[jsnto]

I am doing some gigs where the guys can buy me a Bass at dealer cost which is apparently US$1200 and I am thinking of buying one - just cause it is a cool bass at a good price.

Opinions??

 

[Xanadu]

I don't really like the looks of it, never played a gibson bass though
But for $1200USD, You could get a pretty nice bass.

 

[hammer744]

That's be sweet - the T'Birds are pretty highly respected basses. I've always liked that body shape (that and the explorer)....

 

[oddio]

I bought one of the Centennial models brand new in about '73, if I recall correctly. It had great, deep tone and a big beefy neck. It was a bit of a neck-diver, meaning that the headstock wanted to keep pointing at the floor but it was an excellent instrument overall. You'll dig the tone and can't go wrong for that price.

 

[erigod23]

I have an Epiphone T-Bird and absolutely love it. The neck dive is something that you may not like, I only find it annoying when I'm tuning. There is a fix posted on the net somewhere, I found a link to it on the TalkBass forum. Not sure if the fix is valid for a Gibson T-Bird. That being said, they sound amazing and if I had the cash I'd jump right on to a Gibson.

 

[Michelle]

T-Birds have amazing tone but do have a neck-dive problem as erigod says, it's because of the reverse body. (Perfect for flipping for left-hand). Moving the strap button to where I don't remember helps, (that doesn't help much, huh?). I was going to get an Epi T-Bird at one point but decided on a Schecter 5 string which gives me the growl.

Obviously, try it out and see if it is what you like but if I was going to spend that kind of $$, I would be after a Rick.

:wave:

 

[Gunny]

I've previously owned 2 Gibson basses and each had the neck dive thing. Any photos from gigs where we were between songs or taking pictures of band members showed me supporting the neck so it didn't dive. It led to me getting rid of both of them eventually.

 

[hammer744]

Here's a guy with a couple options for helping with T'bird neck dive...

http://www.lysator.liu.se/~wizkid/music/thunderbird_mod/

I like the option of the longer neck screw so you don't have to drill another hole in the body.

 

[bluecoyote]

One has to love the looks of the blue one with the black hardware and the black headstock!!! Do they still make it in the blue color?