I give up on Epiphone and Gibson

[godofthunder]

  More nonsense from the gang that couldn't shoot straight. 
  While the new colors are great they just couldn't leave well enough alone when they shifted manufacturing from Indonesia to China. They altered the neck angle so the end of the fingerboard is raised about a 1/8" above the body thus forcing the bridge to be raised higher and even necessitating a black plastic spacer under the neck pickup.  Why they just couldn't leave it alone is beyond me.  It's like someone who has never even seen or played a 60s bird gets involved in the planning.  I'm wildly frustrated by this. I guess I'll just scoure Ebay and Reverb for Vintage Pro Thunderbirds.  Oi!

[godofthunder]

 

[saltymonkey]

Ugh. That’s annoying. Thanks for saving me $850 Scott. I almost ordered one two days ago. I’ll look for a used VP as well. I wish sellers would stop treating the white ones like collectors items.

[Basvarken]

Oooh that looks pretty bad.
Thanx fir poibting that out Scott.

[4stringer77]

Well at least the Les Paul players will feel at home on those. Wouldn't this neck angle make for a less lengthy reach toward the nut end of the neck? Maybe they viewed it as an improvement to the design? I wonder if it will effect sales that much. Most first time Thunderbird buyers may not be bothered or concerned.
By the way, hope you enjoy the eclipse coming up Scott. Looks like you'll be in the path of totality over in western New York. I'm debating whether or not it'd be worth making the drive to see it myself. Those eclipses happen as often as Epiphone China get vintage Gibson specs right. 

[n!k]

Scott, was the Rex Brown Chinese bird this way too or is this just the "1964 Thunderbirds" (perhaps the number 1964 refers to some kind of measurement and not the year...)

[uwe]

"Why they just couldn't leave it alone is beyond me."

I'm trying to put some sense to it. I have a hunch they wanted to achieve something with it. Making a proper angle with a neck-thru is more tricky than leaving it straight/flat. To make lower action more easily achievable even for someone who is not quite so experienced in setting up a bass? Did they perhaps reduce the backward angle of the TBird headstock in the process to make it less break-prone?

I know, I know, you guys are like the Supreme Court,



mostly Originalists (except when it doesn't match the own agenda of course), but what if the deviation from the original is an improvement? It does happen, you know.

I'm crawling back under my rock. But in almost 30 years of playing TBirds it has never bothered me whether the neck joint (with a neck-thru it's not really a "joint") has an angle as long as the bass sounds good and can be set up well.

Or are these new TBirds set neck rather than neck-thru? If that's the case, why the excitement at all, because in my book they are then not real TBirds anyway. It's no matter what you do, but no messin' with the neck-thru!

Now gang up on me, I'll be your martyr!

[n!k]

Since it was a slow work day I decided to summarize the issue at hand

[godofthunder]

   Sigh. I don't have the energy to pursue this topic any longer, discuss amongst yourselves if you desire. I  am just baffled how they could take something as near perfect as the Vintage Pro and F it up. I need to lie down it's making my head hurt.

[gearHed289]

Weird. Looks like more trouble to build that way.

I wish sellers would stop treating the white ones like collectors items.

Yup! White is almost always a premium. Looks so good though!

My Les Paul fingerboard sits flat on the body.

[4stringer77]

For a flat top bass, that's not surprising. Most of the carve top guitars would have a pitch to the neck I believe.

[Chris P.]

I got the Silver Mist in as a review bass. Haven't plugged it in yet, so I come back to you later. But yes: Both pickups are mounted on a plate.

[Chris P.]

But it looks stunning in that colour!!! Wow. It matches great with the chrome hardware. I really dig the looks.

[TBird1958]

 Some pics..........
I have to agree with Scott, it was a well made bass just as it was - it would have been nice if they had kept production in Indonesea and just offered new colors. A couple of points though, a couple of my bird do have pitched necks, as does my Les Paul Oversize - I don't find it to be an issue, certainly not one of quality or how low the action can be set up, if anything my new red one has better action than the older white one. Interestingly, the black spacer on the neck pickup is faithful to the real deal and is present on my Greco and Lull, so I'm well over that. 

 A couple of comparison shots
Original:


New:


New pitch:
 Note box on the floor, it's some Gibson RI Thunderbird pickups for our esteemed Hollander Rob.


Headstocks:

[uwe]

I can't get worked up about any of this. Whatever works better.