Never knew they existed. Anyway there's one on eBay for $650 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Rare-Gibson-Epiphone-Scroll-Bass-made-in-Japan-OHSC-SG-Thunderbird-EBO/271903164957) BIN. The German shoulders are nice. Is it any good?
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTQ0MFg5MDA=/z/KPEAAOSwNSxVf2yV/$_57.JPG)
Moderate quality. A Epi Classic Thunderbird would blow it out of the water.
It's from the same era as the Epiphone Genesis bass. Which is a fine instrument. Albeit a bit heavy.
I have one, acquired taste, sounds like its medium scale, but it isn't (it's long scale), fuzzy tone with not much authority. Basically how Epis began to sound when they turned cheap in the 70ies.
In comparison, the Epiphone Genesis sounds monumental.
Reminds me of a Ripper's fancy ass brother.
Without the calm authority of a Ripper, the whole bass sounds a little cheap and nasty in a not good way. It looks cool, granted.
Looks like the bastard child of a Hagstrom and an Ampeg. But not the pretty parts.
At least it must be better than the first series of Epi/Matsumoku solid body bass attempts, like the ET280 etc.
Got one of those, not a great design. The good thing is that you don´t need a string mute to make it sound muted :)
I fear that it is closer to those old Epis than anything else!