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Thunderbird Club

#69,021
JJR58 said:
Ric's are a quirky bass to begin with, some issues have been corrected, like the tail lift. But there have been reported finish issues from various years. More so from 2010 on. Finish bubbling around areas where there is hardware. There is also the strings sitting to high in the nut. And some necks you just can't get straight cause they're shot from the factory.
I had my tech slot the nut to my liking, and he did a great set up. I knew it was a good neck before i bought it. But the some of the ones i've played before hand before i purchased the one i have now, the necks were already gone, wouldn't matter what you did to it. And as always, because i'm usually not satisfied in the tone department, I swapped out the stock pick ups for Joe Bardens. Now it's a killer bass. Will it develop the finish issues, if it does, it's a nightmare to deal with Ric on a refin, with the possibility that it'll happen again.
I'll take my chances as i love the bass.
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Didja send in yer warrantee card? Sounds like it would be a good idea... :unsure:
 
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#69,024
mistergoats said:
I totally see what you're saying, and I agree that this is lifestyle, but when specifically referring to something as a "lifestyle brand", the difference, as you stated at the end, is the barrier-to-entry price-point.

Nike, Adidas, Under Armour don't sell items in the $2000 price range. They sell seasonal and fashion turnover items mostly in the sub-$200 category. Which is exactly where you want to be as a lifestyle brand, including contributions to communities, funding, etc.

Gibson has sold the same ~$1500+ (CAD) items for the past 70 years. That's not a lifestyle brand. That's more akin to an auto manufacturing business model. Yes, you can buy Gibson t-shirts and hats and stuff like Nike and Under Armour, but clothes lines aren't the crux of their business. They also bought other high-price, low-turnover pro-audio companies to diversify their portfolio with effectively the SAME style of items they already had in their quiver.

To be clear, I'm not at all disagreeing with you that this very specific thread is a based on a lifestyle, I'm simply saying that Gibson, as a brand, is not a lifestyle brand as it pertains to the current marketing environment. It's a relatively high-cost/low-turnover model, quite the opposite of the lifestyle brand model.
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I agree, but I don't think Gibson understood that. I think somewhere in the past 30 years they pretty well quit understanding who and what they were at all, at least at the top. 8^(
 
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#69,025
Gaolee said:
I suspect that Thunderbird players are a band of misfits and oddballs who enhance each other's GAS pains. Other than that, we are pretty resistant to outside influences. We all came to being 'Bird people in different ways and for different reasons. Advertising sure wasn't it.
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So why DID you all become Bird players?

For me, it was stone simple. Leon Wilkeson was playing one when I saw Skynyrd touring "Pronounced", opening for the Who. Fell in love with the band, and with that bass. And his hair. And his hats. But still, the Bird!!!
"TEE BIRD!!!!!"
 
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#69,029
Miles_ONeal said:
So why DID you all become Bird players?
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Lots of reasons, but this pic was the first:
jDNZF70.jpg
 
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#69,030
Miles_ONeal said:
So why DID you all become Bird players?

For me, it was stone simple. Leon Wilkeson was playing one when I saw Skynyrd touring "Pronounced", opening for the Who. Fell in love with the band, and with that bass. And his hair. And his hats. But still, the Bird!!!
"TEE BIRD!!!!!"
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For me, it was this club. I had just started playing bass after being out of music for over 15 years. I found TalkBass as I was seeking knowledge on the matter, and had been through a half dozen or so POS FSOs. I think it was @JJR58 that started chattin' me up (can't recall fer sher), and I started spending time hangin' around the club. These people taught me more in a day, than I'd learned in a month out in GP... and they did with style! Everyone was so kind, knowledgeable, fun, patient, and generous... I just decided that, if these were the sort of people that played Thunderbirds... well... then dammit... I needed a Thunderbird! When I finally got one home with me & plugged it in... there was that sound!!! That sound I'd heard on so many albums I loved! It was a total paradigm shift! I finally knew what kind of bass sound I was after... and I've been learning how to get it, and what to do with it, ever since!
 
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#69,031
Miles_ONeal said:
So why DID you all become Bird players?

For me, it was stone simple. Leon Wilkeson was playing one when I saw Skynyrd touring "Pronounced", opening for the Who. Fell in love with the band, and with that bass. And his hair. And his hats. But still, the Bird!!!
"TEE BIRD!!!!!"
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Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick! If it is good enough for him, then it's good enough for me! I just love the look and style and tone of a T Bird bass.
 
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#69,033
PillO said:
My sample is probably not representative. Almost certainly not representative.

But, I was intrigued by the appearance of Myung not changing at all. You would think that he would need to tune and I can't imagine that he was doing it himself in the dark. It leads to the interesting theory that he has more than one bass that looks identical to the audience.
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Watch his rig rundown that premier guitar did on Yoot Oob. I'm sure some stuff has changed but it's still pretty current from what I can tell.
 
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#69,035
I don't know how I ended up with TBirds. Back when I started playing in the late 80's, I kinda wanted a wacky shaped bass like an Ironbird or a Destroyer (I still want those) but wasn't particularly drawn to the Bird. The 90's arrive and I take a 15 year break from playing. A few months into the replay in 2014 I messed around with a Goth and decided I needed one. That was followed by an ETBIV in burst for too good a price to pass up, even though I didn't love the burst, and still don't. I do want an EVP, a Jackson, a Dingwall and some others. I guess I'm hooked.
 
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#69,038
I remember as a kid seeing them from time to time in magazines. UFO, Mott The Hoople, etc. I also loved the bass sound on UFO records. But I never got around to getting one. By the late 80’s I associated em with hair metal and figured I’d never want one. I’ve always loved Alex Hacke’s bass tone on Einsturzende Neubauten records and found out he was playing T Birds. Then Mike Watt and Kim Gordon...maybe they were cool after all. Joined this club quite awhile before I got my first T Bird and loved the club...next thing I knew I had two Gibson’s and a Cataldo in less than two months! First I got a brand new Epi Embassy Pro because it supposedly had very T Bird like pickups...returned that bass more determined than ever to bite the bullet and get a Gibson T Bird. Haven’t played or recorded on anything else (hardly) since, unless it’s an upright gig
 
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#69,039
Miles_ONeal said:
Who did the paint job on the bird? I love it.
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Michael Dolan - via Mike Lull. It was a total Piece of **** when I bought it. Its truly a beautiful bass, I don't take it out of the house too often.
 
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#69,040
Miles_ONeal said:
So why DID you all become Bird players?
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I grew up listening to some of the bands @dukeorock mentioned above. But I honestly don’t have a salient memory of seeing an artist using one. I was actually moved to purchase by the power of social media, after seeing a series of YouTube concert videos featuring Fountains of Wayne. Here is this rather average and unasuming looking guy - very non-rock star - but he (Adam Schlesinger) makes playing this offbeat and seemingly uncomfortable looking bass look so effortless AND has great tone. GC had the 2015s on crazy sale so I made the leap without ever playing one. It arrived. I took it out of the case and was blown away by feel and sound.

 
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