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« on: January 16, 2024, 12:37:30 PM »
So the 1990 Thunderbird I bought is a true Gibson, because it has some unpredictably strange parts. When I got it, the pickups both sounded really good (the bridge pickup is the best TB bridge pickup I've ever heard) but there was a huge volume drop with both pickup volumes at max. Worse, the volume went to almost zero as you rolled the tone off. But no matter, I thought, I wanted to change the electronics to master volume-blend-tonestyler (a multi-cap pot I like). The problem persists even there. After handing it to my luthier, we've concluded the pickups themselves are this way. While it sounds like I'm describing a phase issue, they most certainly aren't out of phase. Their impedance readings are a bit unusual: about 7.1 neck, 7.5 bridge. They both sound perfectly fine solo'd. They're kind of behaving out of phase though because they're canceling out a lot of signal, magnified when the tone pot adds further resistance.
So long story short, any suggestions for what I should do? Here's some options you may ponder:
1) Leave as is, change blend knob to neck-or-bridge solo switch, keep tonestyler. I almost always play my other Thunderbirds either 60/40 neck or 40/60 bridge. I very rarely solo one pickup, so it would be quite different playing-wise.
2) Get new pickups. Gibson sells TB+ replacements now and there are a couple very expensive options besides. I really do like the sound of these pickups though: a little clearer and less aggressive than the TB+ in my 2004 Thunderbird. I could sell the old ones, but who would want them?
3) Leave as is, revert to Volume-Volume-Tone. Go back to stock and just deal with the volume drop.
For reference, TB1958 asked what they looked like and these are the culprits: