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Many Just Don't Get IT, Gibson Thunderbird
- Thread starter bluewine
- Start date
Hey. I've never played a T-bird. Don't know if they play like crap and neck-dive like mad...But since this is TB why should that stop me from having an opinion?
I simply don't get it. In fact, I pretty much don't get Gibson at all not just the basses. Hey, I've got a Gibson Les Paul and it's the most amazing LP I ever played. Makes the one I built look like some high school shop project. But I've also got an SG. Biggest piece of crap on the planet. What were they thinking?
And that goes for Gibson basses too! Just look at that T-bird. Yeah, they were falling all over themselves to try to get a different "look" to snow the kids, but all they end up with is an upside down bass. Hint. to balance a bass the forward support needs to be out near the 12th fret. And what does Gibson do? They put it back BEHIND the neck joint! Brilliant!
And I"m sorry but your "solution" is no solution at all. First off, the support is better but not nearly far enough out the neck. And I've got some guitars with buttons like that and I can tell you that it's a nasty solution. the instrument tends to tilt away from your body which is very annoying and even worse by pulling the support back to the neck joint it forces the instrument forward into an unnatural playing position that just screams "GIBSON DESIGNED INSTRUMENT"! (A headstock button has the same problem but in the opposite direction)
Put me on the "I don't get it" list. In my opinion a T-bird is just lame in so many ways.
PS. That superglue on the strap cures neckdive every time...
Oh wait! I just remembered going to see a local band where the bass player had a T-bird. Generally speaking I hate the sound of Gibson basses, but this one sounded really, really good! Probably all they needed was to throw a sheet over the bass player and his bass so you could hear it, but not see it...
So I take it you don't like Gibson Thunderbird basses?
See, I like the history of the T Bird and how they just turned a Fender upside down to get inspired. That's how things were done back then!
I personally don't like Fender basses, I find them boring, and the tone "meh." So I can see your perspective.
Now I am going to go listen to some Who and Cheap Trick with Gibson T Bird bass on the recordings, ROCK ON!
To those that harp on about neck dive, I only have this to say:
Not to derail the thread (can it be derailed at this point?) but those are both a pair of great looking basses! Is that a chrome Schaller pickup on the upright? I have one on my '64 Ampeg Baby Bass - big tone and much easier to work with in a loud live band setting than the old diaphram pickup.
When I first got my Blackbird, it already had both the neck and tail strap buttons moved to different locations which are even more off-center. My bass rests almost vertically- which I like- so I have changed them out on all of my other birds as well. Not that they needed this to cure neck dive - but just to make the way the rest even better.
godofthunder59
Life is short, buy the bass.
- Feb 19, 2006
- 9,057
- 38,405
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Cataldo Basses, Whirlwind products, Thunderbucker pickups
To me the best playing and sounding Thunderbirds are the Nonreverse birds made from '66-'69. I have owned many over the years. A family picture all are not present.
Thanks, yes, a Schaller on the upright (and a piezo, too) - I like the tone on the Schaller though it can be noisy in some rooms but can get a lot louder before feeding back than the piezo (the Fishman dual parametric DI - along with the F-deck HPF - has transformed my experience of the piezo -- in a good way).
To try to re-rail the thread... we don't all have to like the same thing - I've heard people play really well on basses that would be far from my first choice or any standard of 'best' (hearing Jimmy Guyett - who used to play with John Lee Hooker - sounding really good using a Hohner Steinberger copy... a bass I would never choose... or Steve Evans killing on a 20 year old Squire). I think it was inviting flames by starting out the thread saying "many just don't get IT" and no one has to agree on the merits of t-birds but dissing them without having actually used them in context - or at all - is just bloviating. I'll admit I was slow to come to them as I associated them with big hair and spandex but that changed when I actually tried one I liked and then more-so in context. I'm not going to go on a Peavey thread and dis all current Peavey made stuff based on decades old stereotypes (I've not used their newer basses but I know they their fans) or a Carvin thread because I tried one 30 year-old one that played and looked like a piece of butcher-block. It's not 'either-or' to me - I don't have to hate Fenders to like my t-bird and sometimes will opt for one of them.
To those that harp on about neck dive, I only have this to say:
It's not that complicated:
Related, how many people use the strap button on the back of the headstock on their vintage/reissue Fender basses?
Not me! Why were those put there? I know some people used them on old Jags and Strats, but I attached my strap to the back of the headstock on my AV 62 Jazz, and it felt strange, and looked stranger! Haha.
PS - BEAUTIFUL T-Bird my friend. I like your "Thunderbird Jesus" pose!
i would have put "haters gonna hate," but it's still pretty funny.I couldn't help myself!
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I'm ashamed that that didn't even come to mind, lol! I'll make one if some else doesn't in the next few hours.
The purpose to thread was not to hate just to bring awareness to this very misunderstood iconish bass. For you younger guys that were not around when these works of art hit the scene it will be a little hard to understand.
My thread title may have been a little harsh. But, nothing wrong with not getting it. Hell I dont get the appeal of Warwick or Ibanez, although I understand they are a quality basses.
My thread title may have been a little harsh. But, nothing wrong with not getting it. Hell I dont get the appeal of Warwick or Ibanez, although I understand they are a quality basses.
I couldn't help myself
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Thanks Kwesi. Exactly what I was thinking! LOL
I couldn't help myself
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LOVE it
I am truly honored to be so immortalized. Thanks, Kwesi!
1930ish Pfretzschner aluminum - these were made in Germany for export. It was a (big) project. I bought it in the U.S. (it had been a school bass and probably an army bass before that) painted and in pieces and completely restored it myself. I use it more as an amplified upright and can get quite good tone out of it that way - if jacking up the string height to get more volume, it starts to take on the garbage can qualities one might expect - but if keeping the strings lower, it sounds very comparable to a ply bass. It makes a great impression on stage and looks awesome with the colored lights -- I always get people wanting their pictures taken with it.
What can I say, I like instruments that are 'different'...
that upright is one of those old pfretzschner basses from the 30's or a replica of one. the uso used them a lot during wwii because they didn't get busted up like the wood basses.
http://www.bassplayer.com/article.aspx?id=117409
http://www.bassplayer.com/article.aspx?id=117409
What Jimmy said.
I suspect this had been a USO bass. I only know of one other in Europe - which also made it's way back from the States. My understanding is they were export only as it was an attempted solution to wood basses being cracked due to humidity, etc in shipment and being returned. There were all aluminum ones made by Alcoa in the U.S. as well and people can argue endlessly about which is 'better' - I've played both and prefer the Pfretzschners as they have the wood neck and sound better (to me, subjectively) as the aluminum is thinner. These are not that uncommon in the States but nobody has ever seen them before over here so it gets a lot of attention.
Now I've really succeeded in derailing the thread!
Interesting thread... As I don't ever recall being someone who gets touchy when folks don't love my gear choices, I always find it really curious to see folks who do. It's almost a religious thing (another subject that baffles me...)
My take:
My take:
- Not all gear is for everyone.
- Your bass is NOT the best bass for me.
- Old does not mean great - it just means old.
- You are not what you own/play/buy
davidprice said:LOVE it
I am truly honored to be so immortalized. Thanks, Kwesi!
1930ish Pfretzschner aluminum - these were made in Germany for export. It was a (big) project. I bought it in the U.S. (it had been a school bass and probably an army bass before that) painted and in pieces and completely restored it myself. I use it more as an amplified upright and can get quite good tone out of it that way - if jacking up the string height to get more volume, it starts to take on the garbage can qualities one might expect - but if keeping the strings lower, it sounds very comparable to a ply bass. It makes a great impression on stage and looks awesome with the colored lights -- I always get people wanting their pictures taken with it.
What can I say, I like instruments that are 'different'...
Brilliant. Any chance of posting some sound clips?
You said it! Forget all those 'birds! I want to hear that metal upright bass! It's SO cool. I want my picture taken with it!
I should be getting some live recordings back soon - I'll post something from that when I have it.
It sounds pretty similar to a ply bass the way I have it set up. No one is going to mistake it for a $70,000 carved 18th century Italian bass... but it sure looks cool!
Sorry if anything I've written comes off as touchy or defensive. I'd say my issue is people making absolutist and categorical statements based on very little actual experience (maybe the t-birds they've played really do play like redwood trees but that doesn't mean they all do) or entirely dismissing any potential functionality simply because of the look (or associating it only with specific players or styles) or saying things repeatedly that I have not experienced to be true or believe are exaggerated (hence my posting the pic relative to all the neck dive comments - yes, they do dive but there is a simple and functional workaround if one is so motivated). Of course, you are right that not all gear is for everyone. I've felt I've just been trying the set the record straight according to my own experience - it is not my desire to make anyone else switch over to t-birds or to say it is superior to what you choose to play... perhaps that is defensive but I've never taken the offensive against ANYONE's instrument choices.
I'd also say - probably defensively - that my opinions are based on having had hands on experience with probably thousand of basses - I worked in two of the more iconic instrument shops in California (McCabes in Santa Monica - which was primarily acoustic focused but we had a lot of electric stuff passing through as well - and Real Guitars in San Francisco) and having worked at Gary Brawer Stringed Instrument Repair which was/is a Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, etc. warranty center as well as getting all the referral work from Bill Graham Presents during the time I was there - and the repairs from the SF Bay Area Guitar Centers and other music stores - and that shop shared space with Dan Ransom who did the high end woodwork for Modulus so we had basses in there belonging to Entwistle, McCartney, etc. (and instruments he built under his own name during that time being played by Raphael Saadiq and Vernon Reid, etc) + I've worked for over 20 years at the Monterey Jazz Festival (where I'm a stage manager) and have interfaced directly with many of the great bass players - and their gear. This is not to say that I know more than anyone else - there are certainly people that do know more - only to stress that there is some context; it is not like I only know this one bass nor is it the only bass I use.
That said, we're all bass players here and probably have more in common than not.
Peace.
FWIW I'm not religious - at all - but that's another personal choice
