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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
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- club thunderbird
Well my real point was that Thunderbird players bash epiphones unless there the most expensive one. That school of thought is horrible. If you like Gibsons cool, but the price tag and name don't make it a better bass.
Agreed!, I think your comment applies for a lot of things.
Well, not all Thunderbird players bash the Epi's, there are members here that love their Epi's and rightfully so.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
I'm not sure anybody around here bashes Epiphones. If anything, there's a whole lot of head scratching about why anybody would buy a Gibson when there are Epiphones that seem to be just as good in every way and far better in price. For what it's worth, my first 'Bird was a bottom of the line Epiphone, and I liked it so much that I bough another one even after I got a Gibson. It's a little different from a Gibson or higher end Epiphone, but it's an excellent instrument in its own right.
Actually it seems to me in this club of Bird beaters that the Eppi is every bit as respected for sound and quality as the Gibby and even more so from a cost standpoint. My first run in with a TBird was the Eppi Goth. It just felt so right in my hands and even unplugged it resonated. I'll never forget sitting in GC trying it out and feeling for the first time on any bass a massive amount of body vibration with every string movement as the upper horn pushed against my sternum. Just so much player feedback and response on every level. I knew it would be the perfect bass for me.
As luck would have it, I was in a hurry and didn't have money with me at the time so I hung it back up on the rack and came back the next day to get it - it was gone. That was when the hunt started. I soon purchased a Spector Rex5 Pro (TBird styled bass) and loved it, followed by an Anniversary TBird which is equally great. As much as I'd like to get a NR next, I'd jump all over an Eppi Goth if I found another one that spoke to me like the first one did. I currently have several dozen basses but that darn Goth eats at me every time I think about "the one that got away".
As luck would have it, I was in a hurry and didn't have money with me at the time so I hung it back up on the rack and came back the next day to get it - it was gone. That was when the hunt started. I soon purchased a Spector Rex5 Pro (TBird styled bass) and loved it, followed by an Anniversary TBird which is equally great. As much as I'd like to get a NR next, I'd jump all over an Eppi Goth if I found another one that spoke to me like the first one did. I currently have several dozen basses but that darn Goth eats at me every time I think about "the one that got away".
Well the thunderbird club is a safe space for epi lovers. But in my experience, when I read other threads epis are not spoken of favorably. Not here to argue or anything. Just my experience. Yes there are rational cats out there.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Those are just people who don't know. It's a little like the endless comments about quality control, neck dive from any and all Thunderbirds, broken necks, and general distaste for anything that isn't a Fender clone. Rickenbacker players catch some of the same undeserved flak.
I hear ya, and I think you're right.
Outside of this very well informed and open minded club there's not a lot of love for Eppi basses. The general consensus seems to be they are beginner basses and basically cheap garbage and the Gibby basses are generally considered expensive garbage. Of course, neither of those positions could be further from the truth but many bass players out there in the non Gibby/Eppi world have brains like sackcrete (all mixed up and permanently set). Different strokes for different folks I guess.
Miaow!
They're all just label queens. The sorts of people who don't understand that diversity is necessary for a robust and healthy ecosystem.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Well, many of the gen 1 T-birds did have broken/repaired necks (at the nut) and back then I saw a few in my own small area - that was a real concern. Neck dive not so much.
I think English speaking cats say "meow" and French speaking cats say "miaou".
Of course, French skunks sound more like this:
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Yes, and I suppose that some of the earliest ones may have had some neck dive, too. They had heavy tuners and the strap button was on the vestigial upper horn. Both problems seem to have been long since solved. I would love to have an original 1960s reverse 'Bird, but most seem to have been repaired, and for the asking prices, I don't want anything that's been repaired. So, I'll probably never have one even if I could justify spending vast sums of money on a bass I probably wouldn't play much.
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
Careful what you say about queens around here!
The very first song I ever learned to play was Badge off the "Best of Cream " album. In fact probably the first 5 songs I ever learned were from that album. Oddly I've never warmed up to the EB bass body style. Just never appealed to me for some reason.
I'd happily be a French speaking cat. Rather than a Gibson or other musical sponsorship, I'd much rather one of the funkier French clothiers, to keep me clad à la mode Parisienne.
Politician was my first Cream song learned.
But, to this day I love that body.
Call me crazy.
Careful what you say about queens around here!
It's only ok if it's queens, ny.
