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NBD: Epi T-Bird sunburst finish, but chrome hardware!!

Mastermold

Mastermold

May 5, 2008
11,570
12,762
Orange County, California
#1
Grabbed this off ebay for a pretty good price. It's new but B-stock, and I think the reason is the factory put the chrome pickups and hardware from the silverburst on a sunburst by mistake. But their mistake was my luck because I much prefer this look over the standard black, looks more like a vintage 60's T-bird this way. It's also likely there aren't many of these out there, so the rarity is kinda cool too. Here's a few pics from the seller until I can take a few of my own:

T-birdchrome.jpg


T-birdchrome2.gif


As for the tone, I just finished cranking it through my Ampeg B200R and it sounded great to my ear, very aggressive tone even with the stock strings. I wasn't sure how I'd like these pickups as the silverburst T-birds have gotten mixed reviews, but at least on this bass they sounded really good. I'm going to change the strings for a set of DR Sunbeams or Rotosound swing bass strings which I suspect will make it even better.

Overall, the bass feels pretty light, and not awkward to play as I expected it to be. I've never owned a T-bird before but was intending to buy a Gibson at some point. I still intend to but I have to admit this Epiphone might be good enough to keep me satisfied for a while.
 
#3
blendermassacre said:
I love those silverburst special pickups. They're awesome,IMO and should be standard on all epi birds.
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I read a bunch of threads here before deciding to buy this one, and some people really liked them and some didn't. I figured I'd gamble and just buy it (for the looks if nothing else). Having now played the bass, I'm happy to say I'm in the camp that really likes these pickups. :bassist:
 
#5
poorbassist15 said:
Sweet looking bass. How do the silverburst pickups sound? I want to put all chrome hardware on my T-Bird, only mine's Pelham Blue. I was also thinking vintage-ey tuners and a bicentennial pickguard.
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Thanks. They sound like Gibson humbuckers, aggressive and hot with more emphasis on the lower tonal spectrum than Fender pickups. I can't say how close they sound to the pickups in a real Gibson T-bird, but they seem (to me at least) to be a little hotter than the standard Epi T-bird pickups. Whatever else they sound like, they sound good.
 
#6
Congratulations on yor new 'Bird, glad you like the pickups too. The black rings around the pick ups remind me of my '77 Ibanez 'Bird.
 
#10
TBird1958 said:
Congratulations on yor new 'Bird, glad you like the pickups too. The black rings around the pick ups remind me of my '77 Ibanez 'Bird.
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Thanks, and I appreciated your input too and that link you gave me was helpful. I was thinking about trying some chrome Rio Grand Pitbull humbuckers if these ended up sucking, but happily the stock pickups turned out to be pretty good.
 
#16
Mastermold said:
I've been looking around on line and noticed the pickups look a lot like the chrome pickups Gibson used in their now discontinued money bass. Makes me wonder whether they're the same ones, just left over stock?
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No definately not, ya just gotta trust me on this :)
 

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