'66 Thunderbucker pickups have arrived !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Aussie Mark]

Any sign of your Thunderbuckers yet, given ours shipped on the same day?  Nothing here yet.

[Freuds_Cat]

Just walked in the door and picked em up from the Post office on my way home tonight. I hope they sound as good as they look. Very well packaged.

[Aussie Mark]

And mine arrived today!

Steve and Mo make these look like a work of art - the presentation and packing is first class!

[ThunderBucker]

So glad they got to both of you OK, this shipping overseas is a bit new to us. Hope you like the sound as much as the packing 

[Freuds_Cat]

Very impressive in every way. I especialy like the Info sheet that comes with the pups Steve. All relevent information and written in lay persons terms yet not dumbed down.
Now I just need to find some time to install them in my BachBird. Its looking like this weekend is over already 

[Aussie Mark]

I finally got around to installing my '66 pair in my JAEbird last night - nice and easy installation - I didn't even need to rout the cavities, which Carlo had said I would need to do, so that was a bonus - they dropped straight in.

For those of you who have installed these Thunderbuckers in your JAEbird, can I ask how high you have the two pickups?  (ie. distance between the strings and the pickup).  The reason I ask is that even with an extra layer of neoprene (from an old mousepad) under my pickups in addition to the foam that came with the JAEbird when fitted with Duncan pups my pickups are still around 1/2" below the strings.  Do I need even more foam?  What did you need to do to get your pickups to the 3/16" that Steve recommends?

[dadagoboi]

At the time I did the first run of basses, Thunderbuckers were a pipe dream, the  routes are probably 3/4" deep to accommodate the SDs.  You might need a 1/4" (6mm) wood shim about 2" (50mm) long.  Approx 3/16" below the strings is what I install them at. 

The strings should only be 1/2-5/8" off the body absolute maximum at the bridge, how high are the saddles?  Is the neck shimmed?  Action really high?  Jim (Jumbodbassman) probably has the bass that's closest in spec to yours and he did the ThunderBucker conversion to his.

[jumbodbassman]

Same issue with the lull and my bach bird.  I wound up using about 3 inches tall of soft foam to get the right amount of resistance so the pickup fights the screw enough so no sagging or hanging up half when pressing on top or bottom. if you know what i mean.  For the time being it is working ok..... Eventually i will have to get some wood inserts to fill the gap better.  springs may help too but then they will flop around neck to bridge making one side higher than the other.

[TBird1958]

I did some mahogany blocks for my Bach's and my Nikki Sixx Mk.II, easy enough and I'm a total noob with woodworking 

[jumbodbassman]

on another note my gig 2 weeks ago had lousy weather so no taste test as i went with weather proof (cheapo) basses.  Last week however i played inside in a rather large room with 40 foot ceilings big stage and got to do my taste test.  First jaebird 63 pups,  bach lull,  new jaebird with 66 pups and i brought a Darkstar tractor j bass for whatever.  Tuning up and playing around before people showed up i liked the 63 bass the best.  Really nice clean lows (custom spacing) and i thought it sounded very similar to the darkstar bass. Lull was the loudest sounding and very clear.  Thought the 66 was over the top grindy.  

Then the rest of the band  and people showed up.  NOT EVEN CLOSE.  The 66 cut through the band best and my apparent dislike for "fake" distortion was cured.  With my avatar 2-12 cab and eden amp tube distortion about 40-50% depending on song and the contour defeated (meaning no dip in the EQ) the 66 bird was outstanding.  Even when the contour was back on, the 66 just cuts thru the best.  Thanks to the new hybrid amps and older SS stuff with the gain controls my basses really never get to push an amp much in the last 20+ years. I always follow the instructions and back off when the light goes on. especially with my foderas as i do not want an amp to color it's sound during more mellower gigs..   I haven't really enjoyed playing with "natural" distortion since i sold my V4B asI never can get that out of any SVT i have used/had because of the volume needed.    

Clearly this new found love for some distortion will only work with some of my bands/gigs.... for now anyway.  Next up i think i will bring out some old ampeg b15s's with the white bird for classic rock club gigs.

[jumbodbassman]

PS  going to look at a very old sunn sorado amp this weekend.  60 watts of tubey goop

[Aussie Mark]

At the time I did the first run of basses, Thunderbuckers were a pipe dream, the  routes are probably 3/4" deep to accommodate the SDs.  You might need a 1/4" (6mm) wood shim about 2" (50mm) long.  Approx 3/16" below the strings is what I install them at.

Thanks Carlo, that sounds easy enough for a woodworking noob like me  

The strings should only be 1/2-5/8" off the body absolute maximum at the bridge, how high are the saddles?  Is the neck shimmed?  Action really high?

The action is fine, exactly how you set it up - I haven't touched the saddles or shimmed the neck.  My 1/2" estimate might be a bit off - I've been living in the metric world for 25 years LOL.  

I'll put in a timber block as you suggest and will adjust the pups again after that.  It's all good - the pickups look and sound great, but I can't get enough bite/resistance from the pickup height adjustment screws at the moment to adjust them close enough to the strings.

[dadagoboi]

Easier to use 2-2 1/2" long shims and the original screw holes with the  ThunderBuckers.  The  screws provided are plenty long enough.

Great review, Jim.  Steve is camping for a few days, I'm sure he'll be happy with your results.  I never wanted to clean up the vintage Thunderbird pup sound, just replicate it as closely as possible.  I think other builders might have been looking for a more 'modern' sound.  I do know Barts sound NOTHING like a vintage TBird pup!

The proto for the 666 with coil tap and parallel/series is almost done and Baz will be testing that soon.  Hotter magnets and maximum winds on redesigned higher capacity bobbins.

My 64 TBird II, 65 IV and all the JAEbirds with either 63 or 66 spec pups sound fantastic thru my B-15...I wish I still had a few of my Coliseums.  Traded the last one for a Sawzall around '88.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I haven't really enjoyed playing with "natural" distortion since i sold my V4B asI never can get that out of any SVT i have used/had because of the volume needed.

An SVT's distortion is completely different than the V4B's anyway. They're both more muscular than typical Marshall OD, but the SVT will hit you in the gut where the V4B gets sort of buzzy. You CAN get that tone out of a Mesa Bass 400, 400+ or D180, but it requires serious tweaking and some pretty in-depth knowledge of how the V4B is voiced.

[Bionic-Joe]

I personally can not wait to test out the 666 pickup in my Hamer Thunderbird 8 string and though my Hiwatt. If it works....forget the Orville search!!!!