Mike Lull mashed up his M-series body and T-bass pickups to create the JT4 and JT5, a bass with a modern yet familiar feel and “T-bass boom.” And while the body is a modern take on a classic style, Lull designed the pickups by trying to get the same sound of an original Thunderbird bass while creating his own T-Bass.
“One of the things I had to have my basses sound like was the ’60s Thunderbird bass,” the luthier told us in an interview. “The original Thunderbird pickups were a very special design that nobody has made since 1968. I took it upon myself to take apart a set of original pickups from 1964 that a friend of mine had and found out exactly what it was that made them tick, then I reverse engineered a pair of pickups. They sounded identical to the originals, so I knew I had the pickups, I knew I had the ergonomics of the body, and I knew I could have all the parts made for me.”
Like every Lull bass, the JT4 and JT5 are hand-built by Mike Lull himself in his Bellevue, Washington shop. The body is crafted with an alder, swamp ash or mahogany body, while the neck is maple with either a maple or rosewood fingerboard. Other features include chrome hardware, a bone nut, Hipshot Ultralite tuners, an aluminum bridge, and full electrostatic shielding.
Mike Lull JT4/JT5 Bass Photo Gallery:
