Thunder II bass low output

Hello,



During the Christmas Holiday I finally was able to play on my old Thunder II bass again.

This is my first bass I bought somewhere mid 80’s and it has not been taken out of the case for more than 10 years.

As it was my first bass I never considered selling it.

I’ve played on several basses, and my favorite at the moments is also an old bass: Bass Collection SB 4021 active.

As I was playing on the thunder II bass, I noted that the output is very low.

Even compared with some other passive basses I still have, it is very low.

So I was considering to change the old pick ups with new once, even thinking about replacing them with active pickups.

As I do not want to cut into the body to fix other pick ups, I was wondering if somebody

have some ideas, proposal .

Thanks

I'll ask the obvious question:
Are the pickups at the optimum height? If they're low to the body you'll not get a full signal.

There are 3 different vesions of this bass, so pictures would be a help here. I'm not a bass guy but some of the bass experts should be by shortly with something more useful for you to consider.

I have a dislike of active pups. Wouldn't recommend them in anything, but that's just me.

Things to consider....

The closer you raise the pickup to the strings, the stronger the output signal will become (as stated by Barry). Try adusting these first.

Another problem could be that the internals of the volume pots are dirty and are causing a resistance when turned up full. This can be tested with a multimeter set on Ohms on the tags of the pot. You would need to know what you are doing in this case, but if you suspect that this is the problem, you would either need to spray into the pot with an Electrical Switch Contact Cleaner (of which there are 2 types. The one you need is a switch cleaning lubricant) or you will need to replace the pot.

Another consideration as daft as it may sound is... if both pickups are on and turned up to the same volume, you will find that the cross phase effect of this reduces the output. Try backing one volume off and see if it goes louder.

I may add that I am in agreement with Barry about active pickups. I don't like them myself either.

Which Thunder II?

There's a few models

Each of those pups are a humbucker.

How does the PEQ work, as should?

Or sound at one end and nothing the other?

shoulda gone to specsavers damain

Aye eye