You guys! Thunderbird shortscale bass!

damienblair17 · Post by **damienblair17** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:34 am

at Gibson.com

Some stuff I noticed:

- Got that wrong: It's got a $1549 msrp, so maybe $1200 street? that's less awesome. (originally thought it was gonna be under $1000)

- standard pickups and electronics, which is no surprise

- set neck rather than neck through

- I hate the 3 point bridge. Love Thunderbirds, haet bridge.

- wonky headstock, but otherwise fairly well shaped.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:10 am

wish it was epiphone but this is MILES above what Gibson has been doing recently.

cobascis · Post by **cobascis** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:13 am

luv da headstock

serfx · Post by **serfx** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:21 am

the headstock is the only thing i don't like..

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:29 am

I do not play bass, but if I did this would be the one I would rock.....

Rox · Post by **Rox** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:39 am

LOVE IT!!!!

hotrodperlmutter · Post by **hotrodperlmutter** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:54 am

i wish the knobs were in a straight fucking line, and i wish it was an epiphone, but damn, sweet shit is sweet.

SKC Willie · Post by **SKC Willie** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:05 am

hotrodperlmutter wrote:i wish the knobs were in a straight fucking line, and i wish it was an epiphone, but damn, sweet shit is sweet.

it looks like they let me loose with a power drill and some Miller High Life and let me drill the holes for the knobs.

holyCATS1415 · Post by **holyCATS1415** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:50 am

i dislike black hardware. but otherwise it looks pretty good.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 5:04 am

As a bassist, and a lover of at least the aesthetic of the Thunderbird, I'm a little on the fence on this. It looks generally fine, but nothing outstanding. I'm not put off by the headstock, but nor am I exactly sold on it either. It's not bad though. I kinda like the offset knob placement though.

Wouldn't mind getting my hands on one to give it a test... even though it's got classic "way too expensive" Gibson pricing. I'm sure it'll play nice, but, like with most Gibsons I've played, not $1000+ nice.

holyCATS1415 wrote:i dislike black hardware. but otherwise it looks pretty good.

I'm not really fond of it here either... but it's not a hard rule of mine, I love it on my Aerodyne Jazz Bass

The bridge and pickups just kinda seem to melt away into obscurity on this, leaving an oblong black mass. I'm not sure I dig it.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:55 am

I love the looks of the Thunderbird but associate it with muddy tone, neck dive, and baseball bats for necks. If this short scale addresses some of the above, that would be nice, but Gibson has this knack for making 30" scale basses that still somehow neck dive badly, so I don't have confidence.

Looks quite hot, though.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 7:19 am

neck-dive is over worried about. unless you have some bizarre muscular atrophy in your fretting arm

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 8:12 am

Your opinion's good as mine but in my experience I get tired easier and feel a bit strained when I play a neck heavy instrument. Also thanks to all my instruments being nicely weight balanced I'm quite used to completely letting go of the neck at times. My roommate's SG makes me nervous when I play it for that reason. It's a lovely guitar but I'd never pay for one because of that.

damienblair17 · Post by **damienblair17** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:24 pm

I've found moving the strap button to the back of the neck helps immensely. Neck dive in my epi t-bird is virtually non-existent since I repositioned it. Even if the new bass has some dive, I would think it should be lessened by the smaller body.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:18 pm

gaybear wrote:neck-dive is over worried about. unless you have some bizarre muscular atrophy in your fretting arm

I tend to agree, but honeyiscool is right too

For the most part neck dive is a non-issue... but if you're playing multi-hour gigs, where you require stamina just to keep up, anything that causes extra strain is going to be an impediment to playing well. A well balanced instrument helps.

If you're only playing for 30min-1hr sets, yeah, it's kinda meaningless.

George · Post by **George** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:21 pm

Neck dive is more or less negligible if you use a suede strap.

I have a 12 string SG - Just visualise the neck dive if you can...

Din of Win · Post by **Din of Win** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:53 pm

I like the idea of this... i think the price is way too high. For less, i'd totally get a MiJ Fender Mustang RI.

I am curious about the tone... with the regular Tbird being a bit too dark/muddy for me, i dunno how a short scale version will fare...

BUT... i AM glad Gibson is caring about bassists, sort of. I would have liked a non SG/EB/Tbird bass... mmmm a shorty Victory Artist.... but still a step in a psudo-right direction.

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:52 pm

Din of Win wrote:I like the idea of this... i think the price is way too high. For less, i'd totally get a MiJ Fender Mustang RI.

I am curious about the tone... with the regular Tbird being a bit too dark/muddy for me, i dunno how a short scale version will fare...

BUT... i AM glad Gibson is caring about bassists, sort of. I would have liked a non SG/EB/Tbird bass... mmmm a shorty Victory Artist.... but still a step in a psudo-right direction.

The pots are 300k vol and 500k tone... that could help to brighten the dark character a little.

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:25 pm

This is sweet, wish it was epi though.

Din of Win · Post by **Din of Win** » Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:42 pm

Ankhanu wrote:
The pots are 300k vol and 500k tone... that could help to brighten the dark character a little.

Oh! I missed that part... That's good to know!