Replacing pickups on a Thunder 1A Bass (April 1984) - or not?

[nollaig]

Hello there

I recently bought a Thunder 1A Bass (Black lacquer finish solid body with P-Bass pickup configuration). It's in great condition and all the electrics sre working fine both with and without batteries.

My problem is that although I get a great woody tone from the B/E pickup I'm not getting any definition from the bottom end - it's just very deep. I've tried it through a Marshall practice amp, an Ashdown valve head/Ampeg cab, and a Selmer Treble n Bass 50 SV (valve head) through a Marshall 1935 bass cab (loaded with 4x12 original pre-Rola greenbacks no less) and still get a sub-bass raspberry and no growl. It should also be noted I'm playing in dropped C#.

I'm thinking of changing to Seymour SPB-3 Quarter Pounders and just getting rid of the active side of things but before I do I'd just like to see if this is a common or noted issue with these original pickups - It seems a shame to rip the guts out of the bass but it might need to be done.

Any suggestions would be appreciated - and if it's the done thing to provide pictures of new specimens let me know and I'll upload some asap.

Cheers

[paul_5]

Hi. I'm a complete newbie here, having just bought Westone Thunder 1A Bass 'bits' from ebay. I've assembled the bass as much as I can and have put in some GFS pickups (Pbass configuration), but would like to get hold of the original circuitry / pickups. I hope you don't mind me being a bit cheeky, but if you do decide to go for quarter pounders (or similar) then could I offer to buy the pickups and circuitry that you pull out? Cheers, Paul.