Gibson pickup flaw

[drbassman]

Just slap a real mudbucker in there!

It is so tempting, but I like the sound of the a through g strings, so I can live with it if I can hear the e finally!

[Dave W]

At least you ought to be able to fix it by adding the right amount of foam underneath.

[Pilgrim]

Had a chance to look at it, what a dopey situation.  The bass side of the pup is about 1/4" lower than the treble.  Duh!  You'd think they could afford some thicker foam rubber at the plant!  In fact, the entire top of the pup doesn't even come up to meet the back of the cover.  And yes, the screws are cosmetic with the two blade set up.  I'll post some pictures when I have a minute.  It's Christmas decorating time at our house!!!

I think you have an easy fix there.  Bet it's the same on the other bass you mentioned.

Just remember if you're trimming the tree in the nude - watch out fer them prickly branches!!   

[FrankieTbird]

Had a chance to look at it, what a dopey situation.  The bass side of the pup is about 1/4" lower than the treble.  Duh!  You'd think they could afford some thicker foam rubber at the plant!  In fact, the entire top of the pup doesn't even come up to meet the back of the cover.  And yes, the screws are cosmetic with the two blade set up.  I'll post some pictures when I have a minute.  It's Christmas decorating time at our house!!!

Interesting.  I had sorta the same deal with my Midtown six-stringer.  Had to put some decent density foam under the pickups to keep them from flopping about in the routs.  The way it came from Gibson with the pickups just kinda floating around loose was unacceptable.  I put chrome covers on the P-90's while I was into it, looks 100% better now. 

[TBird1958]

Uwe's has arrived, I'm at work today and won't get to play it until later - I'll definately be checking this out.
 

[uwe]

Ah, we're gonna have on of those lavish and earnest BP-style reviews, Herr Hills always spoils us with!

[uwe]

I was a doubting Thomas  




Forgive me, Father Dave!

about the screws in the TB-Plus mockbucker having no effect, but I was just converted, srewing the E screw on my Midtown all the way up and all the way down - no dif. You can also tell that there is zilch magnetization going on by pressing the E string on the screw, no magnetic contact "plop" at all. That said, the E string on mine is nicely prominent on the bass, together with the G string, i.e. just the way I like it (I like my E amd G slightly louder than my A and D).

[drbassman]

No need to beat yourself up Uwe.  The screws really are just cosmetic and a nod to the past!  I forgive you, even if Dave doesn't.

So, you'll see in the picture below that the pup is way low on the e-string side.  You can see where I jacked up the screw in a a vain effort to improve output.  You'd think they could use better foam at the factory.  I was out of high density foam, so I stuffed the cavity with two pieces of low density stuff.  All I wanted was to push the screws up tight into the holes and it worked.  The bass and e-string sound 100% better, duh!  It's going to practice Wednesday night.

So, A word to Midtown owners.  If your pup screws look recessed at all, like mine did on both of my Midtown models,  the pup is probably sitting low in the cavity and needs a boost!  Hey Al, I remember you said recently to look at the simply things/fixes first!  You were so right!  Now I gotta fix my cherry Midtown and SG bass next.

Here's how it came from the factory, ugh!



String alignment looks good, but they sure didn't waste any magnet on the e and g-strings.  Just enough and no more!



Here's the foam treatment.  Notice that the screws now fill the cover holes.  Before, they were probably 1/8" or more below the holes.  Yikes, how dumb.

[uwe]

"I forgive you, even if Dave doesn't."

How did you know?!!!

[drbassman]

"I forgive you, even if Dave doesn't."

How did you know?!!!

I've always been more magnanimous than Dave!!!  Bless you my child!   

[uwe]

  But then even clenched-teeth absolution from Dave is a reward in itself!

[drbassman]

But then even clenched-teeth absolution from Dave is a reward in itself!

I agree, take what you can get and consider yourself lucky!  Keep your head down for awhile and maybe he will forget about your transgressions with all of the holiday distractions.

[TBird1958]

Ah, we're gonna have on of those lavish and earnest BP-style reviews, Herr Hills always spoils us with!

Not promising this, but since I'll have the last two weeks of the year off from my teaching duties you may get a Youtube review from Veronica in addition to my usual.
One thing I will say about your bass Uwe, it's positively spectacular in finish, the photos do not give any indication of how colorful this bass is - I wish Gibson offered a Thunderbird in this finish - It would suit certain Drag Queen types quite well   

[Dave W]

Forgive you? I wasn't even aware you doubted it. And I wasn't even sure myself, just going from memory of someone who showed a photo of the innards long ago.

Anyway, what on earth were they thinking, mounting the pickups like that? Shows how little Gibson thinks of bassists. Raising it with foam is easy enough but even a low priced bass shouldn't leave the factory like that.

And what's with those blades that barely reach the edges of the E and G? Granted, it's limited by the overall width of the coils in that housing, but since it's not designed as an aftermarket pickup, why not design it right to begin with? Give the housing some extra width to accommodate longer blades, or reduce the string spacing.

[drbassman]

Yeah, it's pretty lame to put out a $1000+ bass and not even mount the pup properly.  And the magnets, geez, how cheap can they be???  Just more examples of Gibson quality control!