Gretsch G2220 Jet Bass VS Epiphone Thunderbird

What are you upgrading from? Those 2 basses couldnt be more different. We need a lot more information. What kind of amp do you have? What kind of music are you playing?

The one thing they both have in common is neck dive.

The best thing is to play them with your amp and decide what you like. I'm guessing you are after those two because you like the way they look?

 

Here you go.



I've owned the G2220 and an Epiphone Thunderbird Pro 5 in last couple of years, but sold them both. The Tbird felt way too large to be comfortable for me, as if I was swinging around a 10' boat oar when I played. That said, the neck was awesome in terms of playability, and the tone was great. The G2220 is a short scale bass, which made it really fast and fun to play. I found the electronics a little lacking, so I modded mine several times (ultimately I replaced the pickups with TV Jones Thunder'trons). I never had any neck dive issues with the Gretsch.

Between the two, I'd pick the Gretsch.

 

The T-Bird is going to neck dive a hell of a lot more than the Gretsch. I've played live many times with the Gretsch, and I've played a friends T-Bird, and they were extremely different in terms of tone. The Gretsch had quite a lovely vintagey muddyish tone with flatwounds, quite a distinct tone that suits the kind of music I do very well. Sits in the mix lovely and gives the music a strong old school vibe, especially through a tube amp. The T-Bird was different in that it seemed to cut through the mix like a knife, with a really growly powerful sound. I really liked it too, but it didn't work for what I was trying to do. It does of course neck dive like a bastard too. Both lovely basses though, just depends what kind of vibe you're going for. Obviously, I went for the Gretsch.