Epiphone NYC & Gibson Tbird pickups ?

[msb]

Trying to learn a little more about the Epiphone NYC pickups used in the Rumblekat. I was reading that Alan Woody had a thing for Firebird guitar pickups but that some Gibsons in the mid 60’s used Epiphone pickups before the stock ran out. I’ve read the original Epi NYC pickups were mini humbuckers. Do the Rumblekat Epi NYC pickups have six pole pieces? 

And the Gibson Tbird pickups that keep popping on other basses. They’re underneath the covers on a SG and a single one is on the DC Jr. what other basses are they on ? I know the Epi version was used on some of the Flying V reissues. And suspect they are on Gibson Vs as well.

[neepheid]

Off the top of my head the TB+ pickups are also found on the Gibson IV and V basses (80s basses), the Epiphone Classic Pro Thunderbird and found their way onto some Gibson Les Paul basses.

 

After picking up the excellent "Gibson Bass Book" I can add

 

EB-650

Les Paul basses LPB-1, 2 and 3

Blackbird

Money/Les Paul Double Cut

Grabber II

EB-11 (LP Jr. Double Cut)

Les Paul Oversized

2011 Flying V

Midtown

2012 NR Thunderbird

 

[msb]

I have the book. It’s a beautiful work! 
I don’t know if there’s much of a difference between the real Gibson Tbird pickups and those made in Korea.
I should just take the covers of my Rumblekat pickups off and have a look at them. 
I have an Epi Flying V with Tbird pickups. And an SG and Jr bass with Tbird pickups (although the Jr just has the single pickup)

 

edit … the Kat has a four pole pickup 

Edited October 2, 2022 by msb

[neepheid]

22 hours ago, msb said:

I have the book. It’s a beautiful work! 
I don’t know if there’s much of a difference between the real Gibson Tbird pickups and those made in Korea.
I should just take the covers of my Rumblekat pickups off and have a look at them. 
I have an Epi Flying V with Tbird pickups. And an SG and Jr bass with Tbird pickups (although the Jr just has the single pickup)

 

edit … the Kat has a four pole pickup 

 

Maybe one is less boring than the other?  Sorry but I have never been excited about Gibson TB+ pickups - overused and underwhelming to my ears.

[msb]

My DC Jr has a single pickup in the “sweet spot” with a coil tap. I rarely use the tap , but that little thing is one of the best sounding basses I’ve used. 

[msb]

I came across some articles on Epi NYC pickups rooting around the net , but they were guitar pickups. There was surplus stock when Gibson purchased Epi , and Gibson apparently used the remaining Epi NYC pickups on some Gibson guitars after Gibson moved the Epi assets from NY to Kalamazoo. They were a mini humbucker.

The Rumblekat uses a new design Epi NYC mini humbucker pickup. I gather Allen Woody was a fan of the original Epi NYC pickups and was involved in the creation of the new one.

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by msb

[neepheid]

1 hour ago, msb said:

I came across some articles on Epi NYC pickups rooting around the net , but they were guitar pickups. There was surplus stock when Gibson purchased Epi , and Gibson apparently used the remaining Epi NYC pickups on some Gibson guitars after Gibson moved the Epi assets from NY to Kalamazoo. They were a mini humbucker.

The Rumblekat uses a new design Epi NYC mini humbucker pickup. I gather Allen Woody was a fan of the original Epi NYC pickups and was involved in the creation of the new one.

 

 

Good things happen when artists get involved in the nitty gritty of designing their signature models, like the low impedance pickup in the Jack Casady Sig.  When it's more than just a colour combo and a signature decal/engraved neck plate.

[BigRedX]

13 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

Good things happen when artists get involved in the nitty gritty of designing their signature models, like the low impedance pickup in the Jack Casady Sig.  When it's more than just a colour combo and a signature decal/engraved neck plate.

 

I thought the Jack Casady Bass was essentially a rebadged Les Paul Signature Bass? The low impedance pickup was certainly something that Les Paul was championing - they are are in all the later guitars and basses that bear his name.

[neepheid]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

 

I thought the Jack Casady Bass was essentially a rebadged Les Paul Signature Bass? The low impedance pickup was certainly something that Les Paul was championing - they are are in all the later guitars and basses that bear his name.

 

Jack Casady had a Les Paul Signature back in the day, he liked it but he didn't care for the pickup.  He helped tweak and refine the Gibson low impedance pickup to sound like he wanted it to.

 

“In 1985 I was living in New York and happened to stop in a music store one day and saw a goldtop, full scale semi-hollow Les Paul bass. I loved the bass but found the pickup to be deficient…I did a little investigating and found out that only about 400 of the instruments were made in 1972 and because it was kind of an odd duck, it didn’t catch on.”

“I approached Gibson and asked if they would be interested in reproducing the bass with my input. Epiphone’s Jim Rosenberg was very interested, and allowed me to kind of re-make the instrument. I told Jim that I’d like to develop a Jack Casady pickup for it and he hooked me up with the R&D Department at Gibson.”

“I went to work on the pickup and it took almost two years to develop. I think they were getting pretty antsy by this time but I wanted it right. I did a lot of homework and bench testing and finally when it clicked in right, it was great. They blow the old Gibsons to smithereens, even in the construction. As you know, the early 70s weren’t good for cars or guitars (laughs) and the workmanship that’s coming in on these instruments is just super.”

 

From https://bibliolore.org/2014/04/13/jack-casadys-signature-bass/

 

"We duplicated the pickups as they were on the old '72 model but then I took the pickup and added more Alnico power to it, another three quarters of an Alnico magnet on the other side. Also I took a page out of a lot of lap steels, I took the windings that were used for those pickups and used a higher gauge wire. I used a 28 gauge wire, very thick. I wanted to thicken the sound up, and they said that I could do anything I want. I could add one pickup, two pickups, three pickups. I said what I want is one great pickup that I can have at any expense."

 

From https://www.flyguitars.com/interviews/jackCasadySignatureBass.php

 

...

 

Of course, some people prefer the old Gibson Lo-Z pickup so sometimes you see Epiphone Jack Casady basses out there with the old 70s pickup.

Edited October 5, 2022 by neepheid

[msb]

I think Woody did a similar thing but wanted to recreate the Epi New Yorker mini humbucker pickup for bass.