I doubt that the outoput on mine is "normal" (i.e. at the lower end of regular production range, maybe there is a loose wiring in the pup somewhere) - it's even less than on my real Bicentennial ("The Bass which came from the Cold") and that is lower than on any of my 60ies or modern day TBirds with one exception: the 1987/88 prototype mentioned above, those soap bars have a real low output too (and hence more clarity when turned up loud). Reading the posting of our New York kid, they could actually be PJ Marx inside (I never thought of that frankly), they sound similar to the PJ Marx split coil I have on my Q-90 bass. Those pups are nothing to write home about, but then the Grabber pups on the predecessor Q-80 sounded
grab crap too.
You might ask:
"Why don't you get the pup repaired?" "So that it sounds like my other Bicentennial?" would be my reply. I once had a TV-yellow*** EB-0 LP Junior Dave had gracefully sourced for me and it had this one of a kind mudbucker that had hardly any woof but sounded middish and slighty distorted. I liked that sound. Then one day it gave up on me and my luthier repaired what I only then learned was a faulty pick-up - of course it now sounds like any other of my myriad mudbuckers!
So I'm sticking with my "broken" sidewinder until one day it will totally give up on me - makes me think of Dusty Hill who played for years on his beloved Tele Bass with a broken pup without realizing it, was dismayed about the sound change when it was repaired and then had "broken pups" custom-(badly)wound for himself!
***There is an interesting story waiting to be told here, but Dave forbids it!
