Pelham Blue '86 Thunderbird II

[Basvarken]

Saw this on Facebook 

I'm just gonna leave this here for you all to drool over. It's only the semi-mythical '86 Gibson Thunderbird II re-issue, of which only about 10 (yes, ten) were made for the Japanese market. Single pickup, custom shop, natch. Oh, and it's PELHAM BLUE! As used by ancient UK noise-pop gits, Midway Still. Come and worship her... xx

Pretty cool! Only ten made?! Wow...

[TBird1958]

WANT! 

[doombass]

Nice! Makes me wonder how many of these we've seen? IIRC there has been another cream/yellow/white apart from George's old one (now Uwe's), but that's it for me.

[veebass]

Yes I saw that beauty on Facebook too.
I hadn't actually seen Pelham Blue until my Midtown Sig arrived last week.
It is a stunning colour.

[westen44]

Yes I saw that beauty on Facebook too.
I hadn't actually seen Pelham Blue until my Midtown Sig arrived last week.
It is a stunning colour.

Agreed/

[planetgaffnet]

I've raised this dozens of times before, but I can't fathom why Gibson bother doing these limited runs (it doesn't ramp up any excitement really) or just offer it as a catalogue item.  A mate of mine owns one of the Japanese-market IVs in Sapphire Blue.

There seems to be this Thunderbird fever going on at the moment; over on Basschat (UK) there were maybe three or four people who from a legacy perspective championed the II/IV models (me and Neephid amongst them) and all you got back was comments about neck dive (whatever that is).  Now it seems everyone and their dog wants one or plays one.  Gibson are in a lot of trouble...perhaps they need to pick up some of the slack and make basses that people actually want in colours that people actually want too.

[patman]

Often wondered why they can't offer a IV and a II, with prices competitive with American Fenders...i.e. make the II similarly priced as the Precision and the IV similar to what a Jazz costs.

[the mojo hobo]

That makes too much sense.

[planetgaffnet]

Often wondered why they can't offer a IV and a II, with prices competitive with American Fenders...i.e. make the II similarly priced as the Precision and the IV similar to what a Jazz costs.

Because they're asshats.

[Dave W]

Right now it's business as usual at Gibson as the Chapter 11 goes forward. There will be changes when the company comes out of Chapter 11 and new management takes over. That doesn't mean things will get better soon in the bass department, but hopefully there will be management that listens and opportunities to get them to listen to bassists.

[Bionic-Joe]

Do You Have a Link?

[Dave W]

Do You Have a Link?

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1925076994190672&set=gm.1357682427697769&type=3&theater&ifg=1

[Christine]

Often wondered why they can't offer a IV and a II, with prices competitive with American Fenders...i.e. make the II similarly priced as the Precision and the IV similar to what a Jazz costs.

Never happen, Tbirds are a different beast to manufacture. Fenders are designed around ease of manufacture, Gibsons aren't. Far east manufactured Epiphones are the best bet if you want cheap

[patman]

Not asking for cheap...asking for competitive.

Understood that a T-Bird will be a little more expensive

[Christine]

Going on how very simple and quick Fender basses are to make I would say that Fenders are less value for money than a Thunderbird, or to rephrase that, I imagine Fender probably make more profit per bass than Gibson do with the Tbird