Many Just Don't Get IT, Gibson Thunderbird

[Dynacord]

To me, the T-bird shape is en ergonomic nightmare. I have a friend with a 5-string, and I just can't play it. The fingers on my right hand tingle and my palm goes numb. The only thing that has to do with the bass is that its shape forces a hand-position that aggravates my screwed up right hand.

hmmm... I guess I'm just lucky. I have no problem at all with it though I don't wear it way low like is often seen. With any bass I try to find the place where neither of my wrists are at too sharp of an angle. I had some wrist problems earlier when I was playing mostly jazz basses but learned how to moderate that.

My primary player gets a lot of hate based on its looks too, but when I plug it in and start playing it, they stop talking.

Well, that is the point - how it feels and sounds in your hands.

 

[electracoyote]

Interesting comments.

I guess I get the ergonomic complaint...I've heard it used on almost every bass design on the planet. What's interesting is, especially with the Gibson offerings, all that extra wood on Firebird/Explorer/T-Bird designs is for players who find it comfortable to have that slab under their forearm, and if you sling your bass low it has no ergonomic impact at all, it's pure aesthetics, and a unique look that appeals to a lot of us.

At this point, if I saw a pic or vid of Mark with any other bass around his neck, it would just look so wrong.

I'm not sure I understand the tone arguments. In my experience, you can tweak just about any bass to some fairly wide extremes through different electronics, strings, picks, touch, and technique. If you don't like the tone of a particular T-Bird, that's only one in an endless array of possible tones the instrument can produce.

 

[stiles72]

That sounds really nice.

+1 That's a great tone David! Couldn't ask for a better example of deep & low fingerstyle on a Thunderbird.

 

[Dynacord]

Interesting comments.

I guess I get the ergonomic complaint...I've heard it used on almost every bass design on the planet. What's interesting is, especially with the Gibson offerings, all that extra wood on Firebird/Explorer/T-Bird designs is for players who find it comfortable to have that slab under their forearm <snip>

+1 worn at that height feels really natural to me.

+1 That's a great tone David! Couldn't ask for a better example of deep & low fingerstyle on a Thunderbird.

Thanks! and that was just using backline at the venue (I think it was Wojtek Pilichowski's amp) - that bass sounds really full but stays articulate even in really big rooms like that.

 

[TBird1958]

It's been said many times before, but this is a great collection!

T-Bird, do you have any clips of your band (which rocks, btw) where you're using your LullBird or a Gibson equipped with the Lull pickups? (My recollection is you have at least one Gibby set up this way.) The clips on Mike's site sound great, but it would be really cool to hear those pups in a mix.

Hi Greg,

Thank you for the kind words about my band! I do have one Youtube of us - I'm playing my single pickup Lull T Bass thru my Traynor YBA 200-2 (200watt tube amp) and my GK cabs. The sound from this is what the venue (7 Cedars Casino) recorded, we didn't have any control over the mix, the bass is out front tho I wasn't pushing the amp much, the vid is just a photo montage of the band put together by our recently retired drummer.

 

[JimmyM]

i'll be the first to admit i don't get the t-bird. sounds great, looks great, but i can't deal with the neck being out so far. i have to stretch too far to play the lowest frets.

but here's the thing...i don't have to get it. it's not important to anyone who likes them if i get it. my opinion is completely irrelevant. but to those of you who have to make the snide comments about how your choice of bass is so much better or how you would never buy for looks, let me remind you that your opinion is irrelevant, too...you just don't realize it.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

I've played a ton of T-birds, and the only one that thrilled me was one I found at a long-gone store back in 1977 called American Dream Music on El Cajon Blvd. I rode my bike to the store to kill some time, and there it was, a bi-centenial T-bird... The sales guy was WAY cool to little 16 year old Harry... put me in a room with and amp and cord... it had brand new roundwounds on it and sounded like *thunder*. If memory serves, the price tag on it was way high for my little budget - $700?? Dunno. I just left wishing I had the money...

So every time I pick one up, I want the same experience and I'm left disappointed. Not very realistic of me, since that bass was no doubt just like any other decent T-bird with new strings... but none have compared. Was '76 a particularly good year for these things?

 

[Rob Martinez]

Wow. All this whining about ergonomics, how the bass sits in your mix, if the bass looks sexy. Puh--LEEEEZE! Can you imagine any bass legends like McCartney or Entwistle, or Lee or guitar gods like Hendrix or Clapton going on and on and on ad nauseum about how their guitar or bass should sit PERFECTLY on their shoulders, or not hurt their hand or any such cry baby nonsense?

Just PLAY the damn thing! Or maybe you can't and that's why some folks cry and cry about such things. Over and over again. "It neck dives, it hurts my forearm, it doesn't fit perfectly up against me." When did some bassplayers become so whiny?? Sheesh! Make sure you put the right perfume on your bass the next time you put it on!

 

[TBird1958]

i'll be the first to admit i don't get the t-bird. sounds great, looks great, but i can't deal with the neck being out so far. i have to stretch too far to play the lowest frets.

but here's the thing...i don't have to get it. it's not important to anyone who likes them if i get it. my opinion is completely irrelevant. but to those of you who have to make the snide comments about how your choice of bass is so much better or how you would never buy for looks, let me remind you that your opinion is irrelevant, too...you just don't realize it.

Actually you do get *it* You play what works best for you, I respect that.

 

[Rob Martinez]

Actually you do get *it* You play what works best for you, I respect that.

Amen! Play what works for you. I play what I like, I don't like Fender basses, they are just not for me.

 

[spade2you]

Wow. All this whining about ergonomics, how the bass sits in your mix, if the bass looks sexy. Puh--LEEEEZE! Can you imagine any bass legends like McCartney or Entwistle, or Lee or guitar gods like Hendrix or Clapton going on and on and on ad nauseum about how their guitar or bass should sit PERFECTLY on their shoulders, or not hurt their hand or any such cry baby nonsense?

Just PLAY the damn thing! Or maybe you can't and that's why some folks cry and cry about such things. Over and over again. "It neck dives, it hurts my forearm, it doesn't fit perfectly up against me." When did some bassplayers become so whiny?? Sheesh! Make sure you put the right perfume on your bass the next time you put it on!

I could easily hang a 5lb weight from my fretting hand, but I see little need.

Sissy comments aside, (yeah, some have earned this) some of us have spent many years developing our technique. Mine does not involve supporting or moving the bass with either hand, nor should it. As a mostly fretless player, the left hand grip required to balance the thing would lead to piss poor vibrato. As also a mostly 6 string player, the necks would be virtually unplayable due to the width.

 

[kenfxj]

@ David Price, that Thunderbird of yours is simply beautiful!

Personally I play what I like, and think that's all anybody should do, mine make me happy - I hope everybody else's basses do the same for them, regardless of what company made them

As a Thunderbird fan, this picture makes me smile and seethe with jealousy at the same time.

 

[Rob Martinez]

I could easily hang a 5lb weight from my fretting hand, but I see little need.

Sissy comments aside, (yeah, some have earned this) some of us have spent many years developing our technique. Mine does not involve supporting or moving the bass with either hand, nor should it. As a mostly fretless player, the left hand grip required to balance the thing would lead to piss poor vibrato. As also a mostly 6 string player, the necks would be virtually unplayable due to the width.

Then don't play one. Isn't it really that simple? I'm going to play one, regardless of your opinion about the instrument.

 

[Kwesi]

Wow. All this whining about ergonomics, how the bass sits in your mix, if the bass looks sexy. Puh--LEEEEZE! Can you imagine any bass legends like McCartney or Entwistle, or Lee or guitar gods like Hendrix or Clapton going on and on and on ad nauseum about how their guitar or bass should sit PERFECTLY on their shoulders, or not hurt their hand or any such cry baby nonsense?

Just PLAY the damn thing! Or maybe you can't and that's why some folks cry and cry about such things. Over and over again. "It neck dives, it hurts my forearm, it doesn't fit perfectly up against me." When did some bassplayers become so whiny?? Sheesh! Make sure you put the right perfume on your bass the next time you put it on!

Right, right "PLAY the damn thing" even it's feels like crap, sounds like crap, and smells like crap, gotcha.

 

[spade2you]

Then don't play one. Isn't it really that simple? I'm going to play one, regardless of your opinion about the instrument.

Then don't harp on the people who "whine" about the lack of ergonomics.

 

[Rob Martinez]

Right, right "PLAY the damn thing" even it's feels like crap, sounds like crap, and smells like crap, gotcha.

To YOU it feels like crap, sounds like crap, and smells like crap, but who the hell are you? And why should I or anyone who likes playing them care what you think? The answer is: WE DON'T.

 

[Bassdirty]

...discovered the "Serious Rock Ultra Cool Rock Look™" ...

That made me giggle...(™) .not sure why, but it was funny.

 

[JimmyM]

Right, right "PLAY the damn thing" even it's feels like crap, sounds like crap, and smells like crap, gotcha.

ok, i could understand "smells like crap" as being a deterrent, but if you couldn't play one, i would blame you way before i'd blame the bass.

not sure why you care so much what others play, kwesi.

 

[Rob Martinez]

Then don't harp on the people who "whine" about the lack of ergonomics.

Well, I have found, when playing an upright bass, that the "ergonomics" of the instrument just don't work for me. So I don't play an upright bass. And I don't go to the upright bass forums and make an ass of myself trying to tell those players how crappy I think upright basses are, how they are ergonomically incorrect, sound weak, and are crap. I am mature enough to know better, and to know that, even though the upright bass does not work for me, there are plenty of really great bass players who use them and can play them, regardless about my own peronal opinions. They are actually great instruments that work fine in the right hands.

Just like a Gibson Thunderbird bass.

 

[JimmyM]

i think now would be a good time to repeat the bassist's prayer:

lord, let me gain acceptance through the gear i use, and if others don't agree with me, let me browbeat them mercilessly until they do.