Stopped in the local GC last week for some strings and having a bit of time on my hands noticed that there was no one in the newly designed bass section. I was more interested in trying out a few combos so I just grabbed a bass off the wall that I was familiar with. Now I should say that I have had 3 Thunderbirds ( one from the 60's and 2 from the last 20 years). I sold them and have been TBird free for.... About 2 years now. Anyhow i sat down with this bass and the first thing I noticed was how light and balanced it was. It was also set up properly and did have a bit more of a ...boutique feel to it. Plugged it in and of course noticed the exposed poles and 2 little switches under the nice simple vvt (i like simplicity and do not like lots of switches). Playing it i was surprised at some of the varying tones available and not complicated to understand). One of the things about my previous TBirds was that if you pretty much set the V & T full on you would have that famous sound ( of course noting the differences from the '60' s version and the TB+). Now this new ' 15 version is somewhat another animal. i actually also like the bridge and there was a significant resonance just plucking it before I plugged it in. So for me this bass was pretty nice all around. I am not really hung up on what previous TBirds models were like, I just took it on what it played, sounded and felt like. I was intigued enough to play it for about 20 minutes before I put it back on the rack. Yes , I did notice the price when putting it back and ...... Not sure they are going to sell many of these and Yes, I did wonder what Gibson was thinking once again as I think they could have produced this for the same price as before. Perhaps the extra quality control and care in putting it together justifies it for them, which is actually too bad, as every instrument should be fully inspected and be proudly packed and set up when they leave the factory. I do think Uwe needs one of these and would appreciate it. I am thinking myself as well.
