Thunderbird Bass

My favorite bass has always been the Gibson Thunderbird, but I could never justify spending that much given the current amount of time I play bass. And I didn't want to settle for the Epiphone version since I found the Epi Flying V more versatile in sound than the Epi T-bird when I was shopping.

But lo! I just saw that Epiphone put out another Thunderbird model for a bit more cash that has neck-through construction and a look that is EXACTLY up my alley. I'm in love and thought I'd share. :drool:



So needless to say, I'm selling my Flying V and attempting to raise the rest of the cash to buy one I'm going to put the V up on ebay for 200 in the next couple days if anyone is interested.

Thunderbird basses are insanely cool! Very good rock basses. Good choice.

thanks for the feedback Sebi. Your support of the instrument weighs heavier in my mind than all the forum talk I've seen on thunderbirds, because I know how freaking good of a bassist you are! Do you think you could fill me in on how you feel about passive versus active electronics? This new T-bird is equipped with active, which I've never played before. I'm hoping that it makes the bass more versatile in tone so I can play many kinds of music with it.

Monkeyswithladders said:

thanks for the feedback Sebi. Your support of the instrument weighs heavier in my mind than all the forum talk I've seen on thunderbirds, because I know how freaking good of a bassist you are! Do you think you could fill me in on how you feel about passive versus active electronics? This new T-bird is equipped with active, which I've never played before. I'm hoping that it makes the bass more versatile in tone so I can play many kinds of music with it.

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I'm always happy to help. And thanks for the kind words! Passive vs. active: I got two main basses, which I play on my videos. One is a Fodera 4 string, which I ALWAYS play active because it just gets so much more powerful when played active. I have to add that it has EMG pick ups that have the greatest in-your-face sound for my taste. The second bass I play is a Sukop 6 string with bartolini pick ups, which I play all flat/passive, because it's the way I like the sound best on that bass.

I guess, the Thunderbird has to be played active in order to get a punchy and crunchy rock sound. But in the end it's in the eye (or ear) of the beholder. Obvious is that if you have the active-option on a bass, you can decide yourself if you want to use it or not. I always make sure to have active pick ups I can activate if I want to.

Let me know if you decided to get the Thunderbird!

the good thing about active basses is that generally you can cut the active circut and just play it passive anyway. my main bass right now is a Fender Deluxe active Jazz Bass and it can do everything i need it to do. before the Jazz i was playing a Epi T-bird bass and i can say that eventhough it was an epi the thing growled like a Gibson. but in all reality you just gotta go with you heart. if you love that bass, do everything you can to get it.

so a couple weeks ago I sold my old guitar amp and today I found a buyer for my flying v bass. which means all I have to do is find a music store with that Thunderbird in stock and, if I like how it plays, ima buy it

thanks again for the advice! I'll post after I pick one up to mention what I think of its playing.

I had a really cool Custom Shop white Gibson T-bird about 12 years ago. It sounded great, but I just never used it and sold it to pay for my '77 Fender Jazz. One thing about T-birds..... they tend to neck-dive. I learned that there was a REASON why John Entwistle never moved! But they are definitely 100% pure rock and roll.

Chris Tarman said:

I had a really cool Custom Shop white Gibson T-bird about 12 years ago. It sounded great, but I just never used it and sold it to pay for my '77 Fender Jazz. One thing about T-birds..... they tend to neck-dive. I learned that there was a REASON why John Entwistle never moved! But they are definitely 100% pure rock and roll.

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That sounds really cool. And I also like Jazz basses-- The bass I traded in for my Flying V about 6 years ago was a 5-string fender Jazz. For the trade I got the Flying V, a Bass-Balls pedal, and some cash. Now I just can't wait to get a thunderbird. The buyer I had when I posted last time fell through, so I still haven't gotten my hands on one yet Yesterday someone new emailed me though, so I have my fingers crossed. Also, the local music shop I was working with just got one in stock, so hopefully it'll be this week.

Oh, and I heard the same thing about them having a neckdive, but I've also heard that they've reduced it a lot with this new model. If not, I have a plan I think will work to fix it. We'll see how that goes...

woot woot, sold my Flying V last night. Most definitely heading to a music store in Niagara Falls after work and am 98% sure I'll be coming home with a T-Bird; and if not, some other cool bass

I loooooove that bass. My wife has steered me totally clear of all music stores since they came out with that.
Let's seeeeee itttt!!!!

I got the bass and I absolutely love it. It's beautiful, plays super smoothly, and feels great.

However today I finally got a chance to get some recording in and there's a ton of amp noise that I didn't have before-- I thought actives were supposed to be quieter. Is there something wrong with the wiring in the particular one I have? Should I take it in to exchange or fix?

Hmmm. Weird.
Take it and get it looked at, maybe. One thing about active basses: They make a different impact on an amp. My bass has active Seymour Duncan Basslines, while my buddy's bass is a passive P-bass. Another friend has an Ibanez with just active EQ. We have to vary the settings and choose different inputs on my Trace Elliot bass amp when we trade off bass duties at jams because of the differing pickup configurations, and it is in no way straightforward as you might think.

Have you tried different amps? Got a fresh battery in there?

I hope your bass is okay! I'm glad the feel is there. I really, really like that bass and I want to hear better news about it!

Well here's an update on the bass. I brought it into the store to take to their tech guy. The person in the store was busy with a customer, so while I was waiting I plugged into their amp. There was practically no extra noise. I figured the problem must be with my amp/cable/room whatever, so I didn't leave the bass and took it home. But I was wrong-- the amp is fine, because I've played my guitar through it to check. I bought a new cable, so that's not it. I bought a pack of new batteries and all of them gave the same issue. Two nights ago I did the first real practicing and recording with the bass (so I played for an extended time), and after about an hour it started to fuzz up really bad, cut out, and then just lost all power playing. Switching batteries didn't help.

Sooo, for the beginning part of the jam, the bass plays excellently-- the tone if fabulous, the feel is great, and it looks phenomenal. But unfortunately this problem is just huge. It's probably a single problem and not usual for these basses though; because I haven't heard of it before and I read a ton of stuff about them.

It looks to me like I got some faulty wiring in the pre-amp, but I'm no expert. I'm taking the bass back into the shop today-- I've been putting it off because they were out of cases and I don't like taking it out places without a case, but I can't hold off on getting this taken care of. I'll update more when I find out what's up.

I got a call from the tech-- he said he thought there wasn't a problem at first, but because of my description, he left the bass plugged in for an hour and came back to play it some more. Then he had the same problems I had described and agreed that there's definitely something wrong with it. So they're ordering in all new electronics to replace and will hopefully have a working bass back to me in a week or two ... *crosses fingers*

Bummer! But at least they're fixing it. Too bad it leaves you without your baby for so long.

Weird. Sounds like something is draining your battery and/or acting like a capacitor. I've heard of that.
Whatever is making it sick, I hope they fix it. That's a stunner of a bass!

sorry for not updating the story in forever

I got the bass back about a two weeks ago and it plays totally awesome. It was the preamp causing all the problems, and with a new one the bass sounds and feels like a dream. I just finished recording with it today and had a blast. I'm going to try to get back here (I don't live with my instruments anymore ) tomorrow to finish up the song and hopefully it'll be on youtube just as quickly so I can show off the bass in full working order

Just finished recording the first song with the bass working properly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e568Nm4hvwg

I'm loving it-- I put flat wounds on and it just feels superb! I highly recommend

I love the sound of Epiphone tunderbirds, but it really bad when someone says a "proper gibson" thunderbird. Honestly, they're two different basses. And you can say what you want, but paying for a gibson is just paying for a name.

I find the Thunderbird body type an eye-sore. I'm sorry for those who like them, but that's my opinion and certainly not a comment on the sound of the instrument.

I gave that caveat because though I am inclined not to like the Thunderbird, that example photo in the first post is really nice! Consider my surprised.