The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Gibson Basses => Topic started by: godofthunder on December 04, 2017, 02:20:18 PM
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My Vintage Pro arrived yesterday only to be greated with a raised eyebrow from the missus.
I am very impressed with this bass, it really sounds like a 60's Thunderbird! I'll write some more thoughts later but for now this will have to do. https://youtu.be/FdYFdkVp0iI
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Thank you Scott.
Now that it has your approval, we all can go ahead and order one.
I know I will!
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What Rob said.
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Need to find some bucks!
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Ditto
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... and some of us will be wallowing in our own GAS. ... I wonder how long before these start showing up used (unlike the Bonamasa sig Firebird, not limited so the price shoudl be reasonable)?
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Now I want a black or burst one. Dang you, Scott!
Did anyone notice when you look at the ones pictured on Sweetwater it tells you the serial number of the one you're looking at?
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Listening to a review of the Embassy, that thing sounds fantastic too. I can deal with the extended upper horn but I miss the batwing headstock.
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I've had my Vintage Pro TBird for 6 weeks now, love this bass. Bought because I regretted selling my Ebony 76 Bicentennial years ago and I was hoping this would satisfy wanting for another one at a fraction of the price. I'm definitely more than satisfied with it.
(https://i.imgur.com/FKXRwIH.jpg) (https://i.imgur.com/MBNIYNz.jpg)
TD
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She's a beauty TD. I wish Bill could have seen these. I think he would have been pleased. Oh we were relentless with the Gibson reps.
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Doc's with us and always will be... ;)
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Listening to a review of the Embassy, that thing sounds fantastic too. I can deal with the extended upper horn but I miss the batwing headstock.
Yeah, if it had a batwing headstock I'd already have ordered one. As it is I can do without. Maybe they'll do it in the future. (hope hope)
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She's a beauty TD. I wish Bill could have seen these. I think he would have been pleased. Oh we were relentless with the Gibson reps.
Yes, he would have been pleased, maybe even overjoyed.
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Well i just played one .$1199 in New Zealand -i like it much more than the $2299 2014 gibson thunderbird there sound wise.In fact i like everything about it really except the cancelation that occurs between the pickups when both are on full would eventually drive me mad.Lots of nice tones there though.
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Interesting to see these have turned up in the States and New Zealand.
I don't think we are going to get them in Australia. The importer is in the process of going under from the sound of it. No Gibsons or Epis coming in.
Are they readily available yet in the US, I might have import one? They don't seem to have hit US eBay yet.
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Interesting to see these have turned up in the States and New Zealand.
I don't think we are going to get them in Australia. The importer is in the process of going under from the sound of it. No Gibsons or Epis coming in.
Are they readily available yet in the US, I might have import one? They don't seem to have hit US eBay yet.
Not readily, not yet. As of today, Sweetwater has four black and two sunburst left in stock, Sam Ash and Zzounds/American Musical are temporarily out.
Too bad about the Australian importer. Maybe someone else will be appointed soon.
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Not readily, not yet. As of today, Sweetwater has four black and two sunburst left in stock, Sam Ash and Zzounds/American Musical are temporarily out.
Too bad about the Australian importer. Maybe someone else will be appointed soon.
Thanks for that. I think the importer is trying to pretend it's not happening- so it might take a while to sort out.
Hmm.... I wonder if Sweetwater ship internationally and if that damn CITES BS might be a problem.
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My Vintage Pro arrived yesterday only to be greated with a raised eyebrow from the missus.
I am very impressed with this bass, it really sounds like a 60's Thunderbird! I'll write some more thoughts later but for now this will have to do. https://youtu.be/FdYFdkVp0iI
Do you reckon the pickups are EY 'Chinabuckers", Scott?
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No I don't think they are Chinabuckers. Epiphone I believe reversed engineered these.
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No I don't think they are Chinabuckers. Epiphone I believe reversed engineered these.
As I suspected (and said earlier), they wouldn't buy another company's stock pickups for these basses.
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No I don't think they are Chinabuckers. Epiphone I believe reversed engineered these.
Where -do you think- lies the difference?
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No I don't think they are Chinabuckers. Epiphone I believe reversed engineered these.
Reverse-engineered the '60s originals? Surely a big pickup plant like Artec or G&B picked up the order for these?
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I know some brands which use Asina parts, like speakers in cabs/amps and pickups in basses. So like a 'Made in Britain' amp or a 'made in Germany bass' with foreign parts. Even some high end brands, but the two I know don't like to tell that. But those pickups are specially made for those brands and in no way cheap or bad or whatever. So it might be a manufacturer like Artec, but it could be to the reverse engineered specs of Epiphone.
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Didn't Dave post an article awhile back about the pro buckers being designed in Nashville?
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I think the pickups in the Vintage Pro are not pro buckers
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I don't remember posting an article about them. It wouldn't surprise me if they were designed in Nashville. Chris is probably right: these are either made to spec or made in-house.
Epi calls these ProBucker #760. The pickups in the Pro-IV bass are now called T-PRO. That's confusing.
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The article was about guitar pickups but I figured they must have something in common with the Vintage Pro bass pickups since they are called ProBucker Bass #760.
Even if they were designed in the U.S., it doesn't mean they can't be made to spec from a Chinese manufacturer and perhaps even the same factory that made the initial run of so called China buckers since there's no way to know for certain. Anyway, here's the article.
http://www.guitarsite.com/news/music_news_from_around_the_world/epiphone-probucker-challenge/
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Epi calls these ProBucker #760. The pickups in the Pro-IV bass are now called T-PRO. That's confusing.
What's confusing is that there are now three Thunderbirds with the word "Pro" in their name - because there are so many professionals who need to self-identify based on their choice of instrument. The lowly bolt-on models will now be rebranded as "Thunderbird Hoi Polloi IV".
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What's confusing is that there are now three Thunderbirds with the word "Pro" in their name - because there are so many professionals who need to self-identify based on their choice of instrument. The lowly bolt-on models will now be rebranded as "Thunderbird Hoi Polloi IV".
:mrgreen:
Still not as bad as GMC's "we are Professional Grade" claim. :puke:
Sure, and the Tee Ball division of Little League is professional grade baseball.
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The article was about guitar pickups but I figured they must have something in common with the Vintage Pro bass pickups since they are called ProBucker Bass #760.
Even if they were designed in the U.S., it doesn't mean they can't be made to spec from a Chinese manufacturer and perhaps even the same factory that made the initial run of so called China buckers since there's no way to know for certain. Anyway, here's the article.
http://www.guitarsite.com/news/music_news_from_around_the_world/epiphone-probucker-challenge/
Epiphone built a new factory to make guitars, could they be making these pickups there? Could the Chinabuckers have been built in that factory to test manufacturing, and quality control, and sold them un-named to test acceptance?
Anyone want to take one out and look at the bottom?
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Could the Chinabuckers have been built in that factory to test manufacturing, and quality control, and sold them un-named to test acceptance?
I was thinking along the same lines.
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Epiphone built a new factory to make guitars, could they be making these pickups there? Could the Chinabuckers have been built in that factory to test manufacturing, and quality control, and sold them un-named to test acceptance?
So we were all unwitting beta testers? The cheque is in the post, right? :mrgreen:
The construction of the Chinabuckers fits this hypothesis. The braided shielding on the hookup cable is not something I commonly associate with pickups from Chinese pickup plants. It is a nice period feature, but I would expect to see generic PVC insulation (and 4-wire + shield hookup) pretty much as standard.
Also, the Chinabuckers weren't simply generic Epiphone/Tokai black Thunderbird pickups with a different cover glued on top. It seems like they went to some effort to get these close to '60s specs. For what reason? To flog them on Eyguitars? I wager that Chinabuckers, or some variation thereof, are going into these new Epiphones.
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I'll stick with Scott's opinion, since he's played basses with both the new Epis and the Chinabuckers and I've played neither.
My understanding is that Epi doesn't make anything for anyone else, either for market testing or for any other reason.
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Now, if Eyguitars stop selling them... ;)
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I'm now torn between an ebony or a burst Thunderbird. Grr.
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Not readily, not yet. As of today, Sweetwater has four black and two sunburst left in stock, Sam Ash and Zzounds/American Musical are temporarily out.
Too bad about the Australian importer. Maybe someone else will be appointed soon.
Well, as of last night, Sweetwater has no black ones, since I ordered the last one!
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They have a nice black Gibson Thunderbird though. It looks great with the all black hardware too. Uwe must be torn between that and the new RD. As cool as the new RD is, for the black finish, I think the edge goes to the birds :vader:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BAT43H18EBBC
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I am very impressed with this bass, it really sounds like a 60's Thunderbird!
Sorry if this has been discussed many times before but are the pickups in exact 60's 'bird locations? I'm trying to kill my gas and secretly wish they aren't but since you say it does sound like a 60's bird I think I'm in trouble...
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Yes the neck pickup is, not sure about the bridge but you know me and bridge pickups.
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The black spacer on the bridge pickup puzzles me a little. You would think that if the pup was developed for this application...
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I'll stick with Scott's opinion, since he's played basses with both the new Epis and the Chinabuckers and I've played neither.
My understanding is that Epi doesn't make anything for anyone else, either for market testing or for any other reason.
I would not expect them to do so either, but it just seems like an odd business decision to me if they did bother to do the whole reverse engineering, make up all the tools and start manufacturing bass pickups for two bass models, when they had those readily available at low cost. OTOH one possibility is that they buy the parts, like the cover/bobbins outdoors and wind/assembles the pickups in their own facility. We don't know if EY make their own covers right?
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EY isn't a manufacturer.
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Who makes EY Parts then?
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I'm sure they buy from multiple sources. They carry some name brands, too: Artec, Grover, Wilkinson etc.
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And their own brand EY Parts.
Who makes them?
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I really doubt their parts come from one source. A bridge manufacturer is not going to also be making electronic circuit components. There are probably dozens of places to buy unbranded parts and sell them as your own.
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Which means you don't know, okay?
None of us here knows who makes the EY Parts pickups.
Nor do we know who makes the Epiphone Probucker 760.
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Right. And since I haven't tried either, I'm still taking Scott's word that they aren't identical.
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Cover tooling looks a little different and the rings are definitely different.
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There is one on sale at ebay by Thomann, a very popular German store, that has some damage. The neck has some hair thick crack at the headstock. Do you think that may be a problem and the crack may develop? By the way my Gibson thunderbird has the same issue. Is there any way to prevent the crack to develop further?
https://www.ebay.it/itm/Epiphone-Thunderbird-Vintage-Pro-AW-Gebrauchtware/362291048692?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D7079e16a6ba448ceafe46d6eafcacee4%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D222831467384%26itm%3D362291048692&_trksid=p2481888.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A1983138c-4e2f-11e8-a84d-74dbd180b77f%7Cparentrq%3A21ebac591630a9cbab06b816fffe795e%7Ciid%3A1
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There is one on sale at ebay by Thomann, a very popular German store, that has some damage. The neck has some hair thick crack at the neck. Do you think that may be a problem and the crack may develop? By the way my Gibson thunderbird has the same issue. Is there any way to prevent the crack to develop further?
https://www.ebay.it/itm/Epiphone-Thunderbird-Vintage-Pro-AW-Gebrauchtware/362291048692?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D7079e16a6ba448ceafe46d6eafcacee4%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dpp%26sd%3D222831467384%26itm%3D362291048692&_trksid=p2481888.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A1983138c-4e2f-11e8-a84d-74dbd180b77f%7Cparentrq%3A21ebac591630a9cbab06b816fffe795e%7Ciid%3A1
That seems to have significant damage, since it's listed as non-working. There's no sure way to prevent a crack from getting worse, it depends on what caused the crack.
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Saved by the fact that they don't ship to New Zealand.
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Just my musings on the pickups in the Epi Vintage Pro and the EY "Chinabuckers" and the Epi VP TBird in general.
I put Chinabuckers in my 08 Gibson TBird some time ago and I am very happy with them. I put a pair of 9.2K ones in from memory.
I imported a brand new Epi VP TBird from Japan about 3 months ago, because the Australian importer has been kaput for some time- they just won't admit it.
This may be the only VP in Oz.
I have been gigging the two TBirds together since then and I can hear a slight difference between them. I have never even touched a vintage TBird so I don't know how either compare to that but they are slightly different to each other.
They are very similar but the Gibson with the Chinabuckers is a little bit smoother sounding, while the Epi is a little bit more raucous. (Technical terms) I am not sure if that has anything to do with the different pickup positions or not. The Gibson's neck pickup is fair bit closer to the 12th fret than the Epi.
Epi VP- 12th to middle of neck pickup - 275 mm. 12th to middle of bridge pickup - 375 mm.
08 Gibson- 12th to middle of neck pickup - 260 mm. 12th to middle of bridge pickup - 370 mm.
Anyway here's some pics. I had some fun dressing the Epi up.
Chrome Schaller locks.
Gotoh CBR 640 Ultra Light Machines in Nickel (these are super nice!)
Thunderbucker Ranch custom made in Nickel. Thanks, Steve!
Custom "Gibson" script TRC- I kept the Epi one and will put it back on if I sell it.
BTW-
I think it is a great bass. The tuner change and the bridge cover helped the balance- which I now find quite acceptable.
One minor downfall- so long it doesn't fit properly into even a Gibson Tbird case (goes in at a slight angle). Long headstock and the neck is a "little further out of the body" than the Gibson.
This one was shipped from Osaka to me here in Australia just in a canvas Epiphone gigbag with a little cardboard around the headstock and then the whole thing wrapped in bubble wrap.
No breaks!
(http://i68.tinypic.com/a5dzxk.jpg)
(http://i65.tinypic.com/dm37lu.jpg)
(http://i65.tinypic.com/wtangn.jpg)
(http://i67.tinypic.com/2004ebr.jpg)
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That looks great in ebony.
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That looks great in ebony.
It sure does!