The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Gibson Basses => Topic started by: Lextnc on April 26, 2016, 07:21:44 PM
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Guys,
I am Trying to Find out any Info I Can About this Bass..
I Know the Micro switches are aftermarket..
Serial Number is 1986, Custom shop Edition on the back Of the Headstock.. one 1984 Pot, one 1986 pot..
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Welcome!!! Those are cool basses. I believe the switches May have been added but I don't thick it would hurt the value too much. Is this for sale???
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Thanks Baz, Not Selling it.. This One did 2 CrueFest Tours, and Can Be Seen in several Charm City Devils Videos.. I am Just Trying to find out if it was a One off, or how many Gibson actually Made.. I Spoke with Walter Carter and He is Stumped..
According to Gruhns Book, Gibson Made 40 Thunderbird II's in 1984. This One is Clearly a 86, With one 1984 Pot and one 1986 Pot, and a 1986 Serial Number..
I Have heard that they Made 6 of these in 86.. Just trying to see whatelse I Can Find out..
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I know that bass. I had a chance to buy it around 10 years ago but passed because it was modded with the added mini toggle switches. Still a cool bass.
Sounds like Carter/Gruhn are confusing the years.
Yeah, it is a 1986 Gib Custom Shop TBird II. Those were made as a short run for some Japanese Gibson dealers back then. I own a mint one in the same Polaris White color as your's...all from 1986 I believe. I have also seen them in black and sunburst finishes.
Then in 1987 the same Gibson Custom Shop did a limited run of some TBird IV basses with the same bodies with the large headstocks.
I believe all of the 80s ones used leftover TBird wings from the 70s Bi-Centennial ones. Pretty sure the 86's also used leftover 70s PUPs but the 87 TBird IVs had special black non-Gibson custom pickups made for them by PJ Marx, if I recall. Not the same black pickups that Gibson uses in TBirds since around 1990.
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Wow, That's Awesome, and Makes Sense.. The Pickup is Definitely a Bicentennial 3 Screw..
I have a 76 bicentennial as well.. so I am guessing 40 is the number?
Its in this Video..
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Charm+City+Devils+Unstoppable&&view=detail&mid=654A5E00A9C229B3E42C654A5E00A9C229B3E42C&FORM=VRDGAR
and Like I Said , did 2 Crue fest Tours.. It is a Killer Bass..
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Cool bass. I wonder what all those switches do? Is there a preamp inside? Battery?
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Uwe also has one........ (he should repatriate to me!) that was 69 Vette's OldManC to you young 'uns.
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When I Got it, The Switches were not wired up.. the person that did that used an EMG in it.. but had gone back to the stock pickup before I got it..
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Uwe also has one........ (he should repatriate to me!) that was 69 Vette's OldManC to you young 'uns.
What Fräulein Rommel says, George Carlston sold me his and I've had it ever since, can post a pic with it tomorrow. What can I say, it's essentially a Bicentennial with just one pup. Mine sounds more trebly than any of my other TBirds new or old (and I have more than 20), whether you like that sound or find it a bit brittle (output is also somewhat low, so there might be something wrong with the sidewinder) is debatable, it is at least idiosyncratic and with a powerful rig with sufficent headroom you have no issues.
Like the prototype "new generation" TBirds from 1987, this thing still has large headstock and tuners plus the front jack.
AFAIK, this was indeed a Japanese mini series, but might have also wetted Gibson's appetite (back then newly in the hands of a certain Henry J) to give the TBird a full scale reissue in 87/88. And with better pups and fashionable black hardware too!!!
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(output is also somewhat low, so there might be something wrong with the sidewinder)
This is normal for sidewinders, they aren't a very efficient setup, so their output is lower compared to a normal side-by-side humbucker.
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Not all '76 pups are low output, the bridge pickup in my green '76 reads 13K, I think Gibson was rather inconsistent in production.
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But this pup is wound hotter to compensate, normal pups are around 9-10k i believe.
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I doubt that the outoput on mine is "normal" (i.e. at the lower end of regular production range, maybe there is a loose wiring in the pup somewhere) - it's even less than on my real Bicentennial ("The Bass which came from the Cold") and that is lower than on any of my 60ies or modern day TBirds with one exception: the 1987/88 prototype mentioned above, those soap bars have a real low output too (and hence more clarity when turned up loud). Reading the posting of our New York kid, they could actually be PJ Marx inside (I never thought of that frankly), they sound similar to the PJ Marx split coil I have on my Q-90 bass. Those pups are nothing to write home about, but then the Grabber pups on the predecessor Q-80 sounded
grab crap too.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v615/uwehornung/024.jpg)
You might ask: "Why don't you get the pup repaired?" "So that it sounds like my other Bicentennial?" would be my reply. I once had a TV-yellow*** EB-0 LP Junior Dave had gracefully sourced for me and it had this one of a kind mudbucker that had hardly any woof but sounded middish and slighty distorted. I liked that sound. Then one day it gave up on me and my luthier repaired what I only then learned was a faulty pick-up - of course it now sounds like any other of my myriad mudbuckers! :-\ So I'm sticking with my "broken" sidewinder until one day it will totally give up on me - makes me think of Dusty Hill who played for years on his beloved Tele Bass with a broken pup without realizing it, was dismayed about the sound change when it was repaired and then had "broken pups" custom-(badly)wound for himself! ;D
***There is an interesting story waiting to be told here, but Dave forbids it!
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When I Got it, The Switches were not wired up.. the person that did that used an EMG in it.. but had gone back to the stock pickup before I got it..
Your bass DEFINITELY came from Japan AROUND 10 years back. I had bought my identical one, also from Japan, just a few days before when your's popped up on EBAY. I didn't realize how rare the 80s TBird II run was at the time or else I probably would have grabbed that one as well. But I stupidly passed because of the mini toggles mod.
I haven't seen another for sale since. Love mine. Great bass.
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Uwe also has one........
Shouldn't that be the forum motto? :mrgreen:
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or,
"i used to have..."
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I doubt that the outoput on mine is "normal" (i.e. at the lower end of regular production range, maybe there is a loose wiring in the pup somewhere) - it's even less than on my real Bicentennial ("The Bass which came from the Cold") and that is lower than on any of my 60ies or modern day TBirds with one exception: the 1987/88 prototype mentioned above, those soap bars have a real low output too (and hence more clarity when turned up loud). Reading the posting of our New York kid, they could actually be PJ Marx inside (I never thought of that frankly), they sound similar to the PJ Marx split coil I have on my Q-90 bass. Those pups are nothing to write home about, but then the Grabber pups on the predecessor Q-80 sounded grab crap too.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v615/uwehornung/024.jpg)
You might ask: "Why don't you get the pup repaired?" "So that it sounds like my other Bicentennial?" would be my reply. I once had a TV-yellow*** EB-0 LP Junior Dave had gracefully sourced for me and it had this one of a kind mudbucker that had hardly any woof but sounded middish and slighty distorted. I liked that sound. Then one day it gave up on me and my luthier repaired what I only then learned was a faulty pick-up - of course it now sounds like any other of my myriad mudbuckers! :-\ So I'm sticking with my "broken" sidewinder until one day it will totally give up on me - makes me think of Dusty Hill who played for years on his beloved Tele Bass with a broken pup without realizing it, was dismayed about the sound change when it was repaired and then had "broken pups" custom-(badly)wound for himself! ;D
***There is an interesting story waiting to be told here, but Dave forbids it!
Clearly it's defective, you need to send it to the Northwest for some Thunderbird TLC ;)
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Shouldn't that be the forum motto? :mrgreen:
That's just my anally retentive side in full bloom.
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....
You might ask: "Why don't you get the pup repaired?" "So that it sounds like my other Bicentennial?" would be my reply. I once had a TV-yellow*** EB-0 LP Junior Dave had gracefully sourced for me and it had this one of a kind mudbucker that had hardly any woof but sounded middish and slighty distorted. I liked that sound. Then one day it gave up on me and my luthier repaired what I only then learned was a faulty pick-up - of course it now sounds like any other of my myriad mudbuckers! :-\ So I'm sticking with my "broken" sidewinder until one day it will totally give up on me - makes me think of Dusty Hill who played for years on his beloved Tele Bass with a broken pup without realizing it, was dismayed about the sound change when it was repaired and then had "broken pups" custom-(badly)wound for himself! ;D
***There is an interesting story waiting to be told here, but Dave forbids it!
Weren't there some pickups from the current (since late 80s) TBird series that were split coil in a TB Plus housing? Didn't Mark post pics of an example once? Who knows, maybe they could have been made by PJ Marx.
It wouldn't hurt to have it looked at. If it turns out to be faulty, you wouldn't have to have it repaired.
As for your EB-0, you must be referring to the fact that it's a refin. I'm sure there are no other interesting stories about the color. :P
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No other interesting aspects, right. My lips are sealed. :-X Move on, there is nothing to see here ...
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a0/60/bb/a060bb30d168ab219f9a61a47c8194b1.jpg)
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"Weren't there some pickups from the current (since late 80s) TBird series that were split coil in a TB Plus housing? Didn't Mark post pics of an example once? Who knows, maybe they could have been made by PJ Marx."
I thought about that too.
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No other interesting aspects, right. My lips are sealed. :-X Move on, there is nothing to see here ...
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a0/60/bb/a060bb30d168ab219f9a61a47c8194b1.jpg)
I like the one on the left please!.........I mean the outfit. ;)
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Hello Nurse Frauline
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Hello Nurse Frauline
May I take your temperature :-*
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Hello Nurse Frauline
hahahahaha
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;D ;D ;D
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May I take your temperature :-*
And some sounding too please.
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Just bend over the bed sir, it won't hurt. :-*
(http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/RHPS-FrankSmockGloveL_9162.jpg)
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I once took apart the cream colored Schaller P pup on my Kramer to stuff it into black covers. I screwed something up, and suddenly it sounded very Ric-like. Which I did not mind. I left it alone.
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You probably turned it single coil!
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Uwe.....Baz had spoken with an old Gibson Custom Shop guy around six months back, who actually built these 80s TBirds. That is where we got the info about them using leftover 70s TBird wings to build them and that they had PJ Marx make the special pickups.
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Yes, Mark Taylor from Bluesman Vintage told me.
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Shouldn't that be the forum motto? :mrgreen:
It is... :mrgreen:
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I don't doubt that story at all. At that point in time PJ Marx was allowed to do anything at Gibson, he was Bill Lawrence's protégé and presented as someone from whose orefices the sun shone day and night (as luthier Phil Jones once put it).
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I once took apart the cream colored Schaller P pup on my Kramer to stuff it into black covers. I screwed something up, and suddenly it sounded very Ric-like. Which I did not mind. I left it alone.
I did something similar with an OEM Dimarzio Model P pickup I robbed from a Westone Thunder I bass. The coil was broken internally at some point, so it metered out at infinity ohms, but still passed signal. The giveaway was that the tone control worked like a second volume pot.
It sounded wonderfully snarly, with lots of treble content.
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Such a beautiful bass...
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Herr Carlston, still among the living?!
May I call you colleague yet?
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May I take your temperature :-*
I am ready. ... though I should warn you that have had curry 2 days straight.
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I am ready. ... though I should warn you that have had curry 2 days straight.
Oh dear! Rectum, hell it killed 'em! ;)
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I am ready. ... though I should warn you that have had curry 2 days straight.
All I hear is ... burrrrn!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbJBRXa_2bk
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I am ready. ... though I should warn you that have had curry 2 days straight.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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Upon reflection I think a large rubber stopper and copious amounts of Super Glue would rectumfy the problem. :-*
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I like a #2 plug, and prefer lube to super glue - you're into some weird shit, mang.
Which reminds me; our city councellors must be idiots because the new statue they unveiled at the park across the street is rather odd. 4 life-size squirrels in a circle worshipping a very large upside-down acorn on a pedastil (pointy end up). Just picture that for a moment (acorn on a pedastil) and think of what shares the same basic silhouette. I'll take a pic later when I'm home. I hope the artist was local, cause if someone got paid to put an R rated statue in a public park for a subversive joke, then I hope at least they're keeping it in the family, as it were. I am not complaining; I think it's hilarious - all the more so that council didn't catch it; could be seen as political commentary unflattering to them.
... If I had to complain about money wasted on public art it would be about the abstract expressionist Churchill statue behind City Hall.