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Thunderbird Club

#195,101
JIO said:
I'd have to flip a coin - both are Uber-cool. They still are continuing the myth about the NR being intro'd, replacing the gen1 "reverse" due to a Fender law suite. The final word was it was due to poor sales -
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But Geo, it was said on the interweb--Youtube even with all it's untruth detectors. It must be true!:laugh: Another Thunderbird myth lives on. Proving yet again many people firmly believe and repeat things and are simply not true!
 
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#195,107
Larry V said:
Was there a Fender lawsuit and who's final word? Gibson's?
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I couldn't find the article I read recently about it, but here's some reference to it.

Tony Bacon suggests in Flying V, Explorer, Firebird: An Odd–Shaped History of Gibson’s Weird Electric Guitars that Fender may have threatened a suit, but Gibson likely just used those rumors an excuse to pull the original Firebird and update its poor design. He states that Fender was busy around that time to get patents on the Jazzmaster/Jaguar and that they didn't file a lawsuit at all. But they did print ads about the Jag/Jazzmaster with 'the most copied design around' or something with a similar meaning. He also states Gibson made the nonrev because it just was cheaper to make. A bit less radical and no neck through.

from the Gibson Firebird Wiki page:

Gibson's line of Thunderbird basses is rooted in the design of the Firebird, and uses even Roman numerals ("II" and "IV") to distinguish it. From 1965 to 1969, Gibson introduced "non-reverse" models after failing to achieve marketing success with the unusual reverse-body design. Gibson had also received complaints from Fender that the Firebird headstock mirrored the Stratocaster and that the body violated Fender's design patents, with Fender threatening* a lawsuit. The "non-reverse" body is a more standard double-cutaway design, with the bass horn being longer than the treble horn and the headstock having the tuners mounted on the bass side.

*not filing


It always seemed like a stretch to me - as in, do you believe a rumor or your own two eyes! If anything - the NR looked more like a Fender bass...

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#195,108
dagrev said:
For the record there are better options. Just sayin'.... Real hillbillies know that!
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I grew up in the mid-west and watched The Beverly Hillbillies, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction and Hee-Haw on TV ... I know what a Real hillbilly is! :roflmao:
 
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#195,109
JIO said:
I couldn't find the article I read recently about it, but here's some reference to it.

Tony Bacon suggests in Flying V, Explorer, Firebird: An Odd–Shaped History of Gibson’s Weird Electric Guitars that Fender may have threatened a suit, but Gibson likely just used those rumors an excuse to pull the original Firebird and update its poor design. He states that Fender was busy around that time to get patents on the Jazzmaster/Jaguar and that they didn't file a lawsuit at all. But they did print ads about the Jag/Jazzmaster with 'the most copied design around' or something with a similar meaning. He also states Gibson made the nonrev because it just was cheaper to make. A bit less radical and no neck through.

from the Gibson Firebird Wiki page:

Gibson's line of Thunderbird basses is rooted in the design of the Firebird, and uses even Roman numerals ("II" and "IV") to distinguish it. From 1965 to 1969, Gibson introduced "non-reverse" models after failing to achieve marketing success with the unusual reverse-body design. Gibson had also received complaints from Fender that the Firebird headstock mirrored the Stratocaster and that the body violated Fender's design patents, with Fender threatening a lawsuit. The "non-reverse" body is a more standard double-cutaway design, with the bass horn being longer than the treble horn and the headstock having the tuners mounted on the bass side.



It always seemed like a stretch to me - as in, do you believe a rumor or your own two eyes! If anything - the NR looked more like a Fender bass...
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When folks are using words like, "likely" that tells me they're just guessing. Perhaps a best guess but a guess nonetheless.

Also, it's very hard for me to believe that the reverse body style isn't the preferred body style by most people when compared to the non-reverse. I mean, the NR does look more like the Fender offerings and the reverse is just flat out sex and drugs and rock and roll. It's all my brain and body need!
 
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#195,110
Larry V said:
When folks are using words like, "likely" that tells me they're just guessing. Perhaps a best guess but a guess nonetheless.

Also, it's very hard for me to believe that the reverse body style isn't the preferred body style by most people when compared to the non-reverse. I mean, the NR does look more like the Fender offerings and the reverse is just flat out sex and drugs and rock and roll. It's all my brain and body need!
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My preference for "reverse" and "notta-reverse" depends greatly on which one I just got done playing....
 
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#195,113
Larry V said:
When folks are using words like, "likely" that tells me they're just guessing. Perhaps a best guess but a guess nonetheless.

Also, it's very hard for me to believe that the reverse body style isn't the preferred body style by most people when compared to the non-reverse. I mean, the NR does look more like the Fender offerings and the reverse is just flat out sex and drugs and rock and roll. It's all my brain and body need!
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I agree about the two styles, but I would tend to trust that guitar historian Tony Bacon knows what he is talking about, even when conjecturing based on what he has researched. We're all 'historic detail' fascinated these days but back then whatever the company "word" was, was put out there and traded (and stretched) word of mouth. I doubt you'll find an official document proving a lawsuit was filed - the "threatened" part might have happened, but you won't likely find an official record of that either. ;)
 
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#195,116
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#195,119
Bent77 said:
Mostly I’m just burning clock until that little hot rod you ordered shows up
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The waiting is the hardest part (There's a song there somewhere), FedEx now says Friday which really honks me off, as it's coming to my work and I'm off that day. It's spent the last day outside of Portland, OR. - Now I have to come in to get it, not happy with FedEx.
 
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#195,120
TBird1958 said:
The waiting is the hardest part (There's a song there somewhere), FedEx now says Friday which really honks me off, as it's coming to my work and I'm off that day. It's spent the last day outside of Portland, OR. - Now I have to come in to get it, not happy with FedEx.
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FedEx has to be the worst run company in the delivery business.

 
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