You've just opened the Pandora's Box and everyone will be going through the motions of restating what they habitually say. There are three opinions:
- New TB Plus pups sound crap, sixties and Bicentennial pups rule.
- New TB Plus pups just look crap, but sound almost as good as the old ones.
- Had today's TB Plus pups been available as an aftermarket replacement in the sixties and seventies, people would have killed for them.
I adhere to the latter school of thought, but am a minority here in this respect. To me, the TB Plus pup is one of the best passive bass pups available today. It has modern high output without sounding overblown, it can take a real beating string-input-wise without compressing or distorting, yet it never sounds sterile. If a Jazz Bass is your dream sound, you might find it too dark though. It sounds fuller and with more torque than any of its predecessors which generally have more overdrive to them and compress more if you play real hard (which is what many here prefer). I find it closer in sound to a sixties pup than to a Bicentennial which will forever have a slight single coil characteristic to it in my ears (which I like too, just not all the time) which I don't hear with the TB Plus.
One thing it is not: A great bridge pup. It needs the strings to swing so anything between P Bass (not Musicman) position and right behind the neck goes. In the latter position the ooomph is magic, yet you still have a signal that can be heard rather than felt.
