I hesitate to post this. $45 Thunderbird pickups.

[godofthunder]

A BaCH Fenderbird came in today. I ordered it to install these Hong Kong Thunderbuckers.
But the bass sounds incredibly good straight out of the box already... Guess I sort of forgot how good these actually are.

Now I'm in dubio what to do. Should I go ahead and install those Thunderbuckers anyway? Or should I figure out some other new project?

  Rob while the Artech is a fine pickup it sure ain't no Thunderbird pickup. Not only will the Chinese Tbird pups look the part they will sound it. I say mod it!

[godofthunder]

"I've never been too convinced about the Bicentennial pickup."

Amen! Public perception tainted by nostalgia.

Totally agree Bcient. pickups are feeble at best!

[Basvarken]

Thanx for the advice Scott.
Would a 9,2 K version be better for the bridge position? And the 8 K for the neck position?
Or would I rather keep both the same impedance?

[Highlander]

That would be as per original, iirc

I have an 8k Lollar in the bridge slot of my PC and I find the sound rather good (to say the least) but...

[godofthunder]

Thanx for the advice Scott.
Would a 9,2 K version be better for the bridge position? And the 8 K for the neck position?
Or would I rather keep both the same impedance?

  I would put 9.2K in both positions............................... to be honest I never got the higher value being in the bridge position

[Highlander]

I think the original idea was to try and balance the sound levels, but...?

[Alanko]

I think the notion is that there is less excursion in the strings the closer to the bridge you get, so you need a hotter pickup to get the most out of the limited movement in the strings. Sounds a bit like bollocks to me. It would make more sense to have a wider sensing area in the pickup, as a 'hot' pickup is a fairly abstract concept unless you know other attributes of the pickup, such as the wire used or the magnets used.

I've seen some guys flake out on Talkbass over a 200 ohm difference in Jazz bass pickups. 

[lowend1]

I'm a fan of the higher output pickup being at the bridge because I like that edge.

With regard to the much maligned low output of the Bicentennial pickups - they have their place. There is something about the tone of those pickups through an old Ampeg V4B w/SVT cab that I absolutely love. If you are used to hotter or active pickups, though, you'll wind up fighting them. I learned to push the Ampeg's volume knob a little harder, and the tone just killed.

[Dave W]

I think the notion is that there is less excursion in the strings the closer to the bridge you get, so you need a hotter pickup to get the most out of the limited movement in the strings. Sounds a bit like bollocks to me. It would make more sense to have a wider sensing area in the pickup, as a 'hot' pickup is a fairly abstract concept unless you know other attributes of the pickup, such as the wire used or the magnets used.

I've seen some guys flake out on Talkbass over a 200 ohm difference in Jazz bass pickups. 

You probably know that there's more to output than the DC resistance measurements. That makes you smarter than Talkbass flakes. 

Regardless of measurement, it makes sense to have a slightly hotter pickup close to the bridge.

As for these pickups, I would just listen and compare instead of relying on DC resistance.

[Basvarken]

I've ordered a pair of 9.2 K pickups. 

They had the shipping cost set much higher and an extra import fee.
I asked them why there was a $30 difference of addition costs between the 8k pickup and the 9.2k pickup.
They apologised and set it to the same as the 8k. 

Now I can make a combination of 8 k and 9.2 k or just a pair of either.

[Basvarken]

Installed the 8k pair in the BaCHbird.
I decided to make a spacer under the mount ring of the bridge pickup. I used a piece of single ply control plate material
The pickups are so shallow they actually sit flush to the surface of the body. So I needed extra height for the ring.

You were right Scott. Pickups sound awesome.
I'm glad I did it.
Now I eagerly await the 9.2 K pair for the Fenderbird.
BANZAI!!

[Alanko]

That looks the business! Excited for mine to arrive, though they still seem to be doing a tour of China at the moment. Still not sure exactly what to do with mine, but I'm pretty keen to stick them in my Tokai T-bird. The headstock is in the middle of a refinish though....

[Pekka]

My second order was stuck in a post somewhere In China so they resend it. Customer service seems to be working with eypickups.

Any clips of that Bachbird? I was wondering about getting another pair for my '76.

[Alanko]

You probably know that there's more to output than the DC resistance measurements. That makes you smarter than Talkbass flakes. 

I earned a warning over on TB for this!

In short, some teenage dude had some sort of PJ bass, and the J pickup route was only wide enough for pickups with what are traditionally considered neck pickup dimensions. I pointed out that he could route ~ 2 mm on each end of the pickup cavity. No dice. I pointed out that with a sharp chisel it would be 2 minutes' work. No dice.

Okay. Why not just buy a neck pickup then? According to kiddo, neck pickups are completely different animals to bridge pickups. You wouldn't fit the neck pickup for a Telecaster in the bridge slot, right? (Some do, but never mind). An all round stupid suggestion. Why? Because Jazz bass bridge pickups are about 500 ohms hotter than their neck counterparts.

I then asked, why not simply buy a hotter neck pickup? Find a high output Jazz set and use the neck pickup? No, not possible, because you never use a neck pickup as a bridge pickup.

I then pointed out that early MIM Jazz basses shipped with two pickups of the exact same dimensions. Still no dice, kiddo didn't want to learn and I kept getting "why does it matter so much?" thrown right back at me. Just about the dictionary definition of wilful ignorance. I eventually called him wilfully ignorant, and got a ban!

Having said that, I just had my arse handed to me on TDPRI for asking why guitarists rigidly use microfarads as the single unit for capacitors (0.0047 uF looks idiotic) and tend to not include the unit. Therefore you get some old hick on there saying "well I find a 0.022 sounds a bit more buttery than a 0.047, praise Jeebus and Waylon Jennings". As far as I'm concerned if you pay well over the odds for standard electronic components because you have a tortuously anti-intellectual approach to guitar technology then you deserve all you get. This is why Stew Mac are in business, right?

[uwe]

 

Alan, keep on going like this and the grounds of the LBO will be the only forum left for you to stroll in! We're non-discriminating, you know?

Will Foo Ign O'Rant sounds like a good handle though.