Thunderbird question

[Blackbird]

For those that have or have played both a modern T-bird (mine's an ebony from 2002) and the new Sixx T-bird, which of the two would you prefer sound-wise?

[TBird1958]

 I have a post '87 Bird and a Nikki Sixx Mk II ( and have had a N.S. MK I)  I'd say I like the N.S. MkII the best of them easily. It's darker and tighter than the standard 'Bird but not quite Les Paul  in tone, the stock pick ups are quite good and I changed mine out only because I have a very expensive fetish for chrome.

Now it's my very gaudy stage bass

 

[uwe]

You'd expect the maple wings to add brightness. They don't. They take presence away. It's the same phenomenon on the GoW Zebrabird, the zebra wood wings cut presence. Now zebra wood is a looker-, not a tone wood, but with maple? 

A regular full maho TBird with just the neck pup in action has more presence/clarity/brightness than a Nikki Sixx Mk II with its "both pups always" solitary mode. The latter is awesome (in its original form, nuff said and insinuated!) in looks, but sounds deader than a regular Bird would. A Blackbird Mk I offers more brightness, cut and clarity than the Mk II model too. People who prefer Grecos, Orvilles, Elitists etc, which to my ears actually all sound thudier than a reaL Bird, might prefer the Nikki Sixx though.

Uwe

[Bionic-Joe]

SOME...of the new ones I've played have been cool. The 80's ones seemed kinda lame. &0's rock, 60's KILL. BUT...Certain black pickups Kick ass. The ones that look like the Orvilles on the bottoms, which I think are the same thing, except for the cover.

[Blackbird]

I guess I'll stand pat with the 2002...I really don't get to play anymore, so was thinking about selling it and maybe grabbing the NS Mark II since it seems to be reasonably priced in Canada, but I'd still have to top up by 600-700 by the time it's all said and done.  I think I'm going thru a musical mid-life crisis....one day I'm thinking about this bass and that bass, then the next I'm selling it all   I like like Mark's Chromed up version a lot.

I wonder if Sixx actually uses these new birds at all hidden under custom paint jobs, or if they are still regular T-birds just modded with the on/off switch.

[stiles72]

You'd expect the maple wings to add brightness. They don't. They take presence away. It's the same phenomenon on the GoW Zebrabird, the zebra wood wings cut presence. Now zebra wood is a looker-, not a tone wood, but with maple? 

A regular full maho TBird with just the neck pup in action has more presence/clarity/brightness than a Nikki Sixx Mk II with its "both pups always" solitary mode. The latter is awesome (in its original form, nuff said and insinuated!) in looks, but sounds deader than a regular Bird would. A Blackbird Mk I offers more brightness, cut and clarity than the Mk II model too.

Uwe

Interesting... Your description of the MKII sounds more like what I hear out of my Blackbird, in comaprison to a regular IV.   Unplugged,  both my IV and my Blackbird sound too close to call (especially allowing for string differences) but plugged in they are night and day different. The Black bird has more volume, more thump, and much darker tone.  I always thought the pickups must be slightly different, and they do have some slight external differences on the bottom side where the magnets are exposed. If the maple bodied MkII sounds dark - which you wouldnt think it would - could Gibson actually be using pickups witch custom specs, even though they just advertise them as standard TB+ ?

[uwe]

I've never read anything suggesting the pups in the Gibson Nikki Sixx models - old and new - are anything but TB Plus. Only the Epiphone Nikki Sixx has special pups (which boost the mids more than the lows and are altogether of raucuous nature). In interviews around the release of the first Nikki Sixx signature, its namegiver would claim that the difference to a TBird was the fact "that the pups have direct contact to the wood which makes for a different sound". I never looked, but my guess is there is no difference in routing depth. Likewise, the new Nikki Sixx model uses standard TB Plus, albeit of the new generation "new design TB Plus", which have boosted output and ooomph at the expense of some clarity me thinks. But the newer reg TBirds have those "new design" pups too.

My Blackbird is the leanest sounding TBird I have. Over a small amp in the living room it sounds outright thin, but over a large rig it cuts through with greater clarity and assertiveness than a reg TB (of any era).

[Dave W]

Doesn't Mark have pics of various TB pickups showing the Nikki Sixx pickups were different?

[Barklessdog]

He was George's is very different




Wrong thread!!! This belongs here:   http://bassoutpost.com/index.php?topic=4252.0  Uwe

[uwe]

Not that I know. I think we've seen pictures of newer TB Plus (nineties) versus old TB Plus (eighties - when they came out and had a tendency to become microphonic over time) and Mark's left-over pups from customizing his Sixx II must certainly be the current TB Plus new design ones.

Epiphone heralded the DeepSixx pups on the Epiphone Blackbird as something very special, I'd be surprised if Gibson would have let that opportunity slip by. Except for special models, Gibson hasn't developed a new bass pup in the last 23 years or so. TB Plus pups have been on IV, V, TBird, EB-650, LPB-1/Special, LPB-3/Standard, Blackbird, Doublecut/Money, TBird Studio four- and five string, SG RI/Standard, Nikki Sixx Signature, Grabber II and LPB BFG. A pup for all seasons, though it has been modified over the years.

Whenever other pups cropped up on basses they were either Barts (LPB-2/DeLuxe, EB-750), EMGs (Lee Sklar Signature) or Seymour Duncan (Continental, Grabber II), ie obtained from other providers.

[Barklessdog]

Interesting how they slide such a small pickup in such a large casing.

[TBird1958]

Okay.............

Here are two of the four variations that I know of for post '88 Thunderbirds, these have had their ugly black casing brutally peel off so the could have a luxorious N.O.S. '76 chrome cover. One variation I don't a pic of is the one I suspect Bartolini made which is twin coil but without the large magnet on the bottom.


Nikki Sixx MkII pups, note the brass strip alongside the coil, not present on earlier variants.



Upps...........Body parts