There was a Gibson reissue vs Chinabuckers blind comparison in the Thunderbird club. IIRC nobody guessed right, including me
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Thunderbird vs Grabber tone? (P bass mod quandary)
- Thread starter BigBassEnergy
- Start date
Visit the Thunderbird Club and pose that question...
I think it's more that when you're buying the MIC ones, there's less consistency from batch to batch. Epiphone will switch suppliers and the pickups change a bit.
I have played that Thunderbird. It may well be the best Thunderbird in the world.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Exactly. Comparing anything to the orange Lull means that whatever is getting compared will be second best to the orange Lull. That one is the gold standard. Kinda red-gold, since it's orange, but close enough.
And it'll sound great in the P position.Very sick! The reason I like the idea of the t bird in the normal P position is that I can always route for a bridge pickup at a later date
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
If sliding pickups were a big improvement, there would be more basses with them
I modded Lollar thunderbird pickups into a Fender Jaguar, maybe 10 years ago. They are Lollar's take, on a vintage TB pickup. Which are a lot different than the pickups in most modern Gibsons.
They are freaking fantastic. High output. Tons of tone and texture and growl. You dont have to play hard or exaggerate your technique to get the lows, the growl, the fullness, or the sweet-yet full highs.
They will push your cab more than usual. Uncommonly punchy. And its not something you can hear in a processed youtube video.
Rolling the tone off is phat as hell. And effects seem to track better than ever, with these pickups.
They aint cheap. But, they are totally worth it.
It has remained my favorite tone. I have used various Nordstrands in my other bass. I like Nordstrand a lot. But this Jaguar with Lollar TB pickups is THE tone, for me.
They are freaking fantastic. High output. Tons of tone and texture and growl. You dont have to play hard or exaggerate your technique to get the lows, the growl, the fullness, or the sweet-yet full highs.
They will push your cab more than usual. Uncommonly punchy. And its not something you can hear in a processed youtube video.
Rolling the tone off is phat as hell. And effects seem to track better than ever, with these pickups.
They aint cheap. But, they are totally worth it.
It has remained my favorite tone. I have used various Nordstrands in my other bass. I like Nordstrand a lot. But this Jaguar with Lollar TB pickups is THE tone, for me.
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Thanks for the feedback everyone! I really appreciate the insight. More opinions are always welcome
IMO, this is the best youtube tone demo of vintage NR thunderbird tone. Lollars nail this tone.
The black bass is a single pickup. This should help you get in the ballpark on what these sound like.
The red bass is an original, vintage Gibson. The Kaminari Yardbirds use Lollars----except for the blue one which says on screen that it has Lull pickups. And then there is a newer Gibson re-issue, with modern Gibson pickups).
The black bass is a single pickup. This should help you get in the ballpark on what these sound like.
The red bass is an original, vintage Gibson. The Kaminari Yardbirds use Lollars----except for the blue one which says on screen that it has Lull pickups. And then there is a newer Gibson re-issue, with modern Gibson pickups).
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Could be - I believe the Eric Customs are wound in larger batches than say Mike Lull with a larger margin of error, which is still pretty impressive considering all the less-mainstream options they offer such as Gretsch and Rickenbacker pickups. As for Epiphone, I've heard about differences between VP and 60 Thunderbird pickups, and I'm interested in trying out a 60 even though I'm still happy with my VP.
The noticeable difference to my ears is between the VP 760's and the newer iteration in the 64's.
I always say the quintessential Thunderbird tone is from the Kids In The Hall theme, ("Having an Average Weekend" by Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet)
Hello everyone. I bough a MIM P Bass locally for modding. Ordered a custom routed pickguard from WD music and a Lollar t bird pickup. I love to tinker so I am pretty pumped up to get to work on this. What value pots does everyone use? Lollar's site says 250k so I am inclined to listen to manufacturer specs, however, this is against the common logic of humbucker = 500k, single coil =250k. Any input?
That tone is wicked!!!!!! Love love love it! T birds rule!!!
