76 T bird sounds nasally

[weekend warrior]

My new old bird sounds kinda thin and nasally. How can i get to sound like my 60's bird?Anybody have and wiring diagrams?

[godofthunder]

 Pretty much the hallmark of a '76 especially compared to a 60's NR. I would spring for a couple of Thunderbuckers and stash the original pups in the case.

[dadagoboi]

My new old bird sounds kinda thin and nasally. How can i get to sound like my 60's bird?Anybody have and wiring diagrams?

Ain't gonna happen unless you change the pickups.  They are a completely different sidewinder design compared to the 60s.  They have more of a single coil sound, it's not bad just not what you're used to.  The Reissue pots are wired series parallel, changing them to straight parallel will not help. (diagram marked "Thunderbird IV 1974" )

Try adjusting pickup height, you can get them to sound close but nowhere near the output of the originals.

[uwe]

Carlo's single coil comparison is molto bene. Remember, this was the era when Gibson went to extraordinary lengths to make its basses sound clearer.

It's not a bad sound over a large rig nor does it fail to cut through, but I remember when the seller of my Bicentennial said to me, "whenever I play this bass, I need a larger rig to hear myself, with my Precision, a small rig will do just fine ... And we play a lot of clubs with our blues band so that TBird has to go ...".

Give it a chance to get used to the sound. As everyone knows here, I'm not the most avid and overt Bicentennial era TBird fan, but even on me the sound grew over time. If you are not exactly playing heavy metal, that "single coil" sound can work. Those pups sound even a bit like visually vastly different Ripper pups to me which are also - I believe - sidewinders.

[TBird1958]

Agreed, your rig makes all the difference!

Even my new "smaller" GK at 400 watts is loud, no problem getting the bass heard even without FOH support, a littlle time with the eq helps too.  It may run a little contrare to popular opinion here but I really like my '76s tone.

[ramone57]

you are correct, Uwe.  Ripper pups are indeed sidewinders.  as a side note, our beloved mudbuckers will fit in a Ripper, the route just needs to be a bit deeper.

[chromium]

I have a 76 that I got from George a few years ago, and it had been rewired more like the modern Thunderbirds - with the sidewinder pickups in parallel instead of the series config like the original (the original wiring is shown in the schematic labeled "Thunderbird 76" in the pic above).  

I really love this bass, and I'd describe it as anything but nasal.  I've never played a stock 76-79 to compare against, though!  I've thought about wiring it back that way to try it out, only because I've heard Mark and Chris get great sounds from them.... but I hate to change a good thing.  I notice differences compared to the modern birds, and that's probably along the lines of the "single coil sound" that you all were describing.  The TB+ seem to have more girth.

Anyway... I'm not so great at drawing wiring diagrams, but I am good at Visio - and so I drew up the schematic in there, and snapped a shot of the wiring if it helps.  The wiring is pretty much identical to the "Thunderbird IV" schematic above, but with different pot and cap values.

I made a quick and rough sound demo of it as well.  How does this sound compare with that of a stock one?  (sorry for the excessive fret buzz- this bird is due for a setup!)

[uwe]

The TB Plus pups offer a more consistent, yet focused low frequency tone than either the sixties or the Bicentennial TBs. That is just what modern pups tend to do/have to do as music has become altogether bassier with the advent of digital media.

[patman]

I used to love the way a flatpick "clicked" or "popped" off the strings with the 76 birds...similar to a Ric w/ flatwounds. Nice click from the pick, yet it retains a ton of bass in the tone.

[lowend1]

When I bought my Bicentennial back in '79 I instantly fell in love with the sound - especially after I got my V4B and squareback SVT cab. I recall clearly, however, one soundman moaning about the low output to the board (I told him to stop acting like a little girl and slap a mic on the SVT), and one player who opined that I should get an onboard preamp (like THAT would ever happen). A few years later, I had the opportunity to play a 60s reverse T-Bird and was not thrilled with either the sound or the feel. It seemed like an entirely different bass to me, and fortunately, that quelled any desire that I may have had for an original - even at that time, I couldn't afford it.

[uwe]

I used to love the way a flatpick "clicked" or "popped" off the strings with the 76 birds...similar to a Ric w/ flatwounds. Nice click from the pick, yet it retains a ton of bass in the tone.

That just confirms Carlo's lucid observation with the single coil sound - pick, flatwounds and single coilish pups is a classic combo.

[Chris P.]

I never found a bass that sounds as good as my Bicentennial. Well, in my ears;) Everything is said about the sound, above here.

[uwe]

But then - crime of crimes - you dressed him up as a Ric 4005 in a video, you buzzard!!!! "Fall to your knees and repent if you please!"

[TBird1958]

I love the clang of a Tortex .73 hitting a DR round wound and a '76 pickup 

[chromium]

Not sure if its because of the way my 76 is wired, but I actually find that it sits in the mix very much like my (de-cap'ed) 73 4001.  Both have that lovely bell-like clang in the mids, and they really cut thru the live mix nicely.  My amp is an Orange AD200 (has sort of a dark voice) with SVT cab, and with a little overdrive the sound is great to my ears.  I force myself to change it up sometimes, but I always come back to those two and the Triumph as my go-tos for gigs.