Thunderbuckers Vs. Lull T-Bird pickups?

[Johnbob]

Okay, so enough of you have tried out the Thunderbucker pickups by now and now I'm wondering how they compare to the Lull pickups? I know that the Lull's have always gotten rave reviews and have been praised for being pretty much spot-on replicas of the originals and now the Thunderbuckers seem to be getting similar raves reviews. Since they were both reverse-engineered from the originals they should sound very similar, right? Has anyone compared the two? Is one actually closer to an original? I'm not trying to get anyone to bad mouth either since I know that a lot of hard work, time, money and loving care went into developing both. Not that I think anyone would bad mouth either but I'm just saying. I'm not necessarily looking to find out which is better since that is subjective, I'm looking to find out what the actual differences are. Is one hotter? Is one grittier? Etc.? Regardless, I think it's safe to say that they are both great sounding pickups. But Thunderbuckers also did a great job of making them much more affordable thankfully.

Oh, and sorry of this has already been covered. I have read comparisons of both of these pickups on here comparing them to originals, Duncuns and some others but I haven't noticed any comparisons of each other.

[dadagoboi]

ThunderBuckers are EXACT replicas, I don't know about Lulls.  You can make a similar sounding pickup without duplicating an original.  I wanted it old school, period, down to the braided wire.

Lull buys his pickups from the actual builder.  Steve manufactures TBers himself, from winding to cover and rings.  That's a big reason for the price difference, no middlemen.  TBers are manufactured to '63 and '66 spec, 66 is hotter.

Lollar also has a chrome TBird pickup.  He is the maker, price is reasonable but he doesn't sell rings.

[TBird1958]

 Mike's are reverse engineered from a pair in a in a '63 that was a very good sounding bass, he's personally owned at least 10 vintage Thunderbirds and favored this particular pair as a starting point, they are wound to two different specs 8K neck 9K bridge. Construction wise they are exactly like the original Gibson pickups (metals, wire etc.) that he had to work with. His covers are stamped by the same company that did the originals for Gibson, and can be finished in chrome, nickel or black as examples on his website show. At the time they were being developed and for some time after Mike requested that I not say who produced them for him but as of this point I'm free to say that TV Jones did all the production initially, he was not able to keep up with demand tho, so now Seymour Duncan makes them as well. Mike also sells the surrounding rings as a separate item. Interestingly Mike originally wanted Jason Lollar to produce them, but at the time he declined as he felt there wasn't enough of a market.    
I currently use them in 4 of my basses, two BaCH's, my Gibson Nikki Sixx Mk.II (rewired to '63 spec) and, of course in my single pickup Lull I'm very impressed with them and am an endorsing artist for them as listed on his website, I do not ask for, or get any compensation or discount for that tho, it's because I like them. Other more famous users include Tom Petersson, Stu Cook, Bryan Beller, Jeff Ament and Hugh McDonald.  
Mike's do cost more, he runs a legitimate business with a storefront and pays a small number of employees a living wage making both new instuments and repairing others. perhaps that's why.
You can hear mine live on  quite a few of my band's vidoes, I'm happy to send anyone interested  a few Youtube links.

[godofthunder]

 I have only experience with Seymour Duncan custom shop and Steve's Thunderbuckers. I am sure Mike Lull makes a very good product but I like Steve's because you can get the hotter '66 NR pickups. The Thunderbuckers sound fantastic I have 4 60's NRs to compare them to and they are spot on. I have several basses with the SD custom shop and I find them inconsistent, they were great when nothing else was available but now I'm sold on Steve's Thunderbuckers.

[Bionic-Joe]

Lull doesn't use the braided wire, does he??? Lollar's are great. And the Thunderbucker Max as well. I played Tom Petersson's Electrical Guitar company 12 string during sound check through his rig. (What a GREAT GUY!!!!) And I also played his Mike Lull TP model 4 string T bass. They all sounded good. What we need to do is a comparison of all 3 plus an original 60's pickup. This would be thee ultimate test:
Mike Lull
Thunderbucker
Jason Lollar
Original Gibson Thunderbird 60's
Original Gibson T bird '76
Chandler T bird
Gibson Black t bird pickups (but weren't there like 4 different versions???)
Orville Thunderbirds (my favorites!!!)
Greco thunderbird pickup

[TBird1958]

I think it'd great just to get all that stuff and all of us together at one place and time!
I have the feeling there would be no concensus tho, way too many variables and personal preferences. Variety is the spice of life 

[godofthunder]

 I think it's great we have choices now! Five years ago we would take just about anything, now there are several excellent choices. 

[Bionic-Joe]

Agreed. But My 1 question is...If Mike Lull has the guys who made the original pickup covers making the covers (Tom Petersson used those 5 string t bird pickups on his Aluminum 12vers)...then who is making the 5 string pickup covers which are wider??? there must have been a New die made.

[TBird1958]

Baz that was a new die that Mike had the same company Gibson originally used make just for him, it was expensive, as was the new 5 string version pickup.  

[Barklessdog]

I'm surprised that Uwe has not bought a Lull bird?

[Johnbob]

What we need to do is a comparison of all 3 plus an original 60's pickup. This would be thee ultimate test:
Mike Lull
Thunderbucker
Jason Lollar
Original Gibson Thunderbird 60's
Original Gibson T bird '76
Chandler T bird
Gibson Black t bird pickups (but weren't there like 4 different versions???)
Orville Thunderbirds (my favorites!!!)
Greco thunderbird pickup

This would be great but it would be tough to get all of these pickups in the same room. I would love to at least get the Lull, Thunderbucker and an original 60's one in a room together.

I think it's great we have choices now! Five years ago we would take just about anything, now there are several excellent choices.

I couldn't agree more. It's great that we have so many choices now. I only have the regular Seymour Duncan SSB-4 pickups that I had installed in some chrome Mike Lull covers and I already like those but I know those probably don't compare to any of these higher quality pickups. I have only heard an original 60's bird pickup and my Seymour Duncan's so far. I don't have any money right now but I think when I do pull the trigger I am going to get the Thunderbucker 66 pickups. The hotter pickups sound like a perfect option for me. I'm assuming that the Lull's and Thunderbuckers have to sound incredibly close to each other since they both seem to be EXACT replicas of an original. I'm sure the Lull's are great but that price just kills it for me. I'm sure he can defend the price and justify it and I know that he does have all that overhead but not making them himself has definitely driven up the price to a point where they are unattainable. At least for me. The Thunderbuckers are literally half the price and that is a huge difference. When Lull's were the only option I guess that was fine but now I would really make an attempt to find a way to bring the cost down so he can still compete. At least that's my opinion.   

[godofthunder]

 John it doesn't say Gibson on the headstock.

I'm surprised that Uwe has not bought a Lull bird?

[TBird1958]

Truthfully, Mike is not likely worried about competing for price, almost all of the pickup production goes to new instruments, not parts sales -  He has plenty of demand and offers the stock pick up on 3 different Thunderbirds plus a Fender body style as well.

I have Thunderbirds with a few of the above listed variations, honestly I like them all for various reasons, using a '76 Gibson as an example, some here don't hold it in high regard but I really like them, they're warm, growly and different from the others - So for me at least there really isn't one best Thunderbird pick up, choices and variety are good for all of us.   

[Dave W]

if you could compare all of those pickups it would still be subjective. No doubt it would be useful in making your personal choices and some would fare better than others if you ran a poll. But there would never be a consensus on which was best.

[Johnbob]

Truthfully, Mike is not likely worried about competing for price, almost all of the pickup production goes to new instruments, not parts sales -  He has plenty of demand and offers the stock pick up on 3 different Thunderbirds plus a Fender body style as well.

Yes, I'm sure you're right, Mike Lull probably isn't concerned with it since his priority is to make and sell complete basses and not pickups. 

if you could compare all of those pickups it would still be subjective. No doubt it would be useful in making your personal choices and some would fare better than others if you ran a poll. But there would never be a consensus on which was best.

Yes, I agree. I wasn't necessarily looking for which one people thought was the best but more just finding out what the differences were between them.