The Bird Is The Word

[ajkula66]

Have you heard about the bird...the most unusual one on Reverb

https://reverb.com/item/33053083-1976-gibson-thunderbird-bass-natural-flametop-5-string-custom-bass-what

The entire storyline behind it seems questionable to me, but I wouldn't mind owning it...for far less money.

[OldManC]

I remember seeing that on eBay years ago. Maybe as much as 20? That's not a bass you forget.

[Dave W]

No provenance, no s/n. Does look like it started out as a genuine TBird, but all that's left of the original is the husk. Pretty bass but overpriced under the circumstances.

[ajkula66]

No provenance, no s/n. Does look like it started out as a genuine TBird, but all that's left of the original is the husk. Pretty bass but overpriced under the circumstances.

The lack of serial - which I noticed but with my bad eyesight wasn't quite certain whether it was just a muddy picture - would prevent me from buying it at any cost. With that being said, it's a pretty unique instrument, and an interesting one at that IMO.

[ilan]

"It may be the only Gibson Thunderbird "high C" 5-string on the planet"

Yeah, for sure. No one has ever thought of stringing their fiver EADGC. Definitely justifies doubling the asking price.

[TBird1958]

Ugh, Shot at and missed, S&%$ at and hit.   

[Dave W]

"It may be the only Gibson Thunderbird "high C" 5-string on the planet"

Yeah, for sure. No one has ever thought of stringing their fiver EADGC. Definitely justifies doubling the asking price.

Maybe he'll string it piccolo and double the asking price.

He doesn't know if it started out as a 76 TBird, that's just how it was represented when he bought it.

[Alanko]

The string spacing around the low frets looks unusable.

[ilan]

He doesn't know if it started out as a 76 TBird, that's just how it was represented when he bought it.

I find it hard to believe that someone would use a good vintage bass as a platform for a project like this, when they can just get a 5-string Epi 'bird and have it pimped, re-topped or whatever. It's not like this was the smashed Bass of Doom.

[Alanko]

I find it hard to believe that someone would use a good vintage bass as a platform for a project like this, when they can just get a 5-string Epi 'bird and have it pimped, re-topped or whatever. It's not like this was the smashed Bass of Doom.

Same reason instruments got Alembic-ised in the '70s I guess. Take an off-the-peg instrument and make it an artisan masterpiece by adding a gaudy maple top, brass hardware, military-spec electronic components, lurid inlays. No accounting for taste! Just make it look flashy and obviously upgraded.

Or just 'cocaine decisions' as Zappa put it!

With re-topped instruments you wonder what horror of Bondo and crumpled up newspaper might lurk underneath. Passive Gotoh pickups seem a slightly poverty-spec move after shelling out for fancy wood as well.

[uwe]

The headstock speaks for its origins indeed going back to a Bicentennial. Too large for a post-1987 model, you couldn't squeeze five tuners on that. Also the back of the headstock evidences that four large tuners were mounted once, Bicentennial style.

I can't make up my mind from the pics whether the back shows a belly bevelling on the upper wing or not - if not then ----> Bicentennial, only those lacked these.

But it really doesn't matter. You have to buy this bass for what it is now, not for what it was once.

Personally, I think it looks horrible the way they have now obscured the trademark TBird center block with that godawful flamed maple, brrrrrr ... 

Ironically, I have a 5-string LPB-2 with the same flamed maple look strung to a high C too. It sounds better in theory than in practice, the C string already sounds very geetardish, so it's more of a 4+1 solution.

[ilan]

Ironically, I have a 5-string LPB-2 with the same flamed maple look strung to a high C too. It sounds better in theory than in practice, the C string already sounds very geetardish, so it's more of a 4+1 solution.

Hardly surprising. For EADGC tuning I'd opt for a short scale, they have more meat in the higher notes.

Same reason instruments got Alembic-ised in the '70s I guess

This doesn't look like a 70s mod, more like something that was done in a period when the value of old Gibsons was widely known. That's why I suspect the carcass used here was from a damaged, routed, or otherwise butchered bass. 

[Granny Gremlin]

I find it hard to believe that someone would use a good vintage bass as a platform for a project like this, when they can just get a 5-string Epi 'bird and have it pimped, re-topped or whatever. It's not like this was the smashed Bass of Doom.

20-30 years ago TBirds were cheap and not so in demand; assuming the story is true.

Peronally, I think he may have given up the ghost with the bit about the pups being drop in - seems likely a 90s or such reg humbucker sized pup jobby (maybe even an Epi) may have been the original animal if that is true (again he could be wrong).

[Ken]

I'm mostly curious if that thing will sell, and at what price.