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Why HASN'T Gibson fixed neck dive on Thunderbirds?

#3
+1 to that. And also, it could be part of the reason that the target segment of the market are those who play rock, with often a non-scale-playing left hand posistion, with a bat grip on the neck, ready to rock on stage. Only bass-nerdy wussies like ourselves with a soft flowing left hand and wannabe classical-guitarist-technique pros had to make up a term called Neckdive. Rockers laugh at us :p
 
#4
Greetings from the North,

Gibson prolly has no intention of depriving new TBird owners of the 'Right of Passage Skill' of moving the strap button. It's not too complicated. Besides, holding up that skinny ole neck might build up a little bit of muscle in your left arm. If that's not enough and you absolutely must have perfect balance then the TBird is not for you. There are basses that are worse. I've yet to see a TBird player wimp out and start whining that their arm hurts and they have to go home after coming off stage. Although my TBird is pretty much retired, I still don't have any 'neck dive' issues when I do decide to use it. As usual YMMV.

Rezdog
 
#5
Hi.

lastminute said:
If this problem has always been there, why hasn't Gibson done anything to fix it?
Click to expand...

IIRC there's been several periods of time that neither Thunderbird nor Firebird has been available from Gibson. Fortunately there's some more recent bands that use 'em so when there's demand they are available.

The neck dive isn't too much of an issue IMHO if one plays mostly with both hands on the instrument ;). The height of the instrument is important also as is the angle of the neck.

The neck dive is (was for me) more of an issue with Epis' and other clones/copys, not Gibsons. I don't have a Gibson T-bird but an Epi and when I moved the strap button to the same place as in my Gibson F-bird, much better. F-bird has almost no neck dive and has the banjo tuners that weigh a ton.

There's also the option of a special straps that balances any bass exactly where the musician wants it (Think Legs video from ZZ-Top).

Regards
Sam
 
#7
Rezdog said:
Greetings from the North,

Gibson prolly has no intention of depriving new TBird owners of the 'Right of Passage Skill' of moving the strap button. It's not too complicated. Besides, holding up that skinny ole neck might build up a little bit of muscle in your left arm. If that's not enough and you absolutely must have perfect balance then the TBird is not for you. There are basses that are worse. I've yet to see a TBird player wimp out and start whining that their arm hurts and they have to go home after coming off stage. Although my TBird is pretty much retired, I still don't have any 'neck dive' issues when I do decide to use it. As usual YMMV.

Rezdog
Click to expand...

+1....Mine only comes out for loud blues trio gigs these days. And when I built it?, it took about a week of trial and error strap peg mounting till I got it right. As it sits now I can hold it near vertical and hang it by the top straplock. I have a rep for playing it like an upright. As for Gibson fixing the problem? I think they would have addressed it as a problem back when Ray Dietrich designed the beast, it's always been a very high impact visual bass and the sound? , well worth any inconvenient peg mountings.
 
#14
lug said:
Because, though they build them, no one at the Gibson company actually has ever played bass. It's obvious from most of their designs.
Click to expand...

You'd think that, for a company that has produced so many iconic designs (f-hole mandolin, arch top guitar, just to name 2) that Gibson would have figured out that there's more to basses than slapping a longer neck on a guitar. If they ever came out with something as useful and attractive as the Les Paul g**tar, they'd sell all they could make. Come to think of it, they made the Ripper for what, less than 10 years? Compare that to 50+ for the Precision.

Neck dive is inherent in the TBird design. For decent balance the strap has to be somewhere around the 12th fret. To extend the horn would mean that all the guys who buy one so they'll be "just like" their idols will pass.
 
#19
When I bought my Epiphone TBird, I was suprised at how difficult it was to position.
I think the neck dive is associated with how you position the body. If you wear it low, (between your hip and knees) then the balance isn't so bad. Being an old geezer, playing it at my knees would look just a little silly and probably illegal in some cities.
It's not a very ergo friendly bass and they're not for everybody.
But for some players, they're the only one.
 
#20
ThunderLizard said:
When I bought my Epiphone TBird, I was suprised at how difficult it was to position.
I think the neck dive is associated with how you position the body. If you wear it low, (between your hip and knees) then the balance isn't so bad. Being an old geezer, playing it at my knees would look just a little silly and probably illegal in some cities.
It's not a very ergo friendly bass and they're not for everybody.
But for some players, they're the only one.
Click to expand...

Mine's a Gibson, never tried an Epi, they do balance differently than most basses, it took a little while to get used to, but I wouldn't call it neck dive, if anything mine is more evenly balanced than many basses.
 

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