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1990 Thunderbird pickups - stay or go

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n!k:
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:

Ken:
I think you could sell the 1990 TB+ fairly easily.  I loved the sound I got from the 2001 I put in my 2018, but the noise from them was too much.  Not sure if they sound like other TB+ from that year or the defective traits make it sound that way.  But I'm interested in the different eras of the TB+.  A friend said he has 1991s that he'd give me if he can find them, but if not, I might be interested.

Alanko:
Put a small cap in series with the bridge pickup and the issue might solve itself? An 8.2 nF capacitor will remove very little perceivable bass from the bridge pickup, but somehow they stop excessive comb filtering/phase cancellation between two pickup.

A $0.50 mod to try before sourcing new pickups?

n!k:
Thanks, I will try that!

n!k:
This didn't end up working. It actually seemed to make it worse, possibly negatively interacting with the tone styler. Looks like I'll sell the old pickups and get the modern ones by Gibson

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