Quoting myself, to go on about pickup sourcing, & what better place to ask the kingdom. I'm currently going back on a bunch of prior threads which talk about each type of thunderbird replacement pickup. & well I'm out of the boat for Thunderbucker Ranch as I've just learned (better late than never) has closed shop a while back. So I'm left with options from the following for that angry piano/vintage TBird sound:
- Mike Lull
- Lollars
- Curtis Novaks
- ChinaBuckers from EYParts
If i'm forgetting any builder, please mention them. This would most likely go into my TreeBird, however i would then paint the covers in black to match the overall look of the bass. I am still considering the Eric Custom Gibson spec'd Modern pickups (in the epiphone casing), mainly because they are inexpensive, & a different set than my Deep Sixx pickups (which i'm unsure how close they are to standard epiphone IV TBplus pickups). I'm aware the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop offers Tbird pickups, but rarely have seen/read anyone talk about them considering the amount of Lulls, Lollars, Novaks, Thunderbucker Ranch devotees. Probably due to relatively the same amount of $$$ spent, why go for Duncan when there are other "small" builders. & being in Canada, the $$ exchange is a bit more than USD, but money isn't an issue if i'm looking for perhaps the pickups that would suit my musical venture best.
I know we're all very different players in terms of our tone/sound, fx if any, pick/fingerstyle. I always play my bird with a pick as i'm dominently a pick user. & fingerstyle doesn't feel great compared to playing my pbasses. I consider my Bird as a heavy rock beast - currently its low end is thunderrous, a little sparkle on top, mids do sit in the lower mid vs upper mids, but i can get a bit of upper mid bump depending on how my amp is set. Usually go from subtle overdriven, to chaotic distorted (fuzz isn't really my thing, as i've not found a fuzz i enjoyed enough to keep as part of my rig).
I think i fell for the thunderbird look with Nikki Sixx, even though i feel his best tone (least in studio, live really depends), with his Spector birds (so EMG Reverse P/J pickups, single volume, & way different woods from the Gibson counterpart). The modern Bird tone i enjoyed was Twiggy live with Manson back in the 90's-00's, just heavy, loud, & gritty. Early bird tones was Mott the Hoople/Overend Watts, to me that's a solid vintage bird tone. Enthwistle to me, while i enjoy his bird tones, i've always prefered his early Who days with a Pbass, + he's always had this big gritty tone no matter what bass he played xD
Apologies for the long post, in short - what's everyones personal experience with pickups from Lull, Lollar, Novaks, the Chinabucker, & BuckerRanch (even though they're gone, it'll give me an idea of what amde them special to everyone, & which of the two he offered 63' & 66' came out on top).
Cheers!
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