Yes, I'll take a number! The Thunderbird is 2nd only to my life long BC Rich. Bought the Eagle used in '84, 6 months old. Came with the 1 year warranty on it.
If anyone cares to read the backstory, here it is:
Bought the TBird in Feb 2019, couldn't put it down for 2 weeks, even though my fingers turned black every time I played it with the original strings. I have heard of other Epiphones with this problem, guitars as well as basses. Liked it so much I bought a Hipshot bridge for it, just because I had never changed a bridge before and was getting into doing my own setups and mods at the time with both guitars and basses. And yes, I did finally change the strings when I put in the new bridge. Although it didn't really sound any different to my aging ears like I thought it would.
I actually bought it on a gut feeling, went to my local GC to sell off a Sire VV7 that I had for 1 1/2 years. Beautiful looking bass, well made, just couldn't gel with it. Spent the last 6 months I had it playing in passive mode with flats on it, didn't use the much talked about/praised pre-amp. Wasn't looking for another bass, just going to pocket the money and keep an eye out for something else. While I was waiting at GC for their asking price, salesman said they had a 15% off sale going for trade-ins. Yeah I know, when don't they!
Went into the bass room, not sure if they were in the middle of restructuring it but they had 2/3 the basses from what I remembered from the previous summer (spent a few weekends trying out everything). Not much of a selection at all but the TBird always caught my eye. Walked out with a new in-the-box TBird for $45 with the trade-in and additional 15% off. Not the Pro or VP, just a plane Jane but I couldn't have made a better choice.
So glad I got rid of the Sire for this, it is incredible. The dark tone of the pickups are just completely different from the BC Rich but I love it. The frets are a tad sharp, but nothing that will make me bleed and not really anything to complain about. Love the color of the neck, back of it is just gorgeous. I don't feel the need to change anything else about it. Playing with a pick just takes a slight adjustment of the tone knob, brilliant. I'm definitley using it on my next EP along with the BC Rich.
OK, I'm done rambling for now. It's late, I'm on furlough from work this week because of you know what and am enjoying a couple? of Bourbons and Beer chasers while jamming to some tunes with the TBird.
