[TBird1958]

In a feeble attempt to maintain decorum here ( I can get carried away with silliness) I have some pics and a story to share.
It all started about two months ago when Scott (BassVI) posted some shots on another forum of some TB plus pickups he was removing the black plastic covers from and inserting them into N.O.S. chrome covers purchased on ebay. Being inspired by his work I went ahead and purchased the parts I needed to give this a try. I was very reluctant to disassemble this particular bass (I'm no luthier), a white '89 that has been a very trusty player over the years, driven by my chrome fetish I forged on. Upon removing the pickups I found it quite easy to take the black plastic covers off of them using a pair of xuron cutters to grasp and snap it away. This is where it turns to a tale of woe :( While hand drilling new mounting holes for the chrome covers I nicked and completely destroyed one of the coils....one of the pickups was instantly so much trash!
After looking around abit on ebay I remembered that Scott's project had met a similar fate with a nicked pickup wire and low output.
Here's where I need to say THANK YOU Scott very publicly, because he very generously offered his "orphan" undamaged pickup to me for free!
And to top it off, he gets it into UPS during a real bad Oklahoma ice/snow storm! I just don't think there are any finer people!
The real surprise was that this pickup was quite different from mine, I have no idea how long one, or the other has been used by Gibson. I again very carefully removed the black plastic and sucessfully drilled mounting holes for the new pickup - it also required me to rout out(scarey!) the bridge pickup cavity to accomodate its large magnet.The photos show my original pickup on the bottom and left







Since these were taken I have mounted them both in the bass sucessfully, I did trim some material off of the sides of the cover for the newer pickup to allow it to sit lower in the cavity. I'm waiting for a few parts to come back from the chrome plater so when its all finished up I'll have some more shots to post.
Again many thanks to Scott, you're the finest kind of person! I definately owe you.

[chromium]

That came out nice, Mark!

Were you able to drill mounting holes for that third (middle/center) screw hole on the covers? I'm guessing that may have been the one that took out your coil. Just curious - I've got a few of these that I'll want to load up with guts at some point.

[TBird1958]

Thanks Joe,

The one I destroyed was of the earlier type, so it was actually at the corner that I caught the coil with the drill bit....I was SO pissed! I was not able to drill for the third mounting screw on the newer pickup that Scott sent me, however I did sink a hole just far enough in to mount a "dummy" screw, so it looks like it has one. The two outer screws work fine to hold the pickup in place. Hope the helps you from a similar disaster.....I don't think Scott has too many more spare pickups!

[donnervogel]

Let me attempt a summary: Both Scott and Herr Geiger undertake fiendish experiments on TWO (!) perfectly good PAIRS (!) of TB Plus black/grey plastic soapies and end up with a casuality rate of 50 % (!!!) in their cruel "skinning & impaling" process. :cry: A case for Amnesty International if I've seen one. They then brag about their vile wrongdoings publicly with (possibly) even innocent minors watching. The mind boggles.

But I herwith muster all my liberal laissez faire convictions: If that is what turns you on, then so be it. Just work on that casuality rate, ok?

Re the pup differences: I have never seen TB Plus pups that look like yours, Mark, all the ones I have seen look like Scott's "orphan", sometimes with the elliptical coils covered by epoxy in full and sometimes with the elliptical round "borders" sticking out like in the pic (a set of 2007 TB Plus pups I recently got off ebay have that), so I suppose that is the current style while the older ones were covered in full. But the TB Plus pups have changed in sound over time, late nineties specimen sound more forceful than the first late eighties versions. And come 2007, Gibson has claimed to have equipped its TBirds with "new design TB Plus" pups though I have been unable to acoustically - they look exactly the same - spot a difference except perhaps an (in my view: unnecessary) addition of even further ooomph at the sacrifice of clarity. Just wait for it: By 2017 Gibson will have reinvented the mudbucker in TB Plus guise! :P

But they'll still use black plastic just to annoy you guys! :twisted:

Uwe

(President and sole member of the ABPL - "Advancement of Black Plastic League")

[Chris P]

Originally Posted by donnervogel

Let me attempt a summary: Both Scott and Herr Geiger undertake fiendish experiments on TWO (!) perfectly good PAIRS (!) of TB Plus black/grey plastic soapies and end up with a casuality rate of 50 % (!!!) in their cruel "skinning & impaling" process. :cry: A case for Amnesty International if I've seen one. They then brag about their vile wrongdoings publicly with (possibly) even innocent minors watching. The mind boggles.

They are like a modern bass-Josef Mengele. :wink:

If I see the 'Mark' pick up I would almost think it's a Fender Precision Split pick up in Gibson clothes. Look again!! :twisted:

[TBird1958]

Uwe,

Seriously I damn near cried when F'd that pickup, they don't sound anything like the newer ones. As much as I love how my bass will look with the chrome parts on it, I never, ever had a problem with how this particular bass sounded....Loud and definately higher in the mix with the band than my ' 76's. Most of the time I think we who have the older harder to get 'Birds look down on the modern ones as not being as good, certainly not the case with this one.

[rockinrayduke]

Note to self: don't F with the pickups. :D

A handyman I am NOT.

[jules]

Interesting indeed. Mark, you are a brave man... well, we knew that anyway :wink:

But as you say, you paid a price for that bravery....

How will you mount them? I also bought some (didn't we all?) ... I had temporary chrome-blindness and hit BIN without thinking about all the other parts you need. Will you just screw it in with a couple springs, or do you have a source for replacement 'other bits'.

I was considering getting someone to recreate a 60s or 70s thunderbird pickup - i'm sure Seymour Duncan or Kent Armstrong have the original specs, and maybe bobbins to match - but I don't actually need these yet, so there is no rush....

[TBird1958]

Okay, mine are to retro fit my '89 which *may* have different cavity routs than say a '76. I've snagged this pic from DR Bassman to show the point.
As you can see these cavities are routed out in two steps to accomodate the present production pickup which is screwed thru at two points.....
My '89 did not have these steps in the cavities, the original pickups were screwed into the body with only some small bits of foam (usless after 20 years) to give any angle adjustment. The pickups are such a tight fit into the covers there was really no need to adhere them together, mine are now re-mounted in my bass by carefully drilling new holes for some Allparts pickup mounting screws directly into the body,and routing a step into the bridge pickup cavity,not keeping the dead bits foam.....its a loud bass so I'm not worried about the pickups being completely parallel to the strings


Hope its okay to post this shot to illustrate the point

[donnervogel]

I never knew that the modern day TBirds had that ugly (and plain lazy as it is not really necessary, just convenient) cable/lead route lurking underneath the pickguard as I've never had the need to look underneath one. Is that true for all models? The Blackbird sure doesn't have it as you would see it underneath the see-thru scratch plate.

I actually like that pickguardless look on a sunburst bass. It would give me ideas if it weren't for that ugly route.

Uwe