Thunderbird pickup dilemma

[chromium]

Beautiful bass, and I kinda like the black hardware on it too.  I get along well with TB+ pickups, and so I wouldn't be too hasty to swap 'em out.  I used Mark's approach on my Bach NR and stripped/re-housed the TBs in some of the nickel NOS 70s covers.  Worked great!

I was gonna suggest another option, if you really like the chrome look, is to maybe swap the bridge and tuners for chrome pieces, leave the black pickups, and just get some chrome rings for them.  GearHed289 did something like that on a later model cherry Les Paul bass, and I thought it looked fantastic.  Adds some sparkle, and kinda reminded me of the Triumph aesthetic with the black pickups and chrome rings...

[finlover]

My own personal expierience with replacing metal pup covers over the stock Gibson ones is that it's pretty easy to do, but also that it does change their tone somewhat, adding a bit of metallic clank in the case of my Gibsons - and in the case of my Burny the opposite happened, they lost a bit of their high end after I put Lull covers on them.

Excellent advice as always, TBird1958!!  The cover swap changing the tone is something I didn't think of.  Now I'm leaning toward just installing a set of black rings which might give it the extra bit of pizzazz that it needs.

[finlover]

I was gonna suggest another option, if you really like the chrome look, is to maybe swap the bridge and tuners for chrome pieces, leave the black pickups, and just get some chrome rings for them.  GearHed289 did something like that on a later model cherry Les Paul bass, and I thought it looked fantastic.  Adds some sparkle, and kinda reminded me of the Triumph aesthetic with the black pickups and chrome rings...

Great suggestion, chromium.  Wow, that is one beautiful bass!  Maybe I'll get both black and chrome rings just to see if the chrome looks okay with the black.  Or down the road I might put a chrome bridge and tuners on it--the swap is easy enough!

[gearHed289]

Beautiful bass, and I kinda like the black hardware on it too.  I get along well with TB+ pickups, and so I wouldn't be too hasty to swap 'em out.  I used Mark's approach on my Bach NR and stripped/re-housed the TBs in some of the nickel NOS 70s covers.  Worked great!

I was gonna suggest another option, if you really like the chrome look, is to maybe swap the bridge and tuners for chrome pieces, leave the black pickups, and just get some chrome rings for them.  GearHed289 did something like that on a later model cherry Les Paul bass, and I thought it looked fantastic.  Adds some sparkle, and kinda reminded me of the Triumph aesthetic with the black pickups and chrome rings...

What he said! 

I have also followed Mark's lead and skinned a TB+ to slip into a 70s NOS chrome cover for another bass.

[planetgaffnet]

Personally I'd never put a Hipshot bridge on a T Bird, yes it's well designed but the aesthetics leave me  

I know before I took delivery of my white T-Bird that I wanted to swap out the stock bridge for a Hipshot Supertone...I'm so glad I did; the original was just a bit too crap to be honest and I needed full control over action and intonation.  I mean you'd expect that on a $1,500 bass.  I have a second Thunderbird arriving in a few days and I'm wondering whether I should get one on order pending it's arrival.
P

[Highlander]

Mark/TBird supplied me with a spare '76 cover to put over a skinned RD Artist pup that works fine but something too good to miss will be replacing that so I'll probably slot that one into another project...

[finlover]

Mark/TBird supplied me with a spare '76 cover to put over a skinned RD Artist pup that works fine but something too good to miss will be replacing that so I'll probably slot that one into another project...

That Lollar is gonna be sweet!

[finlover]

I got an email back from Dave at Frets on the Net today who says he's backed up for 4 to 5 weeks so no instant gratification this time. Apparently he makes the pickup rings himself out of either polished, brushed, or anodized black aircraft aluminum.  He says the '60s, '76-'79, and modern 'birds all have different inside diameters.  Just for kicks I'm getting a set of rings in polished aluminum in hopes that they'll match the knob inserts and not look too out-of-place with the black hardware.  But to be on the safe side I'm also ordering the anodized black ones, which I'm fairly certain will look great.  Too bad I don't know my way around Photoshop so I could get a little preview!

[lowend1]

Is it me, does it look like pickup rings might overhang the raised center section? I like the idea of some minimal brightwork - but I think it looks great as is.

[TBird1958]

Is it me, does it look like pickup rings might overhang the raised center section? I like the idea of some minimal brightwork - but I think it looks great as is.

It does look to be a tight fit..........but I'd be surprised if it were any different that my N.S.Mk.II



It's a tight fit on a '76 too.

[uwe]

What did you do to that stylish black hardware of the NS Signature, Mark!!!!  You've cheapened it with all that glimmer ...

[TBird1958]

What did you do to that stylish black hardware of the NS Signature, Mark!!!!  You've cheapened it with all that glimmer ...

 Just remember, I'm freakish tall onstage (6' 5") with purple/pink hair, the subdued black couldn't keep up with me!
 I freely admit that it's very gaudy, *almost* an overdose on the chrome. It's my bass now tho, not Nikki's..........And yes that is the world's only CHROME PLATED OPTI - GRAB 

[uwe]

Yes, I noticed.  Insult to injury, Mark, insult to injury! 

[TBird1958]

 You know the best parts was that some of those parts were black.........I had them stripped!

Chemical dip chromey goodness............

[Freuds_Cat]

........And yes that is the world's only CHROME PLATED OPTI - GRAB 

hahaha awesome!