Thunderbird

[John_H]

I've been tasked to make some t-bird pickups. I'm not familiar with these, but have found covers, base plates, and rings available. Can someone please clue me in on the specs?

[big_teee]

Not sure what the stock pickup internals were.
I was going to make some of these a few years back.
After researching the parts, The cover is only 15/32" deep.
The shallow covers eliminates the use of EMG bobbins that are 1/2" tall.
If you could use the EMG bobbins, they use the ceramic magnets in the bobbins.
That would simplify building, plus the ceramic magnets are brighter, to offset all the eddies, metal covers and baseplate.
A solution would be to make some brass or nickel baseplates with L sides, so the baseplate looks likes a U.
That way you could build the pickup on the baseplate, and solder the L side of the baseplate to the short cover.
You wouldn't be able to see baseplate mods from the top.
You may already have all that worked out, but that were some of the issues I could see would be a problem for me.
A rule of thumb with bass humbuckers, they get real muddy really fast.
GL,
T.

[John_H]

Thanks Terry, I've found a little information. It seems that there are a few different designs. The one I'm replicating will be the one with upright bobbins. The details I found were vague. Does anyone have the bobbin, and magnet dimensions? I can estimate, and build something close to original, but I would like to stay true to form. All help is appreciated.