Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
- Start date
-
- Tags
- club thunderbird
Also found this. Anyone know about this?.
Here's the story from the guy who owned it.
"The 1991 white one was mine. The back story is that I have 3 old birds and was looking to replace my daily driver with one of the new ones but hated the black finish. I wanted nickel. I called the custom shop at Gibson and asked if they had it available. the woman who ran the shop, Betty, told me no. I asked if she could source it out for me and she agreed to do that and return my call later in the week. Well 2 weeks passed and one day she called me with some rather strange news. Seems they were running Firebird VII's on the line on friday (3 pu holes) and over the weekend changed to T Birds. the workman who came in on monday, thinking they were still doing FB VII's accidently routed two T-Birds with 3 holes. Not wanting to scrap them, Gibson contracted their own custom shop to make a matched set of 6 T-Birds for the calendar. All would be cardinal red, gold hardware,white P-guards, and 3 PU's. When she called me she asked if I was interested in one of the six. I said yes, but I wanted a white one. She informed me this was to be a matched set of six. I replied with well I have been playing Gibson basses for 30 years and could be playing Fenders and that they owed me this. She said she would ask the bosses at Gibson and get back to me. A few days passed and when she called she told me that #6 would be white with a black PG and gold embossed logo. So, there is only ONE white 3 pu bird out there and now you know the story on how it came to be.
Now as a player don't feel bad about missing out. Although it was a fine looking bass and rare to say the least, it was NOT a good sounding bass. And it was little compared to my old birds. In fact I hated it. It spent a few years in the case in the closet and really never got played. All my Birds are working basses so I took it to a guitar show in Orlando and sold it. As a collectible it is priceless, as a player...it sucked.
Best regards to all,"
David "T-Bird" Lucas
Last edited by dubbletrubble; 08-29-2010 at 02:58 PM.
"The 1991 white one was mine. The back story is that I have 3 old birds and was looking to replace my daily driver with one of the new ones but hated the black finish. I wanted nickel. I called the custom shop at Gibson and asked if they had it available. the woman who ran the shop, Betty, told me no. I asked if she could source it out for me and she agreed to do that and return my call later in the week. Well 2 weeks passed and one day she called me with some rather strange news. Seems they were running Firebird VII's on the line on friday (3 pu holes) and over the weekend changed to T Birds. the workman who came in on monday, thinking they were still doing FB VII's accidently routed two T-Birds with 3 holes. Not wanting to scrap them, Gibson contracted their own custom shop to make a matched set of 6 T-Birds for the calendar. All would be cardinal red, gold hardware,white P-guards, and 3 PU's. When she called me she asked if I was interested in one of the six. I said yes, but I wanted a white one. She informed me this was to be a matched set of six. I replied with well I have been playing Gibson basses for 30 years and could be playing Fenders and that they owed me this. She said she would ask the bosses at Gibson and get back to me. A few days passed and when she called she told me that #6 would be white with a black PG and gold embossed logo. So, there is only ONE white 3 pu bird out there and now you know the story on how it came to be.
Now as a player don't feel bad about missing out. Although it was a fine looking bass and rare to say the least, it was NOT a good sounding bass. And it was little compared to my old birds. In fact I hated it. It spent a few years in the case in the closet and really never got played. All my Birds are working basses so I took it to a guitar show in Orlando and sold it. As a collectible it is priceless, as a player...it sucked.
Best regards to all,"
David "T-Bird" Lucas
Last edited by dubbletrubble; 08-29-2010 at 02:58 PM.
Too bad it sucked! I prefer NR's but that thing looked COOL!
Too bad it sucked! I prefer NR's but that thing looked COOL!
I was surprised as well to hear it wasn't so great, but agreed, looks super cool.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
Love it - the Japanese are no strangers to multi-pu guitars and basses. In the 60's - they produced many 3 and 4 pu guitars with switches, knobs, toggles and push-button engager switches to activate numerous tonal options! So seeing a 3 pu T-bird is par for the course. Probably awesome in it's subtle complexity.
Love it - the Japanese are no strangers to multi-pu guitars and basses. In the 60's - they produced many 3 and 4 pu guitars with switches, knobs, toggles and push-button engager switches to activate numerous tonal options! So seeing a 3 pu T-bird is par for the course. Probably awesome in it's subtle complexity.
Pfffft. Bootsy uses 5. And he wears cool hats.
I had one like that! The hat,not the bass.
The part where the worker accidentally routed a TBird with 3 pups, thinking it was a Firebird, seems off. The pickup locations look like they'd be in the wrong spot for a Firebird, neglecting the size of the body, the bridge pickup is where the Firebird bridge would be.
Now to include the size difference, in 1991, I wouldn't doubt that Gibson was using CNC at the time, meaning that if they were, a whole new program would have needed to be written for it to turn out acceptable on a Thunderbird sized instrument.
IF they were still machining by hand, then the template they'd use wouldn't fit the Thunderbird size either.
My point isn't doubting that it is a real Gibson Custom Shop, nor that that is what he was told, just that I can't see it being an accident.
Cool nonetheless!
That's only equivalent to 2.5 Thunderbird pickups though... But the hat makes up for it
Remind me to never go to a magic show with you...
I look at stuff like puzzles, I like to try to figure them out.
Well... ya seem to be pretty damn good at it
dieselman
Supporting Member
More of an educated hypothesis
Haji
Supporting Member
Lotta times the folks in sales don't have exact answers and just approximate a story to fit what's in front of them.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
that is Bootsy's 'schtick'
Does anyone have any experience with this pickup?Thx. I'll have to give that a listen. I started on EB-3's so I got used to wallowing in the mud. Then I heard(live)my first 'Bird and the EB-3 went in the case where it sat for years 'til I sold it to someone who'd use it.
- Jun 30, 2010
- 49,588
- 221,963
- Disclosures
- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
It's a Seth Lover designed hum-bucker (same person who designed the T-bird HB) and many players added it to their P's and J's as a neck-hugger in the 70's to achieve more 'bottom'. If you install a standard T-bird HB pu right under the neck-butt you'll get a similar result.
