ES 335 Bass

[veebass]

Happy I took the plunge and bought this.
I really like it. The TB Plus pickups sound a bit brighter than those in my 08 Gibson TBird to my ear, but still with plenty of growl when played aggressively. Lovely mellow tone when played closer to the neck.
Well balanced and nicely put together. I find it very comfortable to play and the neck is very similar to the neck on my 74 Ripper, which is one of my all time favourite necks.
Could care less about the limited higher fret access.

[Chris P.]

Cool bass, congrats!

In fact those are not TB+ pickups but.... ...normal guitar humbuckers with six poles. The guy of Gibson me that they didn't had real bass humbuckers in memphis, they tried out the normal guitar pickups and it worked fine. I think the hollowbody LP Bass has those too.

As you might now the Rickenbacker and Höfner toasters, the Fender Musicmaker pickup, the Duesenberg bass humbucker, the Danelectro lipstick are all guitar pickups.

[veebass]

Cool bass, congrats!

In fact those are not TB+ pickups but.... ...normal guitar humbuckers with six poles. The guy of Gibson me that they didn't had real bass humbuckers in memphis, they tried out the normal guitar pickups and it worked fine. I think the hollowbody LP Bass has those too.

As you might now the Rickenbacker and Höfner toasters, the Fender Musicmaker pickup, the Duesenberg bass humbucker, the Danelectro lipstick are all guitar pickups.

Thanks, interesting here are some pics of the underside of the pickups. They sound good anyway whatever they are.

[Chris P.]

This makes it confusing and interesting. Maybe they changed it?

And yes! The bass is pretty and if it sounds pretty it doesn't matter what kind of pickups it has. But hey, we're nerds here. We need to discuss it!

[Basvarken]

In fact those are not TB+ pickups but.... ...normal guitar humbuckers with six poles. The guy of Gibson me that they didn't had real bass humbuckers in memphis, they tried out the normal guitar pickups and it worked fine. I think the hollowbody LP Bass has those too.

As if anyone at Gibson knows diddly squat.
Really they have no idea. The guy that told you about the six poles probably doesn't even know Gibson has been using these humbuckers in the LP3 standard or EB 650 since the late eighties!

[uwe]

They did announce them as being specific to those models at the time - as they did with the Flying V reissue pups too -, but all I heard and saw was tried and trusted TB Plus guitar size humbuckers that have existed since the earlier 90ies. Nothing wrong with those, they are a little sharper than the classic soapbar TB+.

The ES 335 sounds great. Close to a Les Paul Signature but with more warmth. The black one must be the "Hetfield Signature Model" of course.

[Chris P.]

As if anyone at Gibson knows diddly squat.
Really they have no idea. The guy that told you about the six poles probably doesn't even know Gibson has been using these humbuckers in the LP3 standard or EB 650 since the late eighties!

Normally you're right. This was one of the design guys, knowing an awful lot about the guitars, so I had/have reasons to believe this guy. It wasn't just a sales guy.

[veebass]

They did announce them as being specific to those models at the time - as they did with the Flying V reissue pups too -, but all I heard and saw was tried and trusted TB Plus guitar size humbuckers that have existed since the earlier 90ies. Nothing wrong with those, they are a little sharper than the classic soapbar TB+.

The ES 335 sounds great. Close to a Les Paul Signature but with more warmth. The black one must be the "Hetfield Signature Model" of course.

That is how I would describe the sound of the pickups in my ES 335 Bass.
Here's the Gibson site info about the ES Les Paul Bass, if you scroll down there is info about the pickups, which they are claiming to be new.

http://www.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/2015/Memphis/ES-Les-Paul-Bass.aspx

[exiledarchangel]

I think I see 3 magnets (one wide on center and 2 narrower on sides) with blades between them on those pickups, typical config for tbird pickups (or X2Ns...)

[Dave W]

These are obviously TB Plus with blades instead of poles, and magnets beneath. I'm not surprised.  I questioned these from the beginning despite Chris' source b/c Gibson doesn't have any chrome buckers without visible polepieces (aside from the black chrome Tommy Iommi signature).

It's possible for a 6 pole guitar pickup to work if the magnetic field covers the area without dropouts. The only ones I can think of are the Rick toaster and the Fender Musicmaster, both of which have alnico polepieces rather than steel poles with the magnets beneath.

[veebass]

Thanks for that guys.

[uwe]

Today's TB Plus aren't your dad's TB Plus, they have tweaked them again and again, every now and then an ad would claim "new design TB Plus pick-ups", it has happened before and you can hear differences between the generations too, not in overall character but in output, sub-bass and high frequencies. For some reason, the guitar size versions always sounded best if you like a slightly abrasive and sharp, but still round sound. They also worked well with the Bartolini TCT circuit, especially the soapies, the sound of an active LP Special - actually an entry line bass - is no less than bludgeoning.

The newish Babicz (Jim DeCola, I'm such an idiot!) pups (not available as guitar size pups though I wonder why not)- yet? - are an excellent choice if the TB Plus sound is a bit overcowded in frequencies for you, along the lines of "too much of everything falling all over". They are definitely more transparent without being sterile. OTOH, what the Babicz (ditto!) pups do not provide is the raunch of a TB Plus in full flight. Horses for courses. If you dig the TB Plus general sound character - like I do, it's my preferred mass-produced rock bass pup - then look no further, but flexible it is not.

[Basvarken]

Does Babicz make pickups too? I thought they only do hardware.

[Dave W]

The 2015 TB pickups are Gibson pickups designed by Jim DeCola. They were introduced at the same time as the Babicz bridge (on the EB Bass). Uwe knows that, I'm sure he just inadvertently associated them with the new bridge.

[uwe]

The 2015 TB pickups are Gibson pickups designed by Jim DeCola. They were introduced at the same time as the Babicz bridge (on the EB Bass). Uwe knows that, I'm sure he just inadvertently associated them with the new bridge.

Brain hemorrhoids, no doubt!