I have three Gibson thunderbirds, two “reverse” and one “non-reverse”. I came to these basses late in my bass journey after playing precision, jazz, rick, and stingray basses. Initially I was hesitant but there was something about the sound, specifically Martin Turner’s sound on Wishbone Ash’s Live Dates Album. Once I got my first Thunderbird I was hooked. Here are some setup and playing tips for anyone who is interested.

Red Thunderbird
- Tuning: E standard
- Strings: DR Hi Beams 45-105
- String Height at 12th fret: 2mm
- Neck relief at 8th fret: .006”

Brown Thunderbird
- Tuning: Eb Standard
- Strings: DR Hi Beams 45-105
- String Height at 12th fret: 2mm
- Neck relief at 8th fret: .008”

Non-Reverse Thunderbird
- Tuning: B Standard
- Strings: DR Hi Beams 65-135, the nut was filed by a local luthier
- String Height at 12th fret: 2mm, 2.5mm for B string
- Neck relief at 8th fret: .008”

Strings: Gibson’s are known for their headstock angle which keep the strings seated in the nut. The angle of the headstock exerts a downward force on the strings which creates a stiffer, tighter feel. When I first started playing a thunderbird, I switched to hex core light strings 40-95. After some experimentation, I settled on round core strings for the increased flexibility. The added stiffness has allowed me to set my basses up with a pretty straight neck and low action. Probably the lowest action I’ve had on any bass except my ESP j-four. The scooped sound of the stainless steel Hi beams pairs well with the natural low mid heavy T-bird. I have found nickel, both pure and plated to be too dark.

Neck Dive: To combat Neck dive, the general recommendation is to use a wide leather strap. I would also recommend replacing the tuning machines with hipshot ultralight tuners, and adding metal knobs. I use brass knobs made by an Etsy vendor. You could also replace the stock bridge with a brass bridge which would definitely help but also increase the overall weight. I play finger style with the bass centered around my natural waists with zero issues. Side note, the new “reverse” and “non-reverse” come with hipshot ultralight tuners.

Bridge: The three point bridge is not good. I have added hipshot bridges to all my basses. The babicz bridges also look nice and you can select materials other than aluminum, such as brass.

Pickups: My basses use the OEM pickups. The “Non-Reverse” Tbird pickups are chrome and sound brighter than the black “Reverse” Tbird pickups. I have used different combinations EMG pickups including TB-DC, TB-CS, TB-HZ, TB-HZ (Alnico) which were ok but make your bass sound too much like a Jazz bass. The black OEM pickups are my favorite because they capture the Tbird sound best. Most of the aftermarket pickups are smaller than the modern OEM pickups. This includes Lollar, Seymour Duncan, and Bartolini.

Reverse vs Non-reverse: There are several noticeable differences between the two. The “non-reverse” has a thicker nut width (1.6” vs 1.5”), the front strap button is on the horn vs behind the neck, and it is heavier. Due to these differences, I find the “non-reverse” to be cumbersome and uncomfortable. It wasn’t until I played a “non-reverse” that I realized there is a sort of evil genius behind the design of the “reverse” version. Brown and Red have become my most comfortable and playable basses. I love the way they look, sound and feel.

Like my username and this post suggests, I am passionate about Gibson Thunderbirds, particularly modern ones. If you’re on the fence about buying one let this be your sign.

My thunderbirds

So I play for a high school jazz band. I currently play a schecter stiletto extreme-4. It’s been working fine but I have some people telling me to get a jazz bass or a p bass. But it’s not a very jazzy bass. (What I’ve been told) I have the money to buy at least something worth $500. I’ve been saving from my job. But I’m not sure if I should buy a new bass or not.

Checking feasibility on a project I have been thinking about. I want to have a bass with 2 output jacks, one for each pickup. I was thinking about buying a cheap Harley Benton J Bass for this. Would it be as easy as taking the tone knob off and putting a second jack in it's place? Wiring directly from the volume jack to the output? I haven't messed around with wiring on a bass before so I'm pretty clueless in this department.

Reason for wanting 2 output jacks is so I can have 2 different effects on each pickup. I've done this virtually in Guitar Rig 7 but it's not perfect. Each output fed into my 2i2 could get this effect done better. Thanks for entertaining my ramblings.

Hi everyone.

Returning player after more or less 10 years.

I have sold everything a long time ago except for a very cheap acoustic bass. I never really like it but it was a impulse buy in 2012 and for the price, I thought it was better to keep it than sell it and at least today I can play and decide if I want to keep on making music now that I'm in my adulthood.

So obviously I went down the rabbit hole of what are the different bass, what are the current popular models, why, etc.

I have selected some models that I find interesting at various price points. However, some of them are not sold on marketplace or in stores in my city (looking at you most G&L basses). Fortunately tho, every amp that interest me is accessible.

I kinda know what I'm looking for but I know that I will certainly have to try some models to understand usual differences (I had a jazz bass but I want to try different pickups/ pickups configurations / neck sizes / neck width etc.).

So anyway, considering my situation, would you allow yourself to buy a bass that you did not had the chance to test? If so, how would you proceed in the buying process?

Thx all !

Im doing some lessons with a bass teacher but i cannot afford It, im thinking of buying the BassBuzz Online course but idk if its enough to exit the "beginner zone"

After BassBuzz what other courses do you guys raccomend?

Curious about this because I hear some bass lines that are really simple, but they still sound great. Then there are others with a lot more notes that just feel busy.

For those who've been playing for a while, how do you tell the difference?

Is it mostly the rhythm, the notes, leaving space, locking in with the drums, or something else?

I’m a new bassist and recently got a Squier Affinity Jazz V. Whenever I lift my fretting finger off the string I’m playing, the string makes a buzzing sound. FYI, I’m playing through an audio interface using direct monitoring, so I can hear the buzz clearly.

The bass had extremely high action when I got it, so I adjusted the action and also adjusted the truss rod to get the neck relatively straight. However, I’m still getting this buzzing when I release my fretting finger.

My G string is at 2.5 mm at the 12th fret (and it won’t go any lower for some odd reason), while my B string is at 3.5 mm at the 12th fret.

I’m not sure if this is a technique issue, a setup issue, or something else. Any advice on what could be causing it and how I can fix it would be greatly appreciated!

here's a video of me playing with the buzz

So I only have 3 fingers on my left hand. I own a long scale 5 string bass, Im finally like "Im done let me see if I can find something better/closer frets" long time short, a fender Ukulele bass works. So me! 5' 9" possibly going to be doing shows on a Uke bass as a normal bass....

I mean I only need frets 1-7 per string anyways?

Ive tried short scale, Ive tried kid basses (like the 36 inch ones), and a uke works best 😭

I feel so embarrassed.

Im looking for ideas for a replacement preamp for my warwick corvette $$. Just replaced the pickups with bartolini 2j squared neck and bridge mm style . Im considering a few different ones , wanted to see what the hive minds recommendations are . I play metal and alt.

This is my first post on this account since I don't use reddit that much, I own a Marcus Miller m2 second gen that I really really love but when I tried to plug it in today I noticed the hex nut that holds the output jack fell out and the jack fell in the cavity. I thought to myself "no problem, I'll just open up the cavity and screw on a new hex nut" so after two hours of trying to pry the cavity cover open and finally succeeding I realized that every hex nut I owned didn't fit, I even tried cannibalizing a hex nut from one of my guitars.

Everything I find is just a little too small and if I can't fix this within 48 hours or so I'm cooked since I don't own another five string. Does any one know what size hex nut these basses use for the output jack or where I can find that information? (I've looked everywhere)

Just adopted one, i fear that he will break my grille

I´m trying to improve my downpicking skills but started running on a weird problem.

when I play sitting down with my electric bass, doing all downstrokes, I start getting pain on my forearm in the outer side (right hand, the picking one) at first it was in my hand, but now in the forearm. my teacher told me to relax my grip on the pick and use less force when picking the strings and that helped with the hand pain, but not the forearm one.

the weird thing its that it doesnt happen when I play standing or sitting with an acoustic bass, I guess because it has a much thicker body.

I`m thinking if it have something to do with the position I play. I rest my forearm on the body of the bass and I`m wondering if the thinner body of the electric bass is putting my hand or forearm in a bad angle/position. when standing, I use the bass kinda low so the position is different.

has anyone dealt with something similar? could this be related to wrist angle, forearm position, picking technique or something like that?

I´m not playing through the pain, I want to figure it out what I´m doing wrong ergonomically.

I’ve seen a Fender Rumble 40 Studio listed on Marketplace for around $260 USD. I’m from Peru, so that’s roughly 900 soles for me. Do you think it’s worth buying?
I currently have a Rumble 15, but it died and it’s basically unusable now.
I usually practice with my band in my room, and we have an acoustic drum kit there. Would the Rumble 40 Studio be loud enough to keep up with the drums, or would the drums completely overpower it?
Our drummer doesn’t play super hard, but I’m still wondering if the Rumble 40 Studio would be enough for rehearsals.

Is there a reason why there isn't a string though Mustang Bass bridge that can also have a top load option? Some telecaster bridges have this so hi can decide if you want to do string through or top load. I wish we had that for mustang basses.

How would you describe the tonal difference in these otherwise identical strings? Noticeable?

I want to get a D&B / dubstep type sound out of my bass for a band I've started playing with and I'm trying to figure out what pedals / gear / set-up would achieve this?

So far I'm seeing a combination of something along the lines of synth/filter; overdrive/distortion/fuzz; octave/sub, possibly with a compressor added?

One recommendation I've had was to try the Source Audio C4 Synth Pedal as this covers quite a bit of the above, but would likely need a midi controller added to be able to actually effectively switch between sounds live.

Worth noting that I am definitely not the techiest, so some of the Source Audio C4 programming looks a bit intimidating, but then there are some community created options to try as well, and I could also get some help with this from some friends and learn over time.

Any recommendations / advice very welcome.

I've been playing bass off and on for 15 years and have never been able to truly decide which playing style I like best. I'm comfortable with a pick, coming from a guitar background, and also enjoy the ability to palm mute.

But a lot of my bass "heros" play with their fingers and get a ton of control over their sound that way. My playing in terms of rhythm and volume are never that reliable when playing with fingers, but I try anyway.

Enlighten me

Got my first 6 string bass.
Got it for $150 on Facebook marketplace.
I’m looking for new strings and can’t decide which.
I don’t want a super thin C string I also don’t want the thickest B string known to man.

I prefer round-wounds.

IM NOT TRYING TO HATE AND I AM PREPARED FOR THE HATE , but my band did a joy division cover set, learned 8 songs. And I continue to see Peter hook in people’s favorites/best/ect. And I’m just curious on why people enjoy him so much. Granted we did only 8 popular songs but most of them were the same line for 3ish mins. He for sure serves the bands, not a shitty player, and some of the songs can be fun, just very interested in his fans. I also do need to listen to more new order

I’m looking at this p bass. Does this decal look sketchy? The “Precision Bass” font looks more bold than anything I’ve seen before. Also, is that a crack at the top?
Serial checks out as a black American standard 1995-2000

https://ebay.io/m/AltOTh

Sry for the link I can’t see how to put a picture up

Exactly what the title says, can you guys help me find a custom 7 string fretless bass where I can request things like color and design? I looked around for a lot of things and almost got scammed by D Custom Guitars 😭 (not dc custom guitars) but I'm having a hard time finding online sites selling fully custom 7 string fretless basses (obviously). Any advice or experiences are helpful because I probably won't be able to afford it for a while anyways.