Epiphone Thunderbird 60s Bass - Tobacco Sunburst Review

This is really a great bass.

I bought this bass from Sweetwater, to hot rod out. I really hated the stock pickups. So I replaced them with custom wound passive EMG pickups and now this bass sounds and plays so much better. The last thing that I need to do, is replace that plastic nut with a bone nut. Then it will be perfect. But for the money this bass is very a good bass, but it can be made into a really great… read more bass with a few tweaks. Like getting rid of the stock pickups and replacing them with the EMGs or some Bartolini pickups. I chose the EMGs and had them custom wound and kept the bass passive and I'm glad I did to. This bass has become one of my main players now. Because the tone is really incredible now and can really bring down the thunder also. I bought this bass to hot rod it out and it worked out better, than I could have ever have hoped for.

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So much "YES!" in one package

This is my first guitar I have purchased online, and I as super-happy about this bass. I have never written a review on the site about a purchase, but this one has forced me to do it. I'll start with the construction. It is beautiful. The neck-through has sustain that holds for days. I m really pleased with the neck. The electronics installed are great. The pickups are great. You… read more can be assured of finding a great time out of it, even with an amp that is less than fantastic. The shipping was done safely and efficiently. The e-mail sending you professional quality pictures is a nice touch. I want to thank Norb Berninger and the Sweetwater team for alleviating my fears of buying a guitar online. It was a great experience and a job well done.

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A different kind of bass....

This is a great recreation of the original Gibson Thunderbird bass from the early-mid 60's. Epiphone really did a good job on this one. I guess it's obvious but this is a very long bass. Just the headstock passed the nut is over 11" long. I don't find the bass neck heavy enough for it to be a concern though. It's just a different animal. The size of the bass seems to have a… read more Positive effect on the tone. A lot of that is due To the neck through construction too I'm sure. The sustain is great and the G string has no dead spots. Hitting the E string open sounds like a piano. If you're looking for something different I'd consider one of these. The pickups Sound great and work very well together.

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Everything you want a vintage thunderbird to be

I am absolutely blown away by this bass! I have P basses, J basses, a Rickenbacker, and even custom made basses but I find myself gravitating towards this bass all the time. The tones you can get from it are all incredible. My personal favorite tones are: everything up full and neck pickup only. With the neck pickup only setting you get the beefy tone of the old thunderbird basses… read more that only had the one pickup. And you can't go wrong with everything up full. It is such a rich and rocking tone. With this bass in the market, there is absolutely no reason to buy the overpriced new Gibson thunderbird. That money would be well spend with this bass and maybe upgrading the pickups to the seymour duncan custom shop t-bird pickups if you really wanted to (The stock pickups are fantastic so I won't recommend doing that unless you really want to change something) or just investing in an actual vintage t-bird. And one of the biggest pluses of this bass: NO THREE-POINT BRIDGE!! Epiphone needs to fully adopt the claw tail piece on all of their basses. It is such a good and solid bridge. Epiphone really knocked it out of the park with this bass. I highly recommend this bass to anyone! And as always, my sales rep AJ got the bass to me fast and safely!

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Killer sounding bass - It's in the Neck Through!

I was really surprised at how great this bass played and sounded. I half expected to receive it and be unimpressed and have to return it. Whoa....was I wrong. I play southern rock, country, blues, and this bass does them all amazing. My main bass is a Modulus Q5 through an eden metro. My practice amp is an Ampeg BA210V2 2x10 Bass Combo ( also purchased through sweetwater). This… read more bass through the Ampeg is THE classic rock sound. Very powerful with the neck through. With all the knobs on 10, it's a bit bright sounding, but the tone knob warms the sound up pretty well, and I roll off the treble on the amp a bit and boost the mids. If you've thought about getting a thunderbird, but didn't want to pay the Gibson price for one, this is the way to go. A bandmate has a bolt on Epi thunderbird, and my vintage pro smokes his....it's in the neck through I tell ya!

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