Lol. Yes, other than all the ways that they are different, they are the same.
But you could say that for most things.
But you could say that for most things.
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A Thunderbird is a Jazz Bass on Steroids. Discuss...
- Thread starter Count Bassie
- Start date
The bass tone on this from about 35 seconds in has always reminded me of a Thunderbird, is played on a jazz bass
Obstacle 1 isolated bass
Obstacle 1 isolated bass
Having experience with all three things, I'm not sure I agree, but I do think Thunderbirds are underrated as far as their versatility goes.
The only production Thunderbirds I've seen with single coils were a Gibson or Epi (I think the latter) NR some years back, and the Greco Suzi Quatro bird. There are, of course, custom/customized birds with single coils. (Possibly tiny production runs from a company like Lull?)That is an answer I somehow didn't quite expect. But it makes sense to me.
The Thunderbird pickup discussion is a rabbit hole, that's for sure. I think that most of them, the great majority of them are humbuckers. But that's a topic to bring over to the Thunderbird Club, someone there will have, or be, the Encyclopedia Thunderbirdica...
Lance Armstrong on steroids was still Lance Armstrong. (This is not the place to discuss any adjectives that should be applied to steroid Lance.)
A "burpy" (bridge soloed, with the tone rolled back) jazz tone is one I would expect a T bird to do relatively OK at. A nice, snappy, both pickups on "clink and clank", nope.
Yes, a Jazz bass is a neutered T bird.
Gibson also did a t-bird about 10 years ago that had coil tap pickups (had big exposed polepiece pickups) so one could have both. Some of the aftermarket reproductions can be done with coil tap option as well. I've never needed a thinner tone from them so it hasn't been a priority for me but I can why some would like it.
I dunno. I am a Jazz Bass fanboy. I bought an Epi TB Vintage Pro or some such deluxe model a while back. I played it for a short while but couldn't mesh with it and sent it off to its new owner. IMO there was nothing Jazz Bass-like about it.
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That's fine of course, I'm just trying, for my own reference, to get that...
Woody?
That's fine of course, I'm just trying, for my own reference, to get that...
Having owned both ( a 1965 Jazz Bass and a non reverse original Thunderbird. (I had them at the same time) The Jazz Bass was delightful, great sound fast ,slim neck, comfortable small body. By comparison, the Thunderbird had significant neck dive, the neck profile is fine but the frets were set right into surface of the neck and the fingerboard radius is very flat. Not an easy playing neck. I traded mine as it wasn't a bass for me. T think John Entwhistle had the right idea with the Fenderbird.
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The Ripper is J on steroids. The alnico Thunderbird reminds me more of a PP or PJ on steroids. The ceramic Thunderbird is totally another tone that's not as good to me.
The dual humbuckers are more balanced volume-wise than many PJ's, that's for sure. The neck also feels closer to a J Bass, which is why I find it a very comfortable bass overall.
The dual humbuckers are more balanced volume-wise than many PJ's, that's for sure. The neck also feels closer to a J Bass, which is why I find it a very comfortable bass overall.
Hmm, this could be another reason why the Thunderbird meshes so well with me. I totally find a Fender bass bridge too wide!
"A Jazz bass is a Thunderbird on heroin"
-Jaco Pastorious
All joking aside, some T-Birds are closer than others
But the current Gibson Non-Reverse pickups are definitely much darker and have a huge warm tone to them and I'm pretty confident it's my favorite T-bird I've ever had and is definitely a keeper, this one in particular is probably still darker sounding than a jazz bass with the tone rolled down quite a bit. The Epiphone vintage pro Thunderbird bass that I had in the past was definitely brighter, and over all at least jazz bass adjacent.
It also should be mentioned that Jazz basses can vary in tone even more than I think T-Birds can and depending on if it's an active Jazz you can get pretty close if you boost the bass up and cut the treble a little.
Fundamentally though the difference is a humbucker vs a single coil and how the 2 pickups work off of their neck and bridge pickups.
-Jaco Pastorious
All joking aside, some T-Birds are closer than others
But the current Gibson Non-Reverse pickups are definitely much darker and have a huge warm tone to them and I'm pretty confident it's my favorite T-bird I've ever had and is definitely a keeper, this one in particular is probably still darker sounding than a jazz bass with the tone rolled down quite a bit. The Epiphone vintage pro Thunderbird bass that I had in the past was definitely brighter, and over all at least jazz bass adjacent.
It also should be mentioned that Jazz basses can vary in tone even more than I think T-Birds can and depending on if it's an active Jazz you can get pretty close if you boost the bass up and cut the treble a little.
Fundamentally though the difference is a humbucker vs a single coil and how the 2 pickups work off of their neck and bridge pickups.
The Gibson Bird seems to have the pickups closer to the neck than the VP Bird. It may explain the tonal difference, especially considering that the NR Bird is set neck. The VP can sound like a P bass with its neck pickup soloed; the NR (or a normal Gibson with alnico pickup upgrade) not so much.
I find the Jazz and Bird necks relatively close in feel, maybe a bit longer reach on the Tbird, that's about the only comparable aspect of a Jazz and bird in my experience.
To my ears a Bird with the neck pup soloed is more in the ballpark as a split P precision bass, except the bird has more balls on the bottom end and if the bridge pup is soloed the bird has more definition on the top end.
If I roll the tone knob on a Jazz way back and solo the bridge pup I can kinda get close to a typical Tbird sound. The thing is, I can dial in a honk, burp, or quack on a Jazz bridge pup that I can't as easily get on a bird, so although there's some overlap between the two basses I can do things on one that I can't easily do on the other.
That said, I have no real need for honk, burp and quack or nasal tones (never been a Jaco fan) which is why I've retired all my Jazz basses and switched from those and P bass over to thunderbirds.
On the rare chance I do need those Jaco type sounds I can turn to my 1990's Epiphone NonReverse which came stock with a P/J layout or I can flip the coil switches on my stock 2015 Tbird to go from humbucker to single coil mode for something more "jazz-esque".
As luck would have it, I'm currently in the process of building a Tbird equipped with two Jazz pups. But it's completely to the Warwick Thumb BO5 design spec with both active MEC Jazz pups crammed down at the bridge and tied into a two band MEC preamp. If all goes well I'll be able to retire my Wick BO5 like I retired my Fender Tele on my last Tbird build…
To my ears a Bird with the neck pup soloed is more in the ballpark as a split P precision bass, except the bird has more balls on the bottom end and if the bridge pup is soloed the bird has more definition on the top end.
If I roll the tone knob on a Jazz way back and solo the bridge pup I can kinda get close to a typical Tbird sound. The thing is, I can dial in a honk, burp, or quack on a Jazz bridge pup that I can't as easily get on a bird, so although there's some overlap between the two basses I can do things on one that I can't easily do on the other.
That said, I have no real need for honk, burp and quack or nasal tones (never been a Jaco fan) which is why I've retired all my Jazz basses and switched from those and P bass over to thunderbirds.
On the rare chance I do need those Jaco type sounds I can turn to my 1990's Epiphone NonReverse which came stock with a P/J layout or I can flip the coil switches on my stock 2015 Tbird to go from humbucker to single coil mode for something more "jazz-esque".
As luck would have it, I'm currently in the process of building a Tbird equipped with two Jazz pups. But it's completely to the Warwick Thumb BO5 design spec with both active MEC Jazz pups crammed down at the bridge and tied into a two band MEC preamp. If all goes well I'll be able to retire my Wick BO5 like I retired my Fender Tele on my last Tbird build…
They are all bases and if you twist the tone controls on the amp and the guitar or both, they are all gonna sound pretty similar.
