Thunderbird Club

[Count Bassie]

There's quilt and there's quilt. The Spector catalogue shows a spectacular piece of 5A quilt on its page for this bass, customer's is maybe 2A.

My made in Korea Washburn Stu Hamm has better quilt on it's back side than the Spector's front considering it cost 1/5 the price.

It's wood, I suppose you use what you've got. Nice piece there!

 

[Dadagoboi]

It's wood, I suppose you use what you've got. Nice piece there!

I looked at the Spector catalogue again. They're all made to order, so it's possible the Coda was ordered with a 2A top. Quilt is generally graded and sold by the piece, you get what you pay for.

A recent Sadowski FB posting had a picture of Roger and around a dozen figured top blanks spread out on the floor in front of him for inspection. That's expected for boutique basses.

My Stu Hamm is #1, it's signed by him. Maybe it's a ringer

 

[ubernator]

Dont know if this is a good price but it's hard to beat the GC return policy if you don't like it upon arrival...
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I think I saw that listing before. Leave it to guitar center to call a TV silver a pro. $350 would be a good price for a pro, but for a TV silver it is in the "gouge the price because only 1000 were made" range. The were about that price new. I also learned that GC will not "trade", I proposed a trade where I would give them my Warwick plus $100-200 , for the exact same model and year, but in better condition and with prettier wood. Nope, the only way they can do it is BUY it at the usual coal raked trade in rate, and then give no discount, or maybe 10% on the other one. It was going to cost $500 to do it their way. Same would likely apply with the birds, offer me $100 for mine and gladly take $250 for the difference.

 

[GBassNorth]

I think I saw that listing before. Leave it to guitar center to call a TV silver a pro. $350 would be a good price for a pro, but for a TV silver it is in the "gouge the price because only 1000 were made" range. The were about that price new. I also learned that GC will not "trade", I proposed a trade where I would give them my Warwick plus $100-200 , for the exact same model and year, but in better condition and with prettier wood. Nope, the only way they can do it is BUY it at the usual coal raked trade in rate, and then give no discount, or maybe 10% on the other one. It was going to cost $500 to do it their way. Same would likely apply with the birds, offer me $100 for mine and gladly take $250 for the difference.

I hear ha on the GC trade in issue.
FWIW I find GC about the same as any other retailer when it comes to trade in value. As a rule of thumb you can assume GC will give you about 60% of the actual eBay sold value on trade in. On a bass that has a resale value of $500 or less I view GC trade in as a good option. The $200 lower sale price is probably only $100 to $150 less than I'd get listing it on Craigslist or eBay and I don't have to deal with shipping, packaging, insurance, tire kickers, low ballers, scam artists, thugs, buyers remorse or viewing/tryout logistics. To me that's worth every bit of $200. On more expensive bass sales I'd try selling here first then maybe eBay or Reverb then Craigslist.

If you like that Eppi Silver TV bass at GC, take a few minutes to see what they have sold for (not asking price) on eBay. Call the listing store and ask for the store manager, then tell them what they have and what they sell for on eBay and offer them a similar price shipped to a GC store near you. I've successfully done that at GC and it worked great considering the return policy they have. Never even had to pay for shipping and was able to also use a 10% discount coupon to boot. YMMV

 

[Dadagoboi]

I think I saw that listing before. Leave it to guitar center to call a TV silver a pro. $350 would be a good price for a pro, but for a TV silver it is in the "gouge the price because only 1000 were made" range. The were about that price new. I also learned that GC will not "trade", I proposed a trade where I would give them my Warwick plus $100-200 , for the exact same model and year, but in better condition and with prettier wood. Nope, the only way they can do it is BUY it at the usual coal raked trade in rate, and then give no discount, or maybe 10% on the other one. It was going to cost $500 to do it their way. Same would likely apply with the birds, offer me $100 for mine and gladly take $250 for the difference.

I've had good results buying from GC online, all used and all bought at about half the going Ebay price:

This from S. Florida, which looked like this on their site:

...after a few hours clean up:

and this from Dallas:

...after a few hours clean up and a new pilot lamp:

Both functioned perfectly. Luckily they didn't know or care what they had. I paid less than half their actual value including shipping to the nearest GC...the ONLY time I go near the place.

Tubes, baby!

YMMV

 

[Gaolee]

Ummmm. You guys can order this bass at any time. Mine was reserved/confirmed 3 weeks ago with Sweetwater.

It just needs covers to be completely perfect looking.

 

[veebass]

59 here, since last Nov. 30th.

59 here as well, at least for another month.

 

[Larry V]

It just needs covers to be completely perfect looking.

...and one of GofT's tug bars.

 

[GBassNorth]

Something else that has worked well for me on GC used gear. I talked to the local store manager after buying a few used items on line and told him to give me a call if he ever got any boutique, limited or vintage guitar bass or amp and cabs in. That resulted in him calling me first (before they even listed it on their website) to see if I wanted it. I picked up phenomenal deals on an Alembic bass, a Fender Paisley Tele reissue, a vintage Musicman Hybrid amp and a Pre EB Stingray among other things. I'd easily estimate about $7000 in savings over what I would have paid on eBay for those same items. It was a win win for them as well since they didn't have to take time to take photos, write a listing, make room for it on the showroom floor and end up having to ship it to another store or a buyers address only to have the buyer return it to a local store resulting in fund transfers from store to store.

Here's a '78 Stingray and '80 HD150 SS/Tube amp I got for about a thousand less than the two would have cost me on eBay...

 

[kat888]

That's because you haven't played one of these...

Three tubes, six lbs, 900 watts @ 4 ohms, and bulletproof.

Sitting on its just-in-case backup.

Two tubes, 18 lbs, 200 watts made in USA, last 'peg I'll ever buy after the PF-500 fiasco.

I removed and replaced the Streamliner logo plexi with clear lexan. Looks better with the 12AX7s behind it.

Where are the 6550s? Genz is definitely in the exotica category in these parts.

 

[kat888]

Epiphone > nearly accurate
My point was that one would think that the (mother) company, the one that first produced the iconic bass would take pride in issuing an accurate tribute to said bass, and more as a statement of "we are Gibson - we started this ball rolling". Nothing more, nothing less. I think it'll be great that fans of the original T-bird will buy the Epiphone. I'll guess that some of them will replace the Epiphone tr cover and install one that says Gibson.

I admit it, I did 'doctor' my TRC ... but only to remove the works 'TBird Pro IV', cos it is no longer and never will be again. Epiphones are good enough for Paul Weller, John Lennon, Sonic Smith, etc and I'm pleased as punch to have one of my very own.

 

[Dadagoboi]

Where are the 6550s? Genz is definitely in the exotica category in these parts.

They'd be in here if Jess had just put the power tube sockets a little farther apart, which he admitted he regretted not doing. Stock 7027s but the iron is there to handle 6550s...check out the transformers compared to the run of the mill 50 watt in 1969!

 

[GBassNorth]

There's quilt and there's quilt. The Spector catalogue shows a spectacular piece of 5A quilt on its page for this bass, customer's is maybe 2-3A IMO.

My made in Korea Washburn Stu Hamm has better quilt on its back side than the Spector's front considering it cost 1/5 the price.

I suspect the highly figured maple on that Hamm back is thin veneer. Unlike the massive slab Gibson used on this bass...

There's enough flame maple in the Gibby cap to veneer 30 basses.
And a frontal shot to show the flame...

Certainly not the cheap and easy photo flame or veneer approach here. Just goes to show that when Gibson wants to do it right they can hit it out of the ballpark.

 

[kat888]

They'd be in here if Jess had just put the power tube sockets a little farther apart, which he admitted he regretted not doing. Stock 7027s but the iron is there to handle 6550s...check out the transformers compared to the run of the mill 50 watt in 1969!

I was talking about the Genz but it's all cool.

That is some serious iron!

 

[Christine]

I suspect the highly figured maple on that Hamm back is thin veneer. Unlike the massive slab Gibson used on this bass...

There's enough flame maple in the Gibby cap to veneer 30 basses.
And a frontal shot to show the flame...

Certainly not the cheap and easy photo flame or veneer approach here. Just goes to show that when Gibson wants to do it right they can hit it out of the ballpark.

Will you sod off posting pictures of your EBs!! You're making me bloody jealous

 

[GBassNorth]

Will you sod off posting pictures of your EBs!! You're making me bloody jealous

LOL - Officially soding off now sir!
God I wish Gibby would come out with an exotic wood top offering on the TBird.
Actually, at this point, I just wish they'd come out with a darn TBird!

 

[JIO]

I admit it, I did 'doctor' my TRC ... but only to remove the works 'TBird Pro IV', cos it is no longer and never will be again. Epiphones are good enough for Paul Weller, John Lennon, Sonic Smith, etc and I'm pleased as punch to have one of my very own.

Again.., my point was not a slight on Epiphone - at all. No comparative 'value' judgement intended. I own a Gibson, I own an Epiphone - both fine products in their own right. Here's an analogy; let's say Gibson offers a John Lennon tribute E230TD Casino with Gibson on the hs. If this were true, I would be curious as to why they would choose to do that considering the tribute in question was in fact an Epiphone. The Epiphone T-bird in question is not a tribute due to a famous player, but it is celebrating the first version of this bass badged Gibson.

It just needs covers to be completely perfect looking.

Covers and folded brass plate/felt pads string mute (and large barrel/post reverse tuners... but I digress) No, I get it - it will be super cool regardless of such minor details.

 

[Dadagoboi]

I was talking about the Genz but it's all cool.

That is some serious iron!

The Genz is Class D, the PowerFlex ain't!

 

[Gaolee]

They'd be in here if Jess had just put the power tube sockets a little farther apart, which he admitted he regretted not doing. Stock 7027s but the iron is there to handle 6550s...check out the transformers compared to the run of the mill 50 watt in 1969!

Gotta love the size of the iron in older amps. There's a reason my Acoustic Control amps weigh what they do. They also have capacitors the size of a quart jar and that hold a charge for more than a month unless you discharge them. Solid state will kill you just as much as a tube amp will.

 

[kat888]

The Genz is Class D, the PowerFlex ain't!

This I know.