I understand that considerable pressure had been put on Gibson to reissue the NR Thunderbird and (obviously!) Gibson were having none of it, so a few members of an US bass group approached Bach to build a limited quantity of NRs to original specs (it's pointless saying '60s specs as they were only produced for a short time in the 1960s). I think there's been three different runs, slab bodies, tummy/arm-cut bodies, single/two pick up versions. If you search around, you'll see nothing but positives from people who've bought them. There have been quite a few customisation jobs...you'll find plenty of data online.
To move this along, it is a bit of a victory for the small man...rumour is that Gibson wised up and off the back of the Bach runs, finally pulled their finger out and re-issued the NR earlier this year (I've got a vintage sunburst Gibson one...you can read my early traumas with it elsewhere on Basschat), so hurrah to Bach.
I looked at buying one of these blanks earlier in the year, but as my carpentry skills are borderline non-existent, I just couldn't pull the trigger, along it has to be said, I'm still thinking about tracking down one of the originals at some stage.
P