A relatively recent and somewhat overlooked offering from Fernandes is this Thunderbird issued as part of their Burny line, after short consideration I gave in to the inevitable GAS and ordered mine thru ebay. Mine was a buy it now auction from a Japanese dealer that included shipping, there was a two day wait as the order processed and was shipped from a central location in Japan to my U.S west coast home, overall time for processing and shipping was actually 5 days (including a Monday postal holiday) and I was able to pick the bass up from my local P.O. rather than have it left on my porch. While the auction stated free shipping, it most certainly is a built - in cost to the price of the bass, ( shipping things costs money, typical EMS for a bass between Japan and the U.S. is $150.00) in the world of retail that is called a "come on" and it's part of how to sell something to a customer, one price, done deal.
The bass arrived in a cardbord box well padded with bubble wrap in a fitted Fernandes gig bag, inside the bass was wrapped in a silver thermal fabric, and it was further protected with the strings being separately wrapped too. So the bass was actually shipped in factory fresh condition, no one had touched it until I recieved it. So kudos to Fernandes for a great job here, the bass arrived in perect condition due to their careful packaging at the factory. The bass was strung with D'Addario .45 -.105 Nickel Rounds from the manufacturer, bravo! Almost every new bass I've every owned got new strings right away, not this one - the stock strings are what I've kept on the bass for the review. A further surprise tho, was the inclusion of two sets of Warwick Stainless Rounds .45 - .105 as well, very thoughtful!
Like late '60s Gibson Non Reverse Thunderbirds this bass is of set - neck construction. The body is 3 piece mahogany with a raised ceter block, neck is maple with a rosewood fret board, 34" scale with a 1.5" nut. The bridge is a copy of Gibson's 3 point design, and interestingly the bass may be strung thru the body, ( unlike any other 'Birds in my collection) controls are V V T. Several close inspections reveal pretty nice craftsmanship overall, the body shape is very faithfully done, (much better than a standard Epi ) and compares nicely to the Gibson original. The slope of the center block to the base of the fret board is also well executed with clean, tight masking and paint work, Paintwork overall is nice quality poly, with no flaws of any kind, and a nice Cream White color for a vintage look. Fret work is surprisingly good, an area that I'm fussy about is fret sprout on the neck, a couple of my Gibsons needed some filing here as they got older and the wood dried out, this bass feels very good right from the box and the neck plays fast and easy. The neck has a volute where the headstock pitches back, something none of my other 'Birds has! it's not large, and while I thought I'd notice it, so far it's a non issue with regards to playability of the bass. Then we get to the headstock........let's say it's big, like almost twice as big as a contemporary Gibson, bigger than a '76 as well, could it be used to paddle a canoe? Yes, unhesitatingly. It's completed with some nicely chromed clover tuners and certainly contributes to this bass's overall vintage look.
I started playing the Burny seated with everything on the bass at 10 and worked the knobs a bit to achieve some interesting fingerstyle tones, the neck pup solo'd will give a fuller, rounder tone, nice for the bedroom but probably a bit too bassy in a mix by itself. Rolling in some of the bridge pup is quite helpful for note definition and belie's the bass's set neck construction, a somewhat darker tone and more pronounced individual notes. As I played I found myself really winding off the tone knob to about 4 to eq out some unpleasant high end thiness and clicks, etc being generated by playing. What seemed to work best was the neck pup at 10 the bridge at 7 and the tone at 3, at this point I had bass and definition and no finger noise. ( I'm sure some of the clicks are the result of the new strings and have no doubt that as they break in over the next couple weeks that will go away) Playing with pick I found it easy to solo the neck pup and just work the tone knob for a little treble bite and definition, adding the bridge pup tended to take away a little of the bass and brought the mids up.
What I found in either case was that by starting at 10 on the neck pick up and bringing the bridge pup into play really gave the most useful tones, which is a bit different than what I normally do with my other 'Birds. The tone of the pickups is overall quite pleasant, tho not necessarily warm or vintage growly in the way of an older Gibson for example. One thing I noticed as I played was the thickness of the neck in cross section, just slightly bigger than a Gibson.
Standing up to play quickly revealed two things; one, the bass is light, in fact when I put it on our UPS scale at work it came in under 9lbs easily, lighter than any of my other Thunderbirds. Two, the large headstock and the light weight of the body cause.....you guessed it! Neck dive. No way around it, this bass is going to do it. For some that's an immediate deal breaker and I have no arguement with it. The strap pins are correctly located, at the heel of the neck and at the center of the body edge on the end, so no change to make there. What easily offsets it for me is my choice of strap length (fairly short, slightly above my waist) and how my right contacts and makes slight downward pressure on the body as I play pickstyle. As I said the bass is pretty light, so this is a non-issue for me, but again, others may find it intolerable. I did a couple hours of solo rehearsal no problem at all, and it will be my primary bass at our next show.
So what didn't I like? The mixed finish between the black plastic pickup covers and the balance of the chrome hardware is big for me, aesthetically it's displeasing to my eye, all of one or the other (preferably chrome) would be a big improvement. I could do without the string thru body in combination with the 3 point, tho this is a minor thing. Some larger, better pots would likely help especially since they'd add little to the cost, and while Fernandes has obviously done a fair bit of homework and it shows, tummy cut would be nice. Last, a logo of some kind on the PG, would be appropriate and certainly well deserved.
Overall at it's price I like this bass (and it's lovable idosyncrasities) very much, there's no comparison to Epiphone's until you get to their (discontinued ) "Elitist" and it's certainly similar to a Greco or Orville for QC. In some ways it stands up quite well to a current Gibson, costs hundreds less and you get some nice finish choices too. Mine's definetly a keeper - tho it will likely get some chrome covers for the pickups
Pics, and some comparisons.
Obligatory Subaru shot.
With my Classic White '89
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