W1_Pro
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Posts posted by W1_Pro
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That, is lovely. GLWTS.
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I'm intrigued when you say that the previous owner had problems with the strings slipping. Where did they slip too? I'm not trying to be snippy, thats a serious question. I've had my Pangborn for a good few years and I don't play it much, although every time I pick it up I wonder why because it is a truly amazing machine. Mine also has the pointy headstock, which makes it a fine looking thing. I read somewhere that a group of the UK builders (Jaydee, Pangborn, Goodfellow etc) in the 70's and 80's were chasing Alembic with multi laminated necks, complex electronics and the shape of the bodies. I've always thought that was quite a good description of what was occuring.
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I notice that the rather tasteful US Spector NS2 'relic' has been marked as sold on Bass Directs website. Lovely bass, I played it breifly a couple of months ago but as usual I couldn't bring myself to part with the large sum of money they wanted for it and now the chance has gone. Did someone on here buy it?
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Theres one of his for sale on Reverb atm which you might have seen? Looks a bit like one of those Greco GOB basses. You should have held on to that Explorer. I bet that was some machine....
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Lovely that. Looks somewhat redolent of a fretless version of what the chap in ZZ Top used to play.
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44 minutes ago, tauzero said:
Presumably whoever is selling it on Gumtree would know.
I have asked the seller a question (about three days ago) and he's not responded...yet.
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1 minute ago, Bassassin said:
I guess so - but 70s JB pickups aren't exactly something you can pick up off Thomann or Gear4Music, so if you really needed a set, your only option might be with a bass attached! If the calculation was to flip the bass for around what you paid for it, it sort of makes sense.
Yes, absolutely. I had a bit of a ferret around on Reverb and a single JB Hyperflux seems to be priced arounf the £200 mark, so there's your profit on the deal I suppose. If that T bird had frets and the seller could be perseuded into a more realistic price it would be an interesting project for someone- its essentially a great bass- but I appreciate that this is entirely wishful thinking on my part😆
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12 hours ago, Bassassin said:
Fair point - I never looked at the fees or calculated a total.
It is definitely the same bass - on the headstock there are two chips & a scuff in exactly the same places in both sets of pics. I'm assuming it was bought just for the pickups - wonder what they went in?
It looks like you are right...Has to be said, that is a pretty niche thing to do. 'I need new pickups for my John Birch bass, therefore I will buy another John Birch bass and take the pickups out of it'...That is quite weird, right?
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14 minutes ago, Schnozzalee said:
Looks like my old one - I bought it for £650 in 2006.
Best rock bass Ive played is one of those old Vigier Arpeges though. They've more in the tank than a Birchenbacker.
Quite different machines perhaps? I have a Passion from 198 something and its wonderful, having said that the John Birch, for all its flaws sounds like Concord taking off (in a good way).
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This is probably a bit controversial, but I've always felt that a fretless Thunderbird is a bit like a five string Rickenbacker. Deeply unnatural.....
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(sigh)...that went well. You have to download it to see it I think...
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That is awesome. Also, that pic of the maple bass with black triangles and stars on the fretboard is the same as mine. Who knows, it might even be mine? He made so much really cool, interesting stuff. I'll attach a pic of mine below..
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My one - and I'd be interested to hear from anyone else that has one to compare notes- has very little mass around the heel of the neck, consequently the neck can be pulled forward making the action a bit high. I've ameliorated this a little by using low tension flats but it is definitely an issue with my bass, I'd be interested to know if anyone else has experienced anything similar?
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Its a nice looking bass, two grand is quite a lot of cash though. But then again, look what they are charging for real Rickenbackers....sigh...
Interesting. This has six knobs. My one only has five.
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Thanks Steve, it is indeed old fashioned. Unless I'm missing a trick they don't seem to have a website....
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Lovely bass by the way. I'm on the lookout for a slim necked Spector. They have a georgous US relic'd NS2 with the thin neck at Bass Direct, but its the thick end of seven grand, which is an awful lot of money...
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On 24/11/2025 at 13:14, fretmeister said:
I wish they did these with the Wimbish neck profile - I'd have had one already - to go with my own Sandberg superlight!
Crazy idea - is it worth asking Shuker or someone for a quote to reprofile the neck?
Thats a good question. Its easy enough to take a bit of depth out of the 'shoulders' of a neck. Its also fairly straightforward to make a neck shallower from front to back as long as you have enough clearance from the underneath of the truss rod. I think though that the Wimbish ones are 1.5" wide at the nut and the standard ones are 1.61" (thats from memory so I might be wrong on the exact decimals), so that would be quite a job, reducing the width at the neck and then in turn changing the taper of the neck from where it joins the body. I'd be interested to know if anyone has had this done?
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3 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:
A shop in Chichester currently has one of his Rik-a-like basses. Looks normal but for 6 controls instead of 4.
Which one Steve? A proper Birchenbacker is a rare and wonderful thing....
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1 hour ago, BigRedX said:
It was discussed in this thread back in August.
The general consensus then was that the bridge is by John Birch, and the rest could be anything. If it was a genuine JB it would have had John Birch pickups on it when it was originally made, and I can't think of any sensible reason to replace them.
Thanks Red, I had an idea this had been covered before but I could not remember where..
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wrong thread!
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Apologies if this has been done before, but I just came accross this on Gumtree. https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/1970s-john-birch-fretless-thunderbird-bass-handmade-in-the-uk/1504913094
Its apparently a John Birch build from the 70's but the only thing that I can see on the bass that looks remotely genuine is the bridge. That looks like Birch in house hardware. The pickups the seller says are non orignal, in fact they seem to be guitar pickups, so thats a bust, and the machine heads could be anything. There is also no Birch branding at all on the thing, which is unusual in my experience, John normally got his name on every single piece of hardware on an instrument and the headstock too. Anyone have any thoughts as to what this might be?
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Great basses. This one looks really cool too. GLWTS.
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2 hours ago, binky_bass said:
Google it, I dare you..
There will be some remote corner of the internet devoted to them, of that I am convinced.....
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That name though. Anus Basses. Just can't stop thinking it...
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Pangborn on Reverb
in Bass Guitars
Posted
Blimey. That must be some intense slapping action going on there. I suppose those roller saddles are quite fiddly little things but he must have really been hammering it to make that happen with the strings under tension. I can't shift them, despite my best efforts. Still, it must have been serious for the owner at the time to get what must have been a fairly expensive mod done. Thanks for clarifying!