If you can change pots, you can swap the +/- wire locations for one of the pickups, to see if its a phase issue. You simply swap the wire attach points and then plug in and see if its sounds better with both pickups yes/no
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
You went 5 states away to buy a hand cart?
I would make my own cables, but who has time to smelt copper?
Last time I did that, it 'smelt' awful.
Thanks Chuck (and Miles) for filling a gap in my ignorance! Shield was confusing and didn't seem to sound like another wire. I'm not sure how you switch the Hot and shield if there's just one wire? I really, really ignorant here. There were two wires, I would get it just reverse them. But with one wire in the shielding I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.
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You went 5 states away to buy a hand cart?
The tone of the wheels is no to be believed! So worth it!
Thanks. Just undo the wire and resolder someplace on the other end of the PU if metal? But they will look like this and I'm not sure what can switch.
yes, basically swap the connection points. You'll need a pretty beefy iron. If not, you could try and connect temporarily with alligator clips just to identify the issue. You could also compare the wiring (before doing anything) to that of another T-Bird.
Are their prime years for thunderbirds from 80s on? I knew as a guitar player Gibson was hot with their guitars from like 86 or something to miss 90s. Would this apply to thunderbird basses too?
Anyone with experience from Ey Guitar Music (NOT Ey Parts Music which seems to be a fraud site)? Their vintage style Thunderbird pickups are getting pretty rave reviews at Bass Out Post. At $100 a pair they are reasonably priced. One reviewer seem to notice they feedback.
Thanks. My iron is as cheap as they come, unfortunately. Only needed one a time or two. This one is one of the modern black pickups and is pretty different from everything else I have. I haven't looked at the back side of the VP PUs. I assumed that they were metal on the back like the old ones. This black modern PU will have all that black epoxy and I am still uncertain as to what I'm supposed to disconnect and reconnect elsewhere since it seems to be epoxied in and any place else I could connect also has the black epoxy everywhere. Sorry, I'm just very ignorant about this. Never needed to be any more knowledgeable than I am until now! Maybe tonight I can pull one and stare at it as if I know what I'm looking for!
- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,895
- 142,212
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
Bass Outpost is THE source for Gibson fans - just sayin'
I have EY - or ChinaBuckers in my Orville, I like them, but they're not as good as what comes stock on an Epiphone Vintage Pro and they're nowhere near as good as a Lull.
Tone demo
- Mar 13, 2008
- 18,895
- 142,212
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist Mike Lull T Bass pickups, The Bass Shop, Seattle WA.
No.
'60s Thunderbirds are generally consider "best" but other years have their own unique appeal. '76s by virtue of a completely different pickup have their own thing going on. Aside from a very small number of Custom Shop "Birds in '86 Gibson didn't start production of Thunderbirds until '88 (Henry J's one good decision!). Early years of the reissue production utilized at least 3 different pickups that I'm aware of so there's a fair bit of tonal variation amongst them, the other big deal would be that early years of the reissue do not have much pitch to the neck compared to current models - I'm not certain of the year that this change was made.
I'll save you some effort and take a snapshot of my birds control cavity. You can then see if the wires going to each volume pot are the same as yours.
To help clarify things - there's no need to flip any wires at the Pickup end of the circuit. With your pups in your bass just flip it over and remove the control cavity cover. You'll see the wiring coming into the cavity from each Pickup. Each pup wire will have a woven mesh outer cover and an single wire soldered to your volume pots. The woven mesh outer cover is the shield wire. The single wire is the hot wire.
If your two wires (shield and hot) from each pup are not soldered on to each pot exactly like mine you'll have a phase issue. If your wires are in fact soldered like mine you most likely don't have a phase issue, unless the goofballs at Gibson screwed up the windings/shield wires on the pup before they set it in epoxy, which I highly doubt.
To correct a phase issue you'll need to desolder the woven mesh wire and the hot wire from one volume pot then resolder those two wires back to that same pot putting the hot wire where the mesh wire was and the mesh where the hot was. Good news is, I'd bet money that's not your problem.
Control cavity pic coming up...
you can't do anything at the pickup end, it has to be at the bass end. If the pickup connects to the case of a pot and some lug invert these connections. PM me if you prefer.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I don't usually like black instruments, but with that pickguard, and all the chrome, it really works well.
