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Thunderbird Club

#304,044
Thumper said:
My '19 VP sounds so good at home, I took it to practice to see how it sounded with the band. At home, I play at low volume, with the band, there is a notable loss of volume on the D and especially on the G string. I tried to raise that side, but it already seems to be at maximum height. Is lowering the E side the going to be the fix? Will this lower the overall volume? I just removed the volume pedal on my board, it may need to go back on.

BTW, the guys were really floored by the looks (I did put a black pickguard on it), maybe more than any other bass I've taken over there, and it did play wonderfully and has alot of angry bird going on. I wish I knew what the stock strings are, I'd buy them for this bass. When the time comes, it'll probably get Sunbeams (my faves), or XL lites.
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Yes, it could be. VPs are not lacking in volume, so if you lower one side I don't think you will be losing anything. I don't think it's true that all basses sound best with the pickups as close as possible. Some definitely do, but not all. Those of us who have '60s Thunderbirds don't have the neck pickup up much at all. That seems to be where the magic is. I hope you can figure it out. That can be frustrating. Compressor maybe an option if you don't have to go crazy with it.

I have no encountered this with any Thunderbird. However, I do notice some string manufacturers sets can then to have higher or lower output on some strings. Not horrible, but enough I am conscious of it and ease up on a loud E, for example. Put a brand on and it's not there.
 
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#304,048
dagrev said:
Yes, it could be. VPs are not lacking in volume, so if you lower one side I don't think you will be losing anything. I don't think it's true that all basses sound best with the pickups as close as possible. Some definitely do, but not all. Those of us who have '60s Thunderbirds don't have the neck pickup up much at all. That seems to be where the magic is. I hope you can figure it out. That can be frustrating. Compressor maybe an option if you don't have to go crazy with it.

I have no encountered this with any Thunderbird. However, I do notice some string manufacturers sets can then to have higher or lower output on some strings. Not horrible, but enough I am conscious of it and ease up on a loud E, for example. Put a brand on and it's not there.
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I didn't mention that the volume from the VP was very high, I had to turn down the amp volume knob. And yes, I had to dial out a little "angry" with the tone knob, a first for me. This bass actually out growls my DeCola equipped Thunderbird..
 
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#304,049
Ringhammer said:
I use the TI “PowerBass” rounds on my 2017 VP. They are the perfect string on that bass (to me). When I got my VP it had dead strings and the bass felt “cheap”. I had a set of these Thomastik Infeld PowerBass strings and purely by chance decided to put them on. That bass transformed from a “meh” cheap bass to an astonishingly awesome sounding instrument. It’s got a lot of low-mid and mids going on, and a growl that requires the tone knob to be pulled back a bit. A little bump on the bass knob at the amp is needed compared to when I use my ‘99, ‘01 or ‘03 Gibson ‘birds, but the different voice of the VP is a good thing in my book. The VP stays at my rehearsal space, out on a hanger, and gets used at full volume practice twice a week. These strings have been on for well over a year and they are still bright and crisp.


…and yes they are expensive…


Or

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My ‘17 VP is probably my least favorite Thunderbird. It’s missing something on the bottom. I may just have to give those a try. But yikes! They are expensive.
 
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#304,050
MCF said:
It’s funny Rich. I was the same way until I got my first NR. Now I have four of them and I think they’re way cool.
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I am definitely one of those people with specific aesthetic tastes. And everyone likes what they like. I love the original Thunderbird, but not an RD, or Explorer basses (somehow I do like Explorer guitars though). I’m not a fan of either guitars or basses with equal length horns like a Les Paul junior, or the big hollow body (EB-2?) type basses, (with the exception, I can kinda dig vintage SG guitars), and to me the NR’s are just funny looking. I respect people that really only care how good it sounds, but I’m firmly in the camp of those that love the looks. This falls I’ve to my amps/cabs as well. Things like a 27” wide head on a 24” cabinet drive me nuts…. I’ve had vintage V4B’s and had to search high and low for a vintage Ampeg bass cabinet that was 27” wide. I had a B40 (4x10) with one of the V4B’s I had and it was a good sounding rig, but I always wanted a ported cab with a V4B, to try to get a little more low end out of that 100W head. Now the V4B-AV and the SVT212AV (ported) are a sweet combination and looks like they were meant to go together.
 
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#304,052
MCF said:
My ‘17 VP is probably my least favorite Thunderbird. It’s missing something on the bottom. I may just have to give those a try. But yikes! They are expensive.
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Those are one of the few TI strings I haven't tried, but not sure they would give you the lows, but could easily be wrong. Their Jazz Rounds might, but they are really light and almost flimsy. But are warm and have good lows. So do Infelds. All pricey.

What's on it currently? Have you tried Power Steels? They have pretty big lows as well. Might try a round core string or something like a regular Boomer (hex core), that are naturally kind of big on the bottom. (There are round core Boomers as well for even more lows.) DR Sunbeams are also round core IIRC. I know you said you don't like to EQ once set (like me), but maybe just boost some lows and/or low-mids when you use it if you like everything else tone wise. (I don't at all mean that to sound condescending as if saying "just adjust your amp.")

Oh, and flats sound great on VPs. Chromes, maybe? Lots of lows from what I recall.
 
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#304,053
dagrev said:
Those are one of the few TI strings I haven't tried, but not sure they would give you the lows, but could easily be wrong. Their Jazz Rounds might, but they are really light and almost flimsy. But are warm and have good lows. So do Infelds. All pricey.

What's on it currently? Have you tried Power Steels? They have pretty big lows as well. Might try a round core string or something like a regular Boomer (hex core), that are naturally kind of big on the bottom. (There are round core Boomers as well for even more lows.) DR Sunbeams are also round core IIRC. I know you said you don't like to EQ once set (like me), but maybe just boost some lows and/or low-mids when you use it if you like everything else tone wise. (I don't at all mean that to sound condescending as if saying "just adjust your amp.")

Oh, and flats sound great on VPs. Chromes, maybe? Lots of lows from what I recall.
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remember those Black Beauties you sent?…..
 
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#304,056
Miles_ONeal said:
Ikea sells Vikings?!? Some assembly required!
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Yeah, I'm trying to get this one back in the box for return....




1728069889212.png
 
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#304,058
MCF said:
To finish the thought:

In the Spring of 2022, Gibson released the reverse Gene Simmons G2 Thunderbird. It had a 1.6 nut width set neck, black chrome hardware, a Hipshot bridge, Hipshot tuners, and “modern” ceramic Tbird pickups

A few months later in 2022, Gibson released the Rex Brown Signature Thunderbird. This reverse had a slightly slimmer set neck, “Rexbucker” pickups (which are said to be untapped Alnico DeColas), a push pull active/passive circuit, gold hardware, Hipshot bridge and tuners with a drop D extender.

The iconic neck through reverse Thunderbird is currently unavailable. It reverted back to the ceramic TBird plus pickups for 2016, but the Babicz bridge continued until around 2018. The most recent of the through neck reverses had the three point. It isn’t clear when Gibson did the most recent run, but they began to show as discontinued on Gibson’s website around 2021-2022. It will hopefully be back soon. And come in a variety of colors with 1960’s style bridges. At least one can dream.

Other Gibson Thunderbirds have come and gone through the years, including a Studio model that was available in IV and V string versions in the mid 00’s. They had “skinny” headstocks and set necks on a contoured slab body and standard style high mass bridges.

There was a short Scale model in 2011 (a run of 400) with a studio style “skinny” headstock, flat body top like the Studio, and the three point bridge.
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I tried one of the Gene Simmons birds today, and hated it. The neck is massive, the headstock looked twice as thick as a regular thunderbird headstock, and the slab body made the entire thing extremely heavy. I'm wondering if they went with a slab body to help balance out the massive neck. It outweighed a lot of the 5 string basses I compaired it to. It was also ridiculously loud. I was playing a Gibson SG bass with the neck pup soloed wide open and when I plugged the thunderbird into the same amp with the same settings I had to roll the pickup volume down to about half. None of my other thunderbirds are that loud. The binding and inlays look awesome, and I think it was an ebony fretboard, which was cool, but all that classiness goes right out the window with the tacky mirror pickguard with the G2 logo. The tone was solid but I could put those same electronics into an epiphone and still spend less than half of what that monster goes for. It's really unfortunate that Gibson doesn't currently make a regular reverse thunderbird
 
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#304,059
Tommygun_ted said:
I tried one of the Gene Simmons birds today, and hated it. The neck is massive, the headstock looked twice as thick as a regular thunderbird headstock, and the slab body made the entire thing extremely heavy. I'm wondering if they went with a slab body to help balance out the massive neck. It outweighed a lot of the 5 string basses I compaired it to. It was also ridiculously loud. I was playing a Gibson SG bass with the neck pup soloed wide open and when I plugged the thunderbird into the same amp with the same settings I had to roll the pickup volume down to about half. None of my other thunderbirds are that loud. The binding and inlays look awesome, and I think it was an ebony fretboard, which was cool, but all that classiness goes right out the window with the tacky mirror pickguard with the G2 logo. The tone was solid but I could put those same electronics into an epiphone and still spend less than half of what that monster goes for. It's really unfortunate that Gibson doesn't currently make a regular reverse thunderbird
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I haven’t tried one. I would like to, just because. But I’ve never seen one in the wild. Or the Gibson Rex Brown for that matter. I doubt I’ll ever buy either one, although the Rex is more interesting to me than that G2 thing.

There have been rumblings of the return of a proper through-neck reverse at some point. It’s likely only a matter of time. There are a lot of players who love them, including my favorite:

IMG_0617.png
 
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