A couple T-Bird ST questions.

EatTheBeat

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Hi young people,

I have a couple questions regarding my T-Bird ST.

With the bridge pickup being of lower ohms than the neck, could I simply just swap the 2 pickups? Am I better off just buying a neck pickup from the Guild website & dropping it in the bridge?

I’ve adjusted the 2 pickups to be of equal volume during switching & this works fine, but I do find the neck to be a bit muddy & the bridge a bit thin. I’ll also be changing the strings to 12’s, probably flat wounds, & am a bit concerned this will further the muddiness of the neck pickup. Any insight, good people?

Thanks
 

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Flipping the pickups would be the quickest and cheapest, so I would try that first. They have plugin connectors, so easy peasey. See how you like it, then swap the strings.
 

EatTheBeat

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I had no idea they have plug in connectors. That is good info!

I plan on swapping the strings to 12’s anyway, as that’s my size preference.

Thanks for the reply.
 

Quantum Strummer

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I plan on swapping the strings to 12’s anyway, as that’s my size preference.

Just to note, you may need to widen the T-bird's nut slots for 12s. I had to do this on mine to free up a set of polished half-round 11s with a wound G. All the wound strings were sticking a bit.

-Dave-
 

EatTheBeat

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This was a good read, thank you. It still leaves me back to the original question of swapping the pickups, though. The pole pieces will be off slightly with the string alignment wether swapping positions or replacing one of the pickups with one from Guild’s site. Granted, 2 pickups will be misaligned rather than 1.
 

EatTheBeat

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I still have to give it a full set up, as I’m pretty particular about that stuff. Honestly, I’ve been on the fence about keeping the guitar since I bought it. If these efforts don’t work out then I’m afraid I’ll have to move it along. Maybe I’m just spoiled by Jazzmaster’s.
 

Quantum Strummer

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I wouldn't be concerned about flip-flopping the pickups. Polepiece alignment isn't that important…close is more than good enough. Most of the electric guitars people revere and pay big $$ for have one-spacing-fits-all pickups.

I also like flatwounds on Jazzmasters (and Jaguars too)!

-Dave-
 

GAD

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If this guitar can sound killer (and it does), than a mm here or there won’t matter:

5D3_2000_1600.jpg


Lining up pole pieces is mostly for aesthetics. The strings are awash in magnetic field. The benefit of the poles is that they can be adjusted up or down to increase or decrease the sensitivity under each string, but even with them not aligned right you can get similar results by adjusting the closest two.
 
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EatTheBeat

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Well prior to reading the last 2 post I went ahead & swapped the pickups. I left everything wired how it was as a test. As a side note the pickups are soldered, there’s no quick connects.

Anyways, with some height tweaking I can say the swap was successful. Before, the middle position was closer to what the neck should of sounded like. Now, the neck position is actually usable & quite powerful. Not loud but POWERFUL! The low E is very slight boom, but the mud is gone across the E, A, & D strings. I still have to do more tweaking after I replace the strings & do a full set up.

The middle position sounds great & has some nice spank to it. Definately useful.

The bridge took some significant adjusting & it has quite a taper with the high E side having the drop. In all fairness the bridge pickups on all my other electrics are slopped like this. This could be due to the amp or speaker, it’s just that the slope is far more steep on the T-Bird. The bridge sounds quite good, although a bit bright. Again, with the new 12’s going on, a set up, & some further pickup adjusting I don’t think this will be an issue.
Going by memory I can’t really comment if the swap made the bridge sound any better.

Overall, I can now finally hear the potential of this guitar! It does have some nice vintage tones to it, & I’m looking forward to how flatwounds will contribute to this sound. I do find myself dialing back the overdrive pedals as these pickups are quite sensitive to them. More-so than the humbuckers I have in the bridges of a couple other guitars. This isn’t a deal breaker to me though.

Thank you all for your contributions. This seems like a great forum group. Quite the contrast from what I’ve experienced from other forums in the past.

Oh, and to Quantum Strummer: I agree, flatwounds on a Jazzmaster are quite heavenly!
 

Quantum Strummer

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The T-bird's LB-1s are less compressed than most humbuckers, so the interaction between them and various gain pedals is more dynamic. This is one reason why I prefer lower-output pickups.

My Jazzmaster's pickups are very downward slanted from low to high E. The low end gets too boomy if I make 'em straighter. (Edit: the last sentence is just plain wrong. It's the high end that gets too loud & sizzly with the pickups oriented straighter. Geez…too many guitars.) Looks kinda weird but sounds great. :)

-Dave-
 
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