Epi Thunderbird Classic-IV Pro now on their site ...

[dadagoboi]

New improved Cheesy Tops with Duck Butter Flavor, brought to you by Smegma Foods.

[uwe]

And I always thought "Smegma butt!" is an invitation for role play. Unleashed in the yeast.

[uwe]

While the white one Frau Professor Hills aka The Light of Education got for me is still waiting at the custom's bureau in ze Reich, I did see and handle a sunburst one today when I picked up the NR TB RI. Didn't play it though, just a bit of fondling. Observations:

- make no mistake, neck-thru it is, no doubt,

- the slightly off-set lower wing and the high register access it enables is really neat, elegant solution!

- the sunburst is a bit too orangy/garish (as it was on the active predecessors) and of course poly is poly, but the wood grain is gorgeous, more prominent than on the maho Gibson uses,

- the woodwork on this translucent finned bass ain't what it would be from Nashville - some fissures there where different parts of wood are pieced together, but nothing you could seriously complain about considering the price.

[TBird1958]

I thought the one Sweetwater sent was very nice, I don'rt know if they look over everything they send out....... Thought I'd heard that. At $500.00 it a winner, sweet player sounded great ot my GK - and for a short while there were three white Thunderbirds at my house

[uwe]

It arrived last week, Mark, thanks. And special thanks for the new Nasty Habits CD I found with it! Great bass sound and give my regards to your keyboarderess, she really enhances the music well, 80ies rule!!! And Frau Steed, while we're at it, I have a stage name for your newish Lou Reed (post-Transformer) lookalike drummer named Wayne Moody, why don't you call him "The Dire Straight"  , sartorial elegance defying as he seems to be?  

We wanted to talk about the bass, ja. It plays wonderfully, that offset wing and the better high register access it brings are heaven sent and a really neat idea of improving playability without messing with the look in a noticeable way. Compared to my newish Gibbies, it does sound more vintage though, the presence frequencies, while there, are mellower, hazier, as if covered by a thin veil. Are those Gibson TB Plus pups really the newest generation TB Plus? I have my doubts, but maybe it's the pots which I will have replaced. (Since it is currently at the luthier anyway, for repair of a large ugly chip on its virgin poly fin caused when I, the idiot, eagerly unpacked it at customs to take a look at it, only to have it then slip out of the cardboard case when I carried it to the car - I could still kick myself for that!   )

But it's the best passive approximation of a real Gibson TBird I've heard and that includes the active Epi TB Pro, the Orville Made in USA and the Epi Elitist as well as of course all other Epi TBirds. I'd say it's 90% there, especially the neck-thru construction is really noticeable, it sustains as only a TBird can among the classic bass models that date back to the sixties and fifties. (Even a Ric, neck-thru as it is, doesn't have quite the upper register sustain of a TBird, probably due to its slightly shorter scale and the maple rather than maho construction; of course a Ric has other benifits, namely its snappiness and attack, unusual for a neck-thru.)

[4stringer77]

What kind of pots are you going to use Uwe?

[uwe]

Something wholesome I believe, is there much difference between the species?






I have no idea, I'm horrible at stuff like that, shiny silver ones?    I told my luthier to upgrade unless the ones in there are good quality already which I doubt.

[TBird1958]

Something wholesome I believe, is there much difference between the species?






I have no idea, I'm horrible at stuff like that, shiny silver ones?    I told my luthier to upgrade unless the ones in there are good quality already which I doubt.

I could have sent you Pot! We forward thinking Washingtonians have legalized it recently tho I don't personally smoke it 
Sorry to hear the bass had a fall, your luthier must be good if he can fix that poly, show us some pics when it's done, IIRC he's quite talented. I'm glad you like the CD, I used several different 'Birds and two different amps when we recorded it. Sadly, the band lost Wayne recently he suffered a mid-life mental breakdown and fled the pot haven of Washington for Florida...........Only just this week did we find a new drummer (don't get me started!) and we're rehearsing like mad to bring him up to speed.

[uwe]

I told him to do nothing fancy - it's a 400 buck bass after all -, just so it doesn't look too gaping. Otherwise the bass took the fall well.

[4stringer77]

Hilarious. I gotta check out one of these Epi birds myself if they sound as classic as Uwe says. Don't think I'll solder the pickups to any weed though.

[lowend1]

I like that on Sweetwater's site you can compare their 4 in-stock s/b 'birds side by side...
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/EBTCVSBH

[Highlander]

... and the high register access it enables is really neat, elegant solution!

Scott, you may have finally been vindicated and lost the "butcher" tag... 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Compared to my newish Gibbies, it does sound more vintage though, the presence frequencies, while there, are mellower, hazier, as if covered by a thin veil. Are those Gibson TB Plus pups really the newest generation TB Plus? I have my doubts, but maybe it's the pots which I will have replaced.

Epi's stock pots are garbage and better quality and/or higher value ones will really open up the highs AND the lows. If they're 250k, go for 500k to open up the top end. Everything I've seen about this new Epi is hitting me the VERY right way. My Epi LP Standard is wonderful instrument, and all it needed were better pickups and pots. Since the new Epis have decent pickups to start out with, you're mostly there already. And for the finish, that's just a love mark you put on your new girl so that everyone will know she's yours. Did Gibson have the sense to make cases for these any more available than they have been in the past?

[uwe]

I don't need anymore cases, Himmel!!!

[TBird1958]

I don't need anymore cases, Himmel!!!

Keine Lebensraum, Ich weise!