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Thunderbird Club

#339,621
Thumper said:
For sale locally, plastic still on pickguard and control cavity, includes case. Interesting color in that you can see the wood through the paint. Price is high IMO at $700. Still, it's a nice looking bass.
View attachment 7456278
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That’s the TV Silver Limited Edition Custom Shop. That version was MIC with a very Gibson like neck and 1.5 nut width. The pickups in them are killer. Well worth a premium over your garden variety Epi Bolt-on. The color takes on a greenish hue in some light conditions and silver in others.
 
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#339,622
Did the the 2014 Birds come in two different reds?
Specifically is this the cherry poorly photographed or another red?
Screenshot_20260320_130151_Facebook.jpg
 
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#339,625
MCF said:
That’s the TV Silver Limited Edition Custom Shop. That version was MIC with a very Gibson like neck and 1.5 nut width. The pickups in them are killer. Well worth a premium over your garden variety Epi Bolt-on. The color takes on a greenish hue in some light conditions and silver in others.
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I know George likes a deep bass sound. I'm looking for more of a balanced sound with good mids and highs as well. How would you describe these?

BTW, my TB+ equipped 2014 Thunderbird has good deep bass and decent low mids. My VPs give good high mids/highs. I don't want to give that up for another bass/low mid toned bass.
 
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#339,627
Thumper said:
I'd have to sell my 2017 Black VP first, and I really think I prefer the VP sound over a deep sound (unless they can get some nice treble as well). Besides, I probably couldn't get a decent price for the VP in this cheapskate state, and given current world events.
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The CSLE basses are excellent sounding birds, but a bit more focused on the lows and low mids. The VP is a more focused on the mids and high mids. Taking into account that your 2014 bird already has the lows and mids covered you should probably not off the VP, it rounds out your tone choices, the CSLE would be more along the lines of your 2014 and maybe even a bit darker.
 
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#339,630
GBassNorth said:
The CSLE basses are excellent sounding birds, but a bit more focused on the lows and low mids. The VP is a more focused on the mids and high mids. Taking into account that your 2014 bird already has the lows and mids covered you should probably not off the VP, it rounds out your tone choices, the CSLE would be more along the lines of your 2014 and maybe even a bit darker.
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I guess all that's left and available are the Gibson Reissues, how would ya'll describe them (originals and 76-79 out of my price range, and I doubt any Greco PUPs are available anytime soon). I'm thinking I'd like another Gibson Tbird, but not with TB+, so a PUP transplant would be necessary, but I do have some ProBuckers available).
 
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#339,633
Thumper said:
I guess all that's left and available are the Gibson Reissues, how would ya'll describe them (originals and 76-79 out of my price range, and I doubt any Greco PUPs are available anytime soon). I'm thinking I'd like another Gibson Tbird, but not with TB+, so a PUP transplant would be necessary, but I do have some ProBuckers available).
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If you mean Gibson vintage reissues, I recommend them. I have a pair in my ‘97 Gibson’ bird. I bought these directly from Gibson when they came out with them, and they are really well balanced, plenty of bottom and great definition. There is no differentiation with these pickups when you buy two at a time. My recollection is that they both say “lead” on the sticker that’s on the bottom.

I have since acquired (twice) pairs of the vintage reissues that came from 2021 Gibson NRs. These sets are designated “Rhy” and “Lead”, and the lead one reads higher on the ohm meter than the other. I have these in my 2014 Cherry, and these also sound very similar, but I have the instruments in different tunings and different strings, so a direct comparison is not possible.

This is a pic of one of the used 2021 NR sets that I got:

IMG_6750.jpeg


The ones you can buy from Gibson will be the top one “Lead”.
 
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#339,634
Ringhammer said:
If you mean Gibson vintage reissues, I recommend them. I have a pair in my ‘97 Gibson’ bird. I bought these directly from Gibson when they came out with them, and they are really well balanced, plenty of bottom and great definition. There is no differentiation with these pickups when you buy two at a time. My recollection is that they both say “lead” on the sticker that’s on the bottom.

I have since acquired (twice) pairs of the vintage reissues that came from 2021 Gibson NRs. These sets are designated “Rhy” and “Lead”, and the lead one reads higher on the ohm meter than the other. I have these in my 2014 Cherry, and these also sound very similar, but I have the instruments in different tunings and different strings, so a direct comparison is not possible.

This is a pic of one of the used 2021 NR sets that I got:

View attachment 7457261

The ones you can buy from Gibson will be the top one “Lead”.
Click to expand...
I guess they figure you can lower the rhythm pickup to balance outputs. Or maybe they just Gibsoned things.
 
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#339,638
Ringhammer said:
If you mean Gibson vintage reissues, I recommend them. I have a pair in my ‘97 Gibson’ bird. I bought these directly from Gibson when they came out with them, and they are really well balanced, plenty of bottom and great definition. There is no differentiation with these pickups when you buy two at a time. My recollection is that they both say “lead” on the sticker that’s on the bottom.

I have since acquired (twice) pairs of the vintage reissues that came from 2021 Gibson NRs. These sets are designated “Rhy” and “Lead”, and the lead one reads higher on the ohm meter than the other. I have these in my 2014 Cherry, and these also sound very similar, but I have the instruments in different tunings and different strings, so a direct comparison is not possible.

This is a pic of one of the used 2021 NR sets that I got:

View attachment 7457261

The ones you can buy from Gibson will be the top one “Lead”.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! Just outta curiosity, people took them out of NRs and replaced them with what?
 
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#339,639
Thumper said:
I guess all that's left and available are the Gibson Reissues, how would ya'll describe them (originals and 76-79 out of my price range, and I doubt any Greco PUPs are available anytime soon). I'm thinking I'd like another Gibson Tbird, but not with TB+, so a PUP transplant would be necessary, but I do have some ProBuckers available).
Click to expand...
The reissues sound darn good, especially for the price.

As far as a used Reverse Gibson Tbird goes, it’s pretty hard to get one under $1200 and it would most likely have TB+ pups, which I wouldn’t replace with Epiphone 760ProBuckers, but I would replace with Reissues. A used reissue NonReverse might be around $1300 but it would already have the reissue pups, so it might be a hair cheaper overall.

If you’re looking for the ultimate “Bang for the Buck” used Tbird it’s hard to beat a capped Goth for under $400 (one if my best sounding birds) or a mismarked Eppi CP for around $500 (which you could drop your ProBuckers into). Then there’s the very occasional Greco on fire sale for $800, which is perfect as is.
 
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