Even with the upgrade of the pickups this sounds really bad, considering that it is a Gibson... even playing it through that tube amp. The basic Epiphone sounds just the same.
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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- club thunderbird
Sammi Yaffa style.
You got it! Love the Yaffa!
I've been dealing with Sweetwater for well over 10 years now. Never bought a bass from them, but have bought everything from strings to 32 channel sound boards, power amps, cables, mics, keyboards, and all other kinds of items. Nothing but stellar service--and sage advice. If my guy doesn't have expertise in that area, he will go ask somebody who does. Follow up is good and they genuinely seem to be interested about the experience. I do like the extra year warranty and that has caused me to buy some items from them. They may not have the greatest sales on earth in terms of crazy deals, but the prices are typically normal and often when I asked you might be able to get a little better price or higher ticket item than advertised.
Unimportant but shows how they pay attention. I was kidding with the guy that I deal with early on and said that my wife liked the smarties in the little candy packets they send. From that point on I got nothing but smarties whenever I receive an order. Significant? No, not really. But it does show they are listening and paying attention to emails and conversations. I'm a few hours away and it is one of my goals in life to drive up to Sweetwater for a weekend. I've also had no problems dealing with any of the other major online music stores either.
I go to SW first; only use the others if something's on a super sale or SW doesn't carry what I 'need'.
I buy most of my new basses from Sweetwater. But for every new bass I buy I probably buy 10 used ones and those are largely from Guitar Center and sometimes private parties. If Sweetwater had a GC or Sam Ash style used inventory they'd have the on-line market cornered.
Note: about a year ago my Sweetwater agent cold called me to see if there was anything I wanted to buy. I told him not to call me back until he had an Eppi Non Reverse Thunderbird Vintage Pro in stock. He said he had an in at Eppi and could pull some strings to at least make sure they knew there was a market out there looking for the NR VP. So far no return call from him. So far nothing posted from Eppi about a NR in the works. This pandemic may have put a lot of company plans on the back burner so I'm willing to cut Eppi some slack but if I don't hear something soon I'm just gonna make my own and move on.
Note: about a year ago my Sweetwater agent cold called me to see if there was anything I wanted to buy. I told him not to call me back until he had an Eppi Non Reverse Thunderbird Vintage Pro in stock. He said he had an in at Eppi and could pull some strings to at least make sure they knew there was a market out there looking for the NR VP. So far no return call from him. So far nothing posted from Eppi about a NR in the works. This pandemic may have put a lot of company plans on the back burner so I'm willing to cut Eppi some slack but if I don't hear something soon I'm just gonna make my own and move on.
Yeah, I vaguely remember that. Like you, I'll give them a 'credit' for enforced delays.
Has the bolt-on IV ever had a different nut?
The only other bolt-on in the 2011-12 range that had a 1.5” nut was the Nikki Sixx Blackbird, beyond that I’m not sure.
Finally got everything finished up on the Pro V, plays & sounds so much better now. Prettier too!
Took a bunch of mostly useless pics, for any of you that might be interested...
Hoping this works as intended....
How is that work table? I have seriously considered buying that.
The older version had the 1.73" and the last few years have been 1.5". I don't remember the transition year tho.
The bolt-on always seemed the odd bass out that way. Mine has the 1.73 and that’s what the Epi website said until the model disappeared from it.
Well...played through a guitar amp with who knows what settings and Roto flats. Not really representative of what the pickups or tone from that bird is capable of IMO. It looks like he did a nice job with his mods though. I’ve got three Epis with the basic PUPs that sound better to my ears through a little Marshall 12’” Hybrid bass combo. I’m always skeptical of random YouTube posts. That would be a cool bass to play some Skynard tunes on.
Really? I could have sworn the web site said 1.73 until the end.
I think some people like to be on YouTube just a weeee bit too much. I appreciate the effort, and everybody likes their own thing, but to my ear, that's pretty darn close to awful. I would never want or keep a bass that sounded like that. Fortunately none of my VPs or anything else does!
Sent a message to Morley after midnight. Had an answer this morning. Saturday.
I purchased my new ebony Epi TBird Vintage Pro from Sweetwater, and the experience was great!
The pictures on the website were of my exact bass. I was emailed high-resolution copies of those pictures by my sales rep after I purchased it. Upon arrival, it was the only instrument I have ever purchased (new or used) that was perfect from the moment I took it out of the box and tuned it. Highly satisfied with Sweetwater and my wife loves the candy)
I have no doubt that you are correct on the specs listed on the website. Epi is notorious for having incorrect info on their site. The limited edition TV Silver had a narrow nut, and I think that is around the time things changed.
There is a "tell" as to which neck is on the bass.
The wider necks have a more "straight ahead" headstock.
The narrower necks headstock kind of angles to the right a bit. I know this neck is not from a bolt-on version, but using it for illustration.
Better example:
I’ve just done some quick research online, looking at old catalogues. The 2013 and 2018 catalogues show it as a 1.5” nut. I know mine was manufactured in 2011 so I would take a guess that it changed from around 2013.
My reference material is linked below if you wanted to have a look.
http://www.epiphonewiki.org/index/Epiphone_Catalogs.php
Yep. And I’m pretty sure most of us on here could get some great tone from that one. Those Lollars are on my GAS list for one of my bolt-ons some day. So many basses. So little time
