the neck pup 90% of the time.
If I ever get the Shoreline Gold NR body back from the finisher I’ll quickly find out if it’s the EY pickups in the BlingBird or the unique control layout with individual V/T pots for each pup driving the desire to blend the output vs soloing. The Shoreline Gold NR will have VP pickups in the ‘60’s locations instead of EYs but will have the individual V/T stacks for each pickup with a master volume for quick on the fly volume changes. Should be interesting to compare the two.
