I see lots of Thunderbird reviews with people setting up them up with round rounds and grinding the hell out of them with picks and some level of distortion. Action is low and the bass plays butter smooth. No truss rod adjustment was necessary and it only required a slight height adjustment. I immediately strung the bass and the neck took to the flats like a champ. I don't play round-would strings and pending delivery, pre-ordered a set of Labella Low Tension Flexible Flats. It had that same ultra-slim and long feeling neck and my hands rested in a very natural and familiar position. So much so that I had instant recall back to my old '76 bird. More importantly, it felt great in my hands. It didn't look or feel like an inexpensive instrument in any way. Upon arrival, I was very happy with this bass. I tend to wait for a good deal on a good used instrument and noodle with it for a few years. Before I tell you about the bass, let me share that I usually won't buy a new instrument. It looked like all the ingredients were there and after stewing over it, I decided to pick one up via mail order, as I couldn't find examples at any music store. I then looked at the literature published by Epiphone. So I read a few articles about the Epi T-Bird Vintage Pro. I've seen the past offerings from Epiphone Elite, Greco, etc and although those were closer to the mark, they just didn't move me.
I couldn't figure why Gibson wouldn't make some special run of 60's or 70's T-birds but I understood it had to make $en$e to them.
The feel and sound of contemporary T-birds were not the same and quite frankly, I didn't like the way that they looked. That '76 Thunderbird left quite an impression on me though and for decades after, I would pick up newer offerings from Gibson, hoping to re-gain that same attraction but it was just not to be. Wished I had kept it but moved on to other basses. Just seemed to fit my body and I really enjoyed the feel of the neck, as well as the sound of the instrument. I bought a 1976 Gibson Thunderbird (brand new) back when I was in High School (1978) and really loved it.
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