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Thunderbird Club

#110,782
The most difficult hard shell case to find was the one for the Italia piezo thing which was much longer than it looked -- was a standard 34" scale but needed extra long strings. Looked cool, sounded weird.

33B5A567-1003-40EB-8147-EB95BD6CD62D.jpeg
 
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#110,783
Count Bassie said:
I posted this over in another thread by mistake... heh...

@JJR58 and anyone else who might be interested...
Plugged the new Bird into the Elf for a bit this morning. I've got it slung pretty low, so my right arm doesn't have a lot of bend at the elbow, but my playing positions for r.h. are still comfortable, i.e., both pup's as thumbrest, and right at the butt of the neck.
It's a lot of axe! Spans from head level down to mid-thigh- that and the shape seem to work together to make this a fun instrument to wear and lean into.
Sound-wise it's "warmish" and punchy, and doesn't have the rubber band quality of my P Bass when played without eq treatment. I really like what happens when I dig in hard- it just makes more good come out of it! The harder I play the cooler- not dirtier- it gets. I love that.
It's a very friendly neck, super nice to get around on. I have an easier time with the riff, for instance, to The Analog Kid by Rush on this bass than on the Fender, or the Squier Jag beast.
The setup is pretty good, neck seems to be tweaked just right, got lucky there. I think this Bird is in generally good shape, some dingage notwithstanding... judging from some evenly distributed light damage, I'm glad whoever had it went and put er away before something lousy happened to it.

The bass has a good vibe to it. If I didn't know better I'd think this Bird landed on my shoulder and decided to stay. Rescue Bird.

I'll be back with another comment or two, and will definitely be playing this at our gig next Friday!

View attachment 3371311
Click to expand...
where do you play that riff? first position using open A D and G? or do you play at the 5 fret?
 
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#110,785
So, I am now home from for the first time trying out the Gibson 2015 T-Bird with my blues rock band at a practice/jam session.

For most of the songs, I played fingerstyle on the neck pickup in 'bucker mode with the tone wide open. I had CME string the bass with D'Addario EXL-170's Regular Lights that are now broken in. I stood for 3 solid hours playing, and I got pretty comfortable with the new-to-me feel of this bass pretty quick.

The band loves this bass the most above my Fender PJ basses.

The drummer said of the T-Bird, "It cuts through and has a really deep, punchy sound and is great."

The lead guitarist/keyboardist (who also plays Fender Jazz basses) said the Bird sounded great and not "muddy," as he expected from a T - Bird. When I demonstrated the single coil mode with both pickups on, everyone was delighted with the versatility.

The lead singer/rhythm guitarist said, "It's perfect--sell your other basses."

We have a new #1 for the band.
 
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#110,786
FPC's Maranello post reminded me that I've been wanting to look into a Guild Starfire II (the Phil Lesh Alembic version being well out of my price range for now). While poking around in Guild and Alembic territory, I ran across this video. They don't show Phil's bass well very often, but that first song is a wonderful cover of one of my all time faves- the Rock and Roll Animal version of Sweet Jane (with Intro).



Meanwhile, any thoughts on the Guild?
 
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#110,787
Bassblisters said:
The lead guitarist/keyboardist (who also plays Fender Jazz basses) said the Bird sounded great and not "muddy," as he expected from a T - Bird.
Click to expand...

The only proper response to that is 'your Jazz doesn't sound as ganky as I expected, could you maybe turn down the mids as well?'
 
Last edited:
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#110,788
Bassblisters said:
So, I am now home from for the first time trying out the Gibson 2015 T-Bird with my blues rock band at a practice/jam session.

For most of the songs, I played fingerstyle on the neck pickup in 'bucker mode with the tone wide open. I had CME string the bass with D'Addario EXL-170's Regular Lights that are now broken in. I stood for 3 solid hours playing, and I got pretty comfortable with the new-to-me feel of this bass pretty quick.

The band loves this bass the most above my Fender PJ basses.

The drummer said of the T-Bird, "It cuts through and has a really deep, punchy sound and is great."

The lead guitarist/keyboardist (who also plays Fender Jazz basses) said the Bird sounded great and not "muddy," as he expected from a T - Bird. When I demonstrated the single coil mode with both pickups on, everyone was delighted with the versatility.

The lead singer/rhythm guitarist said, "It's perfect--sell your other basses."

We have a new #1 for the band.
Click to expand...

Love it!


I always enjoy reading posts like yours, glad you tried a Bird out and found it to your liking - Cheers!
 
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#110,789
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#110,794
Bassblisters said:
So, I am now home from for the first time trying out the Gibson 2015 T-Bird with my blues rock band at a practice/jam session.

For most of the songs, I played fingerstyle on the neck pickup in 'bucker mode with the tone wide open. I had CME string the bass with D'Addario EXL-170's Regular Lights that are now broken in. I stood for 3 solid hours playing, and I got pretty comfortable with the new-to-me feel of this bass pretty quick.

The band loves this bass the most above my Fender PJ basses.

The drummer said of the T-Bird, "It cuts through and has a really deep, punchy sound and is great."

The lead guitarist/keyboardist (who also plays Fender Jazz basses) said the Bird sounded great and not "muddy," as he expected from a T - Bird. When I demonstrated the single coil mode with both pickups on, everyone was delighted with the versatility.

The lead singer/rhythm guitarist said, "It's perfect--sell your other basses."

We have a new #1 for the band.
Click to expand...
Excellent!
The 2015 is a very unique bird. It covers the same tones the regular TBirds do and then some. A couple of unique quirks with the 2015 bird, use them to your advantage...

1) The volume knobs are fairly linear until you get above 9 on the setting, after that they open up and increase not only the volume but also brighten noticeably in tone.
2) If the volume knobs are not maxed out the tone knob to a degree may adjust your volume.
3) If the pickups are too close to the strings you'll get an odd chorus effect on notes played between the twelfth fret and the bridge end of the neck. Not a bad sound in a mix but might not be wanted on a solo.
4) if you have a tendency to anchor your right hand on the pup housing be careful not to push down too hard on the exposed poles. Doing so can pop the pickup loose from the outer casing. Not a big deal if that happens, just put some foam backing in the pup cavity and replace the pup, that will continue to push the guts up against the pup housing.

Not sure what kind of music you play but another great string choice for the 2015 bird is EB Cobalt Flats. The least flatwound sounding string I've ever tried. Tons of punch and deep tones without losing much top end.

Most of all, ENJOY your new Bird! Play it proud.
 
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#110,795
BklynKen said:
Congratulations! I believe the Gator ProGo is what you're looking for. I think it's the polyfoam you're talking about. You'll just need to remove the bottom inside pad to fit the Thunderbird. This just means you need to be relatively careful when setting it down. In all the years I've been using it this has never caused a problem.
Click to expand...

It's not the exact sort of thing I was thinking of, but it's not far off. I'm definitely considering it an option. What I was thinking of was something more like this: https://www.amazon.com/Gator-Lightw...WE-TBIRD-BASS&qid=1553986298&s=gateway&sr=8-6
 
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#110,800
Count Bassie said:
I love a good provenance story.
Click to expand...
You can even see the stains from squashed out cigarettes and lies from beer bottles on the top. :smug:
Well, of course it's a great sounding bass guitar, thick and punchy. The neck is very strong, no adjustments necessary. Very very reliable - that's what I need especially on stage.
It took me some months saving money and selling stuff, but now I'm so happy with it. I know Oli Lang a couple of years now, from the first time we met I wanted to get a bass guitar made by him. He's a very nice person (I really mean it!) and I like his way treating wood. It's all a bit raw, "earthy" in its way. You don't need to handle it like a raw egg. He made the design on my statements, way before I was ready to order. Then he came up with it and I couldn't do anything else but get it. :)
So it's a part of a bird, a Rick and even a P. Best of all worlds. It even sounds that way.
Simply great.
(I still own an Epi Bird IV, but it's very "frankensteinized" and remains in the practice room for case of emergency.)
 
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