Thunderbird Club

[BklynKen]

The Greco pickups are hard to beat.

I've heard that about SVTs and I don't like them.

 

[Engle]

Be interesting to hear them in a Gibby made bird with the standard scale length....

And a mahogany neck

 

[GonePlaid]

My '74 (in 81) with RS66 of course....
View attachment 7137188

No hat?

 

[GBassNorth]

Be interesting to hear them in a Gibby made bird with the standard scale length....

What would interest me most would be a set of Greco pickups in a standard length Tbird but in the Greco location vs the Gibson location. The Greco pickups are positioned quite a bit closer to each other their Gibson counterparts.

Greco spacing, about one pickup width from the bridge but just barely a pickup width between the two pickups…

Vs Gibson NR Reissue, with the bridge pickup in a similar location to the Greco but the neck pickup quite a bit further away from the bridge pickup…

For reference, my CP bird with the unique pickup spacing which has the neck pickup closer to the bridge pickup but still quite a bit further away away than a Greco…

 

[Engle]

A little shorter. Sometimes they are described in listings as 33. Sometimes 33 1/2 from what I’ve seen.

All that's needed is someone to measure from the nut to the center of the 12th fret and double it. I believe it's 33 1/4, same as a Ric.

 

[Camaro69]

What would interest me most would be a set of Greco pickups in a standard length Tbird but in the Greco location vs the Gibson location. The Greco pickups are positioned quite a bit closer to each other their Gibson counterparts.

Greco spacing, about one pickup width from the bridge but just barely a pickup width between the two pickups…
View attachment 7137456

Vs Gibson NR Reissue, with the bridge pickup in a similar location to the Greco but the neck pickup quite a bit further away from the bridge pickup…
View attachment 7137452

For reference, my CP bird with the unique pickup spacing which has the neck pickup closer to the bridge pickup but still quite a bit further away away than a Greco…
View attachment 7137453

Thanks for not posting pictures of your hairy toes

Nice slippers

 

[Ringhammer]

No they are slightly shorter at a 33.5” scale. I really don’t even notice the difference unless I play them back to back with a standard length bird.

That explains why the claw is there then, to pulls back the anchor point so regular 34” scale strings will work.

 

[dagrev]

The Greco pickups are hard to beat.

Why would you want to? Seems so unkind.

 

[dagrev]

nah this.....
View attachment 7137289

DiMarzio's in a Pbass are killer. Even made me sound good.

 

[dagrev]

Thanks for not posting pictures of your hairy toes

Nice slippers

Yes, and Amen to both.

 

[GBassNorth]

Thanks for not posting pictures of your hairy toes

Nice slippers

LOL - I’ve never been a toe man.

 

[GBassNorth]

That explains why the claw is there then, to pulls back the anchor point so regular 34” scale strings will work.

Hadn’t thought of that but you may very well be correct. I just assumed it was to increase break angle, get the silks off the saddles and maybe help eliminate the dreaded three point pull out.

 

[TBird1958]

That’s what I said. Now I’m looking at a second one.

Lulls are something special, I do treasure mine, I'm glad you got the one you did - Maybe another for you, very cool!

 

[TBird1958]

II Tuesday............

The day I picked it up, pic by Mike Lull.

 

[D.M.N.]

I looked into this a few thousand pages back. Maxon supplied the pickups until sometime around ‘81 when Fugi-Gen Gakki started making them in house.

Yep, Maxon, who also made most of the famous Ibanez effects pedals as well, such as the TS-808 and TS-9, and pickups for Greco and Ibanez. I've thought about sending my Greco pickup to Curtis Novak, see if he'd make a version of that along side his standard Thunderbird pickup.

 

[TBird1958]

Yep, Maxon, who also made most of the famous Ibanez effects pedals as well, such as the TS-808 and TS-9, and pickups for Greco and Ibanez. I've thought about sending my Greco pickup to Curtis Novak, see if he'd make a version of that along side his standard Thunderbird pickup.

You might see if Jason Lollar would be interested as well.

 

[Gaolee]

Yep, that's correct, Letter is the month, then year, then production number. Mine is G788249.

As long as we are discussing serial numbers, there seems to be some pretty consistent, but not conclusive, evidence that my EB-2 is actually a 1970, just based on the serial number lists scattered around the internet. The consensus isn't complete, though, and there's some pretty strong indications that it's really from 1968. Supposedly, there were 239 EB-2DC models shipped in 1968 and none in 1970, so that's a pretty good indicator that it isn't a 1970. EB-2DC meaning two pickups, cherry finish. That's based on records published by a source whose serial number decoder says it's a 1970. Go figure. But then, this is Gibson records we are talking about, so who knows when it was really made. It's been bugging me for a long time, as you all know pretty well by now. I'm going with 1968 for now. That's probably as good as anybody will ever get.

 

[Gaolee]

Ok.......
View attachment 7137194View attachment 7137195View attachment 7137196
View attachment 7137197

That looks like an awful place to be. Thanks for taking one for the team.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

I’m sure our Queen and other Greco owners can chime in with additional perspective, but if I had to characterize the sound of the Greco TB pickups I’d say they are beyond the grind and growl of an Eppi VP 760 ProBucker. More balls on the low end than most of my other birds except with clarity and richness, not muddy at all even with the tone knob all the way off. Noticeably louder output at any given setting than most of my other birds and crisp and clear but not harsh or thin highs. IMHO these are the best sounding Tbird pickups on the market, unfortunately discontinued and getting harder to find and more expensive every day. This bass just begs for a lefty conversion.

While my experience is more limited than some here, I concur.

 

[Gaolee]

At band rehearsal on Sunday I had some of the best tone I've ever had and I was using my Bicentennial. As a back story... in order to encourage adult behaviours, I arranged our rehearsal space so that everyone is on in-ear monitors and to avoid the inevitable volume wars with guitars I put bass and guitars through Kemper profile players. A few years back I had a couple Acoustic 360 stacks and used a Kemper to steal their souls and on Sunday played the bird through the Acoustic 360 profile - bliss. The perfect amount of grind and grit. If else anyone runs a Kemper and is interested in a copy of the profile, feel free to DM me and I'll e-mail it to you.

I still play through a 360 stack when I can. The original down in the basement is the practice amp from hell at the moment.