what would it take to $$ a thumb?

[rabidwolverine21]

Hey guys i recently bought a 1987 thumb that has status graphite hyper active pickups in it. unfortunately to put them in required cutting of the wood, so much that i couldnt just simply replace them with emg or mec j pickups. So to be able to mec the bass again and looking at the pickups mec offers i came to the conclusion that all that would work would be the ones that are in corvette$$.
My questions would be would it be worth it? to cut more of the wood to make space for $$ and would the cost of getting 2 music man style pickups and an mec preamp make it not worth it? I think it would make a sick vintage one of a kind thumb but... is it insane?

 

[Florin]

I think it would be not thumb sounding at all...

 

[rabidwolverine21]

I think it would be not thumb sounding at all...

yea well it already isnt that thumb sounding, i figure atleast it will sound more like a wick. i mean the only way i get it back to thumb sound is if i put j pickups and ignore the huge space or buy the soap bar style mec pickups that are used on 5 strings because the status pickups are the same size as the 5 string pickups. i mean the pickups in the bass are nice and really have a decent sound but when i play my thumb with mecs and hear that classic warwick sound i wish it had mecs, whoever put them in really really wanted em because he made any other pickup changing extremely difficult. with the need of 5 control nobs and a coil tap switch makes it hard to even think about modifications. they even moved the original nob places and filled the holes with something so refinishing the bass back to wood tone is also hard. so its probably not even worth it in the long run.

 

[Grgzilla]

If you're willing to spend a bit of money,a luthier could fill the routings & re-route for whatever pickups you like.But seeing as your Thumb is a high polish,the cost wouldnt be cheap.

 

[rabidwolverine21]

If you're willing to spend a bit of money,a luthier could fill the routings & re-route for whatever pickups you like.But seeing as your Thumb is a high polish,the cost wouldnt be cheap.

well i was also thinking about refinishing it later on so if i get pickups done i would do it when i had striped the finish off. i actually measured the pickups in the bass already and the 5 string soap bar pickups mec makes are actually a tad smaller in width so they theoretically would work. My question would be would there be anyway to save the use of all 5 nobs that have been put it the bass or do they go the way side with the preamp and pickup change?

 

[Grgzilla]

Good question.I forgot it has 5 knobs.
Maybe you could have 2 dummy knobs & use the other 3,like on a stock Thumb.Or maybe it's possible to have no stacked knobs,so volume,bass,treble,mid & pan.

 

[Florin]

Having no stacked pots is a great idea.
I would definitely refit J J pickups matey!

 

[rabidwolverine21]

Having no stacked pots is a great idea.
I would definitely refit J J pickups matey!

would it be possible to refit J J pickups after the woods been cut to fit the big ol status graphite pickups? One would think it would be possible to not have stacked pickups and just route them all to work.

 

[Grgzilla]

It's very possible.A luthier can fill the exsisting pickup routing with a piece of the same wood,then re-route it to whatever pickups in whatever position(s).I've seen it done with bridges & you couldnt tell.

 

[rabidwolverine21]

It's very possible.A luthier can fill the exsisting pickup routing with a piece of the same wood,then re-route it to whatever pickups in whatever position(s).I've seen it done with bridges & you couldnt tell.

i think thats what il do. once i get some cash im going to strip the paint and then put in some emg j pickups to really get it back to the vintage style. what preamp was used in 1987? I really dont want to spend a ton on an mec preamp though i do love the way my 97 sounds almost 500 bucks just isnt extremely attractive to me.

 

[Florin]

Maybe a stupid question... Are you not happy with the bass as it is now?
Could you post some pics?

 

[rabidwolverine21]

Maybe a stupid question... Are you not happy with the bass as it is now?
Could you post some pics?

yea i like it and the playability is amazing, i just find myself playing my other thumb because i prefer the tone of the pickups. I just think it would be cool to get it back to an original feel. Dont get me wrong i dont want to sound like im just complaining. Im an adventurous kind of person and i like taking on projects and it just seems like fun and worth while to bring the bass back to original style pickups and finish.i dont know if its crazy or whatever most of my band members think im nuts, but i just want to be able to say that i really put in some work and did something interesting to make a bass better.

 

[Florin]

Don't worry, they said about me I was nuts too. Well, they kicked me out of the band too, but this is another story )

If you want the original feel, then you need J pickups.

 

[rabidwolverine21]

Don't worry, they said about me I was nuts too. Well, they kicked me out of the band too, but this is another story )

If you want the original feel, then you need J pickups.

yea i think im going to go with emg j and an emg preamp. i think it will be interesting how it will look and work out. of course i wont be doing it for a while due to funds but ive gotten a jump on planning.