AN ENDORSEMENT
The TB+ - for those of us here who care about sound, not looks or casing materials that echo how cars looked in the 50ies - is an excellent, versatile, yet idiosyncratic pup, period. It always makes itself heard, yet doesn't step on the sonic toes of others.
I'd never describe a TB+ as "cutting through" though (other, lesser pups might {have to} do that), it has its own realm where it reigns supreme. It doesn't need to "cut through" in a "get out of the way!" manner, it's musical and self-assured. No need to be nasty to get noticed.
For me, the TB+ is an inexplicably underrated pup and has been for the last 30 years or so. Gibson never marketed it as a replacement pup and neither the soap bar nor the guitar humbucker versions really lend themselves visual-design-stylistically to upgrade non-Gibson basses, but sonically that pup is a
Geheimwaffe. I've put it on countless basses where it wasn't before, it never disappointed, but elevated each and every instrument. Dark forces who shall not me named here lulled me into fancy-pants luthier replacement pups for my Explorer Reissue which came with the immaculate TB+ - I did so and have regretted it ever since. We learn from that: Replacing TB+ pups is a nasty habit.
An - even here - unsung hero, nuff said. Sure, it beats a P/J combo, no surprises there. Compared to the subtle and even power of a TB+, a P/J combo sounds juvenile - forever finger-snapping for attention.
