Precision Thunderbird assembly

[Alanko]

I've had this project bass hidden away for a while.




It's an aftermarket P Bass body I routed for a MM style pickup. It sounded ok, but too bright and scooped. I also didn't like the neck.



I've stripped the pickup and pickguard off the body and replaced the neck. This is a Fender Jazz Bass neck that I added a '66 style decal to:




I also bought a Gibson Thunderbird pickup from EBay, and cut a new pickguard from ivory pearloid material. This brings me to here:



I need to wire it all up and probably do a lot of additional setup and tweaking, but so far things look ok.

[Dave W]

Looks good. Probably won't sound much like a TBird, but should be interesting.

[Alanko]

Yup it doesn't sound like a T-bird! It has sort of chocolaty tone with attenuated highs and very smooth, compressed mids. It sounds pretty nice.

[OldManC]

Nice looking P. I like how it turned out!

[morrow]

That should sound great. Always appreciated two knob simplicity.

[Alanko]

Like my last experiment with a Gibson T-bird pickup, this one is also microphonic and susceptible to interference. The two things an epoxy-sealed humbucker should not be!

The neck-side coil appears to be the microphonic one. I had the pickup screaming on me with the bass through mild distortion.

[Rob]

Nice looking P. I like how it turned out!

Same here!

[Pilgrim]

That's a very nice looking instrument!

Funny, with the dark pickup cover and the lighting, I had to look three times before spotting where the pickup was located.

[godofthunder]

  That looks great! I've been thinking about putting a Epiphone 760 Probucker in a P build for a while now.

[Alanko]

  That looks great! I've been thinking about putting a Epiphone 760 Probucker in a P build for a while now.

That pickup would essentially float or be minimally recessed I imagine?

[BTL]

That looks great, congrats!