Seymour Duncan Thunderbird pickup in a '76 cover

[godofthunder]

 Yesterday my '76 pickup cover came back from Seymour Duncan's custom shop stuffed with their vintage repro Thunderbird pickup. I know others have done this and I have even had the opportunity to play one of Bill's (drbassman) basses with one of these pickups. I installed the pickup in the bridge position of my  much modded 2001 Gibson Thunderbird ( aka the Butcher Bird). Wow  is all I have to say these pickups really nail the Thunderbird tone, For me the attraction of the Thunderbird pickup has been the cutting mids and sparkle while maintaining nice lows that no other unit can seem to match. This pickup works great with the Dimarzo Model G, it gives the bass more cutting power and  sparkle ( I love that word to describe Tbird pups). This was well worth the $ imho, $29.00 for the cover and ring, $197.00 for the pickup so for a total of $226.00 delivered you get a excellent repro Thunderbird pickup. I would use these for TB builds, Converting a new Tbird to chrome, restoring a '76 (I never liked the '76 pickups). If I had a 60's Thunderbird needing pickups these would work also but I think If I were restoring a 60's Bird I would go the extra mile and buy the Mike Lull repro pickups for the astetics, covers made with the original dies and two holes where the '76 covers have three holes and a bigger radius on the top edge.

[copacetic]

I realy love my '03 TBIV (and the TB+ Pups) but the one thing is the pickups are noisy at times. Is this SD custom you've just installed quieter than the TB's? Did you shield your cavity?

[godofthunder]

I really can't say if they are quieter than TB Plus pups (which are very quiet imho). The repro pups are quit enough for me.  Nowhere near as noisy as say a Jazz bass. My control cavity is shielded.

[copacetic]

It might be a little off the thread heading here but may I ask you about the bridge you have on yer bass there? I have often felt I could tweak the overall action on mine if there was a different bridge other than the 3 point. I realize a few adjustments might be necessary to go along with another bridge). Of course in my case I would have to have black but that could definitly be arranged no matter what the base material.

[godofthunder]

 That's a Badass I on there. The bridge dose improve the playability. You can adjust each string height. The problem with the Badass is that it does not cover the three post holes completely. Hipshot makes a direct replacement That is the best way to go imho. http://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.php?m=product_list&c=31