So, with which bass do you practice?

[TBird1958]

On topic though, that's beautiful. I see the T-bird logo is red, white and blue but did the '76s differ in any other way from regular T-birds or was that standard?

70's pups are of a different design than 60's, some here don't care for them but I've always really liked them alot. If I recall early 60's 'Birds are not 9 ply either, but I could be wrong on that. The logo on the 'Bird was done at least thru 1977, I own an example produced at Kalamzoo that is date stamped and has the Gibson logo straight on the TRC as opposed to another version that I belive was made in Nashville also a 77 that had a decal and the angled logo as on Joe's.
The pickgard was changed later with the "76" being taken out, and production stopped in '79.

[Pilgrim]

Must not edit Ji, er Jazz...

To quote Douglas Neidermeyer from Animal House, "...acts of perversion SO profound and disgusting that decorum prohibits listing them here."

Decorum above all.  Yazzir.

[Denis]

70's pups are of a different design than 60's, some here don't care for them but I've always really liked them alot. If I recall early 60's 'Birds are not 9 ply either, but I could be wrong on that. The logo on the 'Bird was done at least thru 1977, I own an example produced at Kalamzoo that is date stamped and has the Gibson logo straight on the TRC as opposed to another version that I belive was made in Nashville also a 77 that had a decal and the angled logo as on Joe's.
The pickgard was changed later with the "76" being taken out, and production stopped in '79.

Interesting. I suppose factory documentation and records are hard to come by for these type changes? Probably on the street and forums such as these is where the wealth of knowledge is but it would be really cool to put together detailed timelines for such changes, if only for the hell of it. But heck, you guys probably already know most of this stuff!

[Dave W]

FWIW, the original reverse body 'Birds are 9-ply.

[chromium]

Interesting. I suppose factory documentation and records are hard to come by for these type changes? Probably on the street and forums such as these is where the wealth of knowledge is but it would be really cool to put together detailed timelines for such changes, if only for the hell of it. But heck, you guys probably already know most of this stuff!

Denis, have you seen the Gibson bass site here-  http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/Thunderbird.php ?  This is really *the* site for that type of timeline info, and it features of photos documenting the different variations, and a forum for detailed discussion of said minutiae.  I'd trust people's real world experiences over any of their factory literature    Seems there are always lots of anomalies and exceptions to the "rules"

[bobyoung]

I pick up whatever is in front of me at home, the one's I play at gigs ironically stay in the cases afterward many times and I've been favoring the fretless P bass lately for gigs but have two Rics in stands, one in my living room and one in my bedroom. So I guess whatever is there, if the P bass is out with others though I'll usually pick that up first. The T-bird has been buried in it's case for a few months gotta drag that one out too.

[exiledarchangel]

I equally use my Epi and my Bachbird, I rarely use my flatwound-stringed pee. Sometimes I play the guitar too!   

[clankenstein]

its mostly my eb2 because its on the stand in my music room.every time i play it i think i must use this in the band too and i must get around to restringing this....

[PhilT]

51 RI P, the Yellow Peril (ok, the Butterscotch Blonde Peril  ). Or the standard P. Both of those go to gigs and one or the other will do the work, depending how I feel.

I used to practice with the Rebop 5 to try to make the conversion to 5-string. I can do it in practice, but in a gig it all comes apart and I end up on the wrong string. So I'm giving up that battle.

[uwe]

FWIW, the original reverse body 'Birds are 9-ply.

Not in the first year they weren't. The first Birds in 1963 had massive maho necks. Earliest nine-ply neck Bird I've seen was 64.

[Dave W]

Oops, sorry about that. The ones I've seen were 9-ply.

[Bart!]

Mostly I play the precision, but lately the DarkstarP got a lot of attention.

[Saf]

The newest in the collection is favorite at this point.




Guttlin ThinKing bass awkward.

[amimbari]

oh SAF, you know since I'm a lefty, I would love to be your neighbor right now
that thing is so oddly shaped at first I say "MAN, is that ugly", but it is so unique the "ugly" turns to awesome within 13 miliseconds.

and since this thread is "what bass do you practice with", usually one of these lately -
Charvel-pCharvel-p/j ( the maple neck was added to the p/j from another parts bass )

for shows I use one of my Tbirds, and the p/j as a standby.

[chromium]

SAF that bass looks sweet - so weird its endearing!  Like the surf colors too.

Ami I noticed in that Kansas clip that you play one of the black ones strung as right-handed, but in the GnR clip the bass is strung left-handed?  If that is the case - WTF?    You're blowing my mind man!  I'm a lefty that plays righty basses strung righty.  God forbid that should ever get flipped around!    I'm not that coordinated!  Great playing too, btw