New Gibson Thunderbird

[mournblade]

I personally love the sound of T-Birds, problem I have with them is the terrible upper fret access (I am HUGE Iron Maiden fan, and quite a few songs Steve plays in the upper registers)

 

[dryheat666]

thanks all!

 

[MoSlevin]

T-birds do rather well at cutting through, actually. It depends on the amp and EQ, but I've always been able to identify the bassline and the bass when a track had a Thunderbird on it.

+1... With a good ear and a half-decent EQ, cutting through a mix isn't a problem.

Anyway, I've gotten more compliments on tone since I started playing the 'bird than I ever did with my other setups. It's strange - I agree that the tone isn't as crisp or defined as other basses, but it has an unmistakable presence that works well in a lot of live and recording scenarios.

I have a number of basses that give me tone that I absolutely love, but maybe that doesn't always translate to an audience? From my experience, the bird gives me a tone I love *and* other people notice it.

Of course, YMMV

 

[iplaybasstexas]

hey dryheat,
since you head you are kinda new to this stuff,
i would suggest you get the Epiphone Thunderbird.

save yourself about $1000 dollars. you can also not feel as guilty or devalue as much if you want to mod, etc.
and since we both play metal, i will say that i have underestimated the length of my bass neck when thrashing...
i would hate to see you buy a gibson t-bird only to break the headstock off...
AND the epiphone's are GREAT quality. I A/B'd both basses, and obviously the Gibson was better mostly, but not much!
personally, i probably would have bought two or three Epiphones (different colors/different tunings?) instead of one gibson.

and if you are a brand-name freak type guy, they sell Gibson truss rod covers on ebay

 

[dryheat666]

cool thanks for all the help. One more thing though, what can i do to find a luthier in my area?

 

[dryheat666]

EDIT: forget this post i messed up

 

[iplaybasstexas]

the only thing is, Epiphone T-birds are shorter, and start to look to much like guitars, eeeeewwwww

who told you that?

thats not true.

 

[dryheat666]

lol, wait ur right, i counted the frets. Scratch that, ha! pardon me for not noticing

 

[dryheat666]

i think ill get an epiphone thunderbird when i enter high school, if i don't change my mind before then

 

[mournblade]

You could do a lot worse. The t-Bird has both the looks and the sound for a metal bass. Rock on brother!

 

[gm jack]

You could do a lot worse. The t-Bird has both the looks and the sound for a metal bass. Rock on brother!

Personally, I feel it has exactly the opposite sound you want for metal. If you are trying to cut through distorted guitars, then you need something that has definition and strong mids, not the weak mess of a T-bird. They are ok if you want to just pound roots and hold the low end down, but as soon as you want to do more, and not have more technical lines turning the band's mix to sludge, I would look elsewhere.

Personally, I would look at Jazz basses, Warwicks (my favourites) and Spectors if you really want to get a strong metal sound. Plus, those are all versatile enough to play damn near anything, which can't be said fora T-bird.

 

[Rob Martinez]

John Entwistle played a T bird and had no problem cutting throught the mix.

Same with Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, listen to the first three CT albums, he used a T bird.

I think it depends on your amp settings, and strings, as well as tone placement on the bass, and use a pick if you want to cut through.

 

[rustynuts]

cool thanks for all the help. One more thing though, what can i do to find a luthier in my area?

Check with your local music store. They should be able to point you to one, or they may have one that they use for setups, etc.

 

[gm jack]

John Entwistle played a T bird and had no problem cutting throught the mix.

Same with Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, listen to the first three CT albums, he used a T bird.

I think it depends on your amp settings, and strings, as well as tone placement on the bass, and use a pick if you want to cut through.

I wouldn't call either of those metal though. If anyone can get a T-bird to cut through a heavy mix like Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse, he plays Spectors) call me. Now, that's an extreme example, but it applies to metal. If you want to be more than rumble under bassy, drop tuned guitars, you need midrange punch. That is exactly what T-birds lack (thy have a little treble ).

And Entwistle played t-birds for a bit because he wanted to experiment with a really muddy bass sound, as opposed to his normal treble to the max ideology. After, he played Alembics, which are some of the brightest basses around, so he can't have liked them that much.

 

[FenderAmpeg93]

I wouldn't call either of those metal though. If anyone can get a T-bird to cut through a heavy mix like Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse, he plays Spectors) call me. Now, that's an extreme example, but it applies to metal. If you want to be more than rumble under bassy, drop tuned guitars, you need midrange punch. That is exactly what T-birds lack (thy have a little treble ).

And Entwistle played t-birds for a bit because he wanted to experiment with a really muddy bass sound, as opposed to his normal treble to the max ideology. After, he played Alembics, which are some of the brightest basses around, so he can't have liked them that much.

I've seen you around ultimate-guitar! You're that guy with all the Warwick stuff I believe.

To threadstarter: Anyways for $2000, the price of new Gibson Thunderbirds, you can get something better suited to metal

 

[GreggBummer]

I know people disagree but: Basses are not suited to a style of music... the player is. Choose a sound(s), not a brand. Once you discover "YOUR SOUND" the bass/amp/effect will follow.

I am a big fan of the T-Bird. I don't own one, but I plan on it being the next bass I get. I borrowed a friends Epi TBird and fell in love with it. One of the complaints that I hear about both the epi/gibby is that it isn't versatile. I disagree. The more time you spend with this bass, the more you learn about it. I think a JBass is the same way. I can dial in pretty much anything I want out of my Jbass... especially by pushing the neck and bridge pickup volumes around. I found my experience with the Tbird was similar.
I should also mention, that my first experience with a gibby Tbird was negative... I didn't like the neck and I found it uncomfortable. But, after playing the Epi for a few weeks my opinion changed.

Sorry for the rant... but I just wanted to throw in my .02.

 

[dryheat666]

wow, i got a bunch to think about. What i am getting out of this is that i should just try them out and see how i like them for myself, with the extremely mixed reviews

 

[gm jack]

I've seen you around ultimate-guitar! You're that guy with all the Warwick stuff I believe.

To threadstarter: Anyways for $2000, the price of new Gibson Thunderbirds, you can get something better suited to metal

Yep, that's me.

And I agree with the second statement wholeheartedly. The Gibsons are not bad basses. However, for the price, you could do so much better. A lot of other basses can get that deep, thudding tone (often with some clarity at the same time), but a lot of them can also do other tones. The T-bird seems to get different varieties of that tone.

If that is the bass sound you hear in your head, and you never intend to get past the 15 fret, then there may be no better bass for you. Otherwise, I would suggest looking elsewhere.

 

[dryheat666]

yeah im thinking about getting an Epiphone T-bird, like $1000+ cheaper

 

[gm jack]

yeah im thinking about getting an Epiphone T-bird, like $1000+ cheaper

The trouble is, those have added flaws such as really muddy pickups, bad balance (unless you shift one of the strap pins) and far lower QC.