Thunderbird Club

[BuddhaFingas]

So this fellow actually showed up yesterday. Quite something really, it's in pretty good shape for a 35 year old bass that has definitely been played a lot. Plenty of wear on the gold plating around the pickups, only a couple very small dings in the body, overall, the craftsmanship is pretty good, The 3 position toggle allows you to select neck, mid and bridge, or bridge pickups. There's a little bit of fret sprout, likely the bass having lived in Minnesota has something to do with that, it's not horrible and I can certainly play it without difficulty. With regard to tone, I'll hold off for now, I'm going to put some Ken Smith's on it (The Original Purple Silks) and enjoy working with it for awhile.

Beautiful! Even if it's backwards!

Re the frets I'd let it localize and hydrate for a while. Meentahsootah being drier rhan your locale.
Might go away.

Play with vigor!

 

[Stealth57]

Happy sunset.

 

[Miles_ONeal]

That’s croquet !!!

Very different again!

Doh! I knew that.

 

[GonePlaid]

Not to be confused with a croquette.
Which is quite different.

Or croquet, which is a whole nuther thingie.

 

[GonePlaid]

Happy sunset.

View attachment 7528524

Yer in Key West?

 

[JIO]

Yer in Key West?

three sheets into the wind...

 

[GBassNorth]

So this fellow actually showed up yesterday. Quite something really, it's in pretty good shape for a 35 year old bass that has definitely been played a lot. Plenty of wear on the gold plating around the pickups, only a couple very small dings in the body, overall, the craftsmanship is pretty good, The 3 position toggle allows you to select neck, mid and bridge, or bridge pickups. There's a little bit of fret sprout, likely the bass having lived in Minnesota has something to do with that, it's not horrible and I can certainly play it without difficulty. With regard to tone, I'll hold off for now, I'm going to put some Ken Smith's on it (The Original Purple Silks) and enjoy working with it for awhile.

Will be interested to hear your take on the Ken Smiths. I decided to go with flats to beef up the bottom end, the La Bella Gold flats sound very nice on this bass in finger mode and complete the Gold color theme. I don’t play with a pic so not sure if they would work well for you. I’m still on the fence with the pickup selection options. It’s not how I would have designed it, but it works well and I’m very hesitant to muck up a rare bass with after market mods. Overall, it’s a superbly cool looking and playing bass that will most likely be unobtainable at any reasonable cost 10 years from now. Great to see you snagged it at such a good price! Rock it!
Some info from our resident Gibson expert…

 

[ThaCoast]

Tough question for the Kingdom: out of all your birds, only two must remain (preferably one "vintage" & a "modern"). Can be any brand, any spec, vintage doesn't auto mean Gibson vintage 64-79 (could be the epiphones, or one that's been modified for it), but one bird needs that vintage tone, & one bird with a modern tone (or somewhat close, even if it doesn't sport the modern ceramic pickups, or the classic tbird style soapbar in general).

Which two are you choosing, & what makes them stand out from the others you may have in your collection? If you have only one bird, why is it THE one .

Curious only because at some point in the furture, i'll have one of each (both with Gibson RI vintage & modern type pickups). My modern one will be a closer take on the Spector versions of a Bird (all maple, dark board, brass nut, black hardware), where my vintage one will be a kind of tribute in ways (Potentially Alder body, maple or mahogany neck, dark board, nickel/chrome hardware).

 

[godofthunder59]

More is more and more is better.

 

[dagrev]

Tough question for the Kingdom: out of all your birds, only two must remain (preferably one "vintage" & a "modern"). Can be any brand, any spec, vintage doesn't auto mean Gibson vintage 64-79 (could be the epiphones, or one that's been modified for it), but one bird needs that vintage tone, & one bird with a modern tone (or somewhat close, even if it doesn't sport the modern ceramic pickups, or the classic tbird style soapbar in general).

Which two are you choosing, & what makes them stand out from the others you may have in your collection? If you have only one bird, why is it THE one .

Curious only because at some point in the furture, i'll have one of each (both with Gibson RI vintage & modern type pickups). My modern one will be a closer take on the Spector versions of a Bird (all maple, dark board, brass nut, black hardware), where my vintage one will be a kind of tribute in ways (Potentially Alder body, maple or mahogany neck, dark board, nickel/chrome hardware).

For vintage, early 60s Reverse. For modern, late 60s NR.

In a pinch, for my vintage a 60s reverse or NR, for "modern" a Epi VP, 60s 64 or whatever it's called this month.

I love the sound of the 60s Thunderbirds and nothing comes close as the Epis that I have played. That said, for modern a rare Lull would be ideal. But that's not going to happen.

 

[TBird1958]

Will be interested to hear your take on the Ken Smiths. I decided to go with flats to beef up the bottom end, the La Bella Gold flats sound very nice on this bass in finger mode and complete the Gold color theme. I don’t play with a pic so not sure if they would work well for you. I’m still on the fence with the pickup selection options. It’s not how I would have designed it, but it works well and I’m very hesitant to muck up a rare bass with after market mods. Overall, it’s a superbly cool looking and playing bass that will most likely be unobtainable at any reasonable cost 10 years from now. Great to see you snagged it at such a good price! Rock it!
Some info from our resident Gibson expert…
View attachment 7528571

I kind of knew what to expect from the bass before I got it, I had briefly played Uwe's back in 2018 and we discussed it, and he mentioned that it was different in terms of output and tone from other more conventional Birds. As it is right now I the toggle in the up position which I think is just the neck pickup, it sounds good with fingers or pick, the pickup is set down. The mid position is (I think) the mid and bridge pickups, and is a bit nasal, think of John Taylor's tone on a lot of classic Duran Duran, not too bassy, "Rio" and "Save a Prayer" come to mind. As a tone, I like it.
Not that I think it would be easy to figure out, but I would consider a rewire if it could address my preferences, which would be to solo both the neck and mid pickups and combine the neck and bridge pickups.

With Uwe's, which I don't know the production date, it's quite different with it's black plastic pickups and Firebird PG.

 

[BuddhaFingas]

Tough question for the Kingdom: out of all your birds, only two must remain (preferably one "vintage" & a "modern"). Can be any brand, any spec, vintage doesn't auto mean Gibson vintage 64-79 (could be the epiphones, or one that's been modified for it), but one bird needs that vintage tone, & one bird with a modern tone (or somewhat close, even if it doesn't sport the modern ceramic pickups, or the classic tbird style soapbar in general).

Which two are you choosing, & what makes them stand out from the others you may have in your collection? If you have only one bird, why is it THE one .

Curious only because at some point in the furture, i'll have one of each (both with Gibson RI vintage & modern type pickups). My modern one will be a closer take on the Spector versions of a Bird (all maple, dark board, brass nut, black hardware), where my vintage one will be a kind of tribute in ways (Potentially Alder body, maple or mahogany neck, dark board, nickel/chrome hardware).

Not hard for me... seeing as I only have 1.875 birds currently.
Will achieve 2.0 sometime in September, based on projected completion.

2018 Gibson Lefty, Sunburst, Babicz, bone stock

2026 Self- built custom fretless, bullion burst, 3-point, 916 pups.... WIP.

 

[GonePlaid]

Tough question for the Kingdom: out of all your birds, only two must remain (preferably one "vintage" & a "modern"). Can be any brand, any spec, vintage doesn't auto mean Gibson vintage 64-79 (could be the epiphones, or one that's been modified for it), but one bird needs that vintage tone, & one bird with a modern tone (or somewhat close, even if it doesn't sport the modern ceramic pickups, or the classic tbird style soapbar in general).

Which two are you choosing, & what makes them stand out from the others you may have in your collection? If you have only one bird, why is it THE one .

Curious only because at some point in the furture, i'll have one of each (both with Gibson RI vintage & modern type pickups). My modern one will be a closer take on the Spector versions of a Bird (all maple, dark board, brass nut, black hardware), where my vintage one will be a kind of tribute in ways (Potentially Alder body, maple or mahogany neck, dark board, nickel/chrome hardware).

I bought my 67(?)NR mostly for the feel of the nice slim neck. My only other bass at that time was a 66 EB-3. I was never concerned with getting the 'typical' TBird tone, especially 'cos when I got it-in 1973-I had no clue wuttinnahell TBird tone was. I simply liked the feel of the bass. Yes, it took a while to get used to the size difference, but AFA tone, once I'd get the amp's settings dialed in, I could get sufficient variety in tone with the tone knob. Most of the time I don't use the bridge-or "superfluous" pup-which currently has such low output compared to the 'neck' pup that it's nearly useless. For me, no loss.

Another point, though I was unaware when I bought it, is it and-as it turns out-the EB-3 are mahogany, which-again for me-is the only proper body wood for a bass. [at my age-almost 81-I get to have unshakable opinions ] I also owned-for a short time-an Epiphone non-reverse 5 string TBird. It wasn't mahogany (alder?) plus it had P/J pups. Never made friends with it. Sold it.

The 67(?)NR is my only TBird b/c I could get any tone I wanted for the styles I play. It has been used in jazz-both combos and big bands, 50s-80s rock and country, concert bands-with clarinets, flutes, trumpets, trombones, etc-playing classical music, and 'classic' country. I've always been able to get an appropriate sound with it. FWIW, I've been using nothing but flats for ~40+ years.

Some pics:
Epi 5er:

67 NR:

Bofum:

And bofum w/ Les Paul 5er:

 

[Engle]

Whatta you got to lose? If it’s a dud, just move it along. But of course I say that, given my name.

That was an old thread I posted for context. I ended up bringing the Marshall 2031 to Mr Ho (renowned Vancouver amp tech). He replaced the power tubes and checked it over. It rocks!

 

[MCF]

Tough question for the Kingdom: out of all your birds, only two must remain (preferably one "vintage" & a "modern"). Can be any brand, any spec, vintage doesn't auto mean Gibson vintage 64-79 (could be the epiphones, or one that's been modified for it), but one bird needs that vintage tone, & one bird with a modern tone (or somewhat close, even if it doesn't sport the modern ceramic pickups, or the classic tbird style soapbar in general).

Which two are you choosing, & what makes them stand out from the others you may have in your collection? If you have only one bird, why is it THE one .

Curious only because at some point in the furture, i'll have one of each (both with Gibson RI vintage & modern type pickups). My modern one will be a closer take on the Spector versions of a Bird (all maple, dark board, brass nut, black hardware), where my vintage one will be a kind of tribute in ways (Potentially Alder body, maple or mahogany neck, dark board, nickel/chrome hardware).

Can’t imagine only keeping two. I love my Epis, My BaCHs, and my Gibsons. But if I could only have two Thunderbirds, ithey would be the ‘15 Gibson and the ‘77 Bicentennial. Fortunately, I don’t have to Make that choice.

 

[TBird1958]

Wow, where does the time go? 4 years ago.
Wonderful memories, love you guys!

 

[GBassNorth]

I kind of knew what to expect from the bass before I got it, I had briefly played Uwe's back in 2018 and we discussed it, and he mentioned that it was different in terms of output and tone from other more conventional Birds. As it is right now I the toggle in the up position which I think is just the neck pickup, it sounds good with fingers or pick, the pickup is set down. The mid position is (I think) the mid and bridge pickups, and is a bit nasal, think of John Taylor's tone on a lot of classic Duran Duran, not too bassy, "Rio" and "Save a Prayer" come to mind. As a tone, I like it.
Not that I think it would be easy to figure out, but I would consider a rewire if it could address my preferences, which would be to solo both the neck and mid pickups and combine the neck and bridge pickups.

With Uwe's, which I don't know the production date, it's quite different with it's black plastic pickups and Firebird PG.

The ultimate in flexibility is three vol/tone stacks. Then you can blend in or solo which ever pickups you want. Great for studio or home use since you can infinitely tweak your sound to perfection. Not so great for live or stage work where you might want to quickly jump from one sound to another from song to song or even mid song.

If that’s the flexibility you want then a nice option is a vol/tone stack knob for the neck a single blend knob for the mid and bridge that feeds a single vol/tone stack knob for the output of the blend knob. It’s a three knob layout with only two volumes and two tones, so more of a set it and forget it on the stacks. This allows you to quickly go from neck solo to mid or bridge solo or blend and even all three on at the same time if wanted.

But again, I’d personally be hesitant to mod the wiring harness of a very rare guitar. IMHO it would be better to buy a daily player like an Eppi 64 or CP, add a pickup and wire it how you want it. Then you’re probably under $1000 all in and have a bass that’s a gigging monster.

 

[GonePlaid]

Wow, where does the time go? 4 years ago.
Wonderful memories, love you guys!

"Ain't it Funny How Time Slips Awa-a-a-y".

 

[JJR58]

Wow, where does the time go? 4 years ago.
Wonderful memories, love you guys!

And back at ya!

 

[dagrev]

I bought my 67(?)NR mostly for the feel of the nice slim neck. My only other bass at that time was a 66 EB-3. I was never concerned with getting the 'typical' TBird tone, especially 'cos when I got it-in 1973-I had no clue wuttinnahell TBird tone was. I simply liked the feel of the bass. Yes, it took a while to get used to the size difference, but AFA tone, once I'd get the amp's settings dialed in, I could get sufficient variety in tone with the tone knob. Most of the time I don't use the bridge-or "superfluous" pup-which currently has such low output compared to the 'neck' pup that it's nearly useless. For me, no loss.

Another point, though I was unaware when I bought it, is it and-as it turns out-the EB-3 are mahogany, which-again for me-is the only proper body wood for a bass. [at my age-almost 81-I get to have unshakable opinions ] I also owned-for a short time-an Epiphone non-reverse 5 string TBird. It wasn't mahogany (alder?) plus it had P/J pups. Never made friends with it. Sold it.

The 67(?)NR is my only TBird b/c I could get any tone I wanted for the styles I play. It has been used in jazz-both combos and big bands, 50s-80s rock and country, concert bands-with clarinets, flutes, trumpets, trombones, etc-playing classical music, and 'classic' country. I've always been able to get an appropriate sound with it. FWIW, I've been using nothing but flats for ~40+ years.

Some pics:
Epi 5er:
View attachment 7528652
67 NR:
View attachment 7528651
Bofum:
View attachment 7528655
And bofum w/ Les Paul 5er:

Flats are our friends.