Delberthot

Things are moving fast today. You can see my original review of this bass [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/109142-epiphone-gothic-thunderbird/"]here[/url]

I've decided to put this back up for sale again I'll start from the top. It began its life as a normal Made In Korea Epiphone Thunderbird but I like to tinker and tinker I have. The goth is very different to the standard Thunderbird in that it has a mahogany body and jazz bass width neck. The neck is very slim compared to a Fender and doesn't have the pronounced taper that a Fender does I have added EMG 35HZ pickups which just slotted into the existing pickup routes. There's a bit of a gap top and bottom but its never got in the way of my playing and is miniscule compared to the huge valley of a Rickenbacker with the cover off. I never liked the goth thing on the scratchplate so I attempted to get it off using a stanley blade but it didn't look too good so I got some sticker paper and printed the 1976 Bicentennial Thunderbird logo onto it and stuck it on top. Many gigs later and it still looks remarkably good. It has the much improved Hipshot Supertone bridge which is heavier than the original stilty thing that they come with so it helps the balance and is in full contact with the body rather than the stupid stilty thing. It adjusts very easily for height, intonation and also string spacing. I have added 500k pots to it and changed the jack. It also has a paper-in-oil cap for that vintage snake oil charm. It has Schaller strap locks fitted as well With it being very black and hard to see on stage I added blue Fretfx LEDs to the top of the neck so I can see what I'm doing. The battery has to be in correctly or it flickers a bit. Lastly, I finished it off with a Gibson TRC. I don't think its a real Gibson one but it does the job. I have it fitted with Roto 45 Gauge flats and the bass growls like a very large growly thing. Nearly forgot, I moved the strap button nearest the neck to the front of the heel to aid balance which it definitely helped. One slight downside of doing this is that you need a very thin strap to fit in there so what I did was to buy a strap extension and cut it short, then attach it to my existing strap using nut, bolt and a couple of washers. When worn with a decent strap it actually points up rather than down. If you wanted to do this yourself then you would be looking at: Epiphone Thunderbird bass (now made in China) [url="http://www.dv247.com/guitars/epiphone-thunderbird-iv-goth-bass--37231"]£199 from Digital Village[/url] Hipshot Supertone Bridge [url="http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Hipshot,_Bridges,_Tuners.html"]£129 delivered from Bass Direct[/url] Fretfx LEDs [url="https://fretfx.com/"]£75 from Fretfx[/url] Truss Rod Cover [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-Truss-Rod-Cover-Gibson-Thunderbird-Bass-BK-CR-/220636828705?pt=Guitar_Accessories&hash=item335efad421"]£10.12 from Ebay[/url] EMG 35HZ pickups [url="http://www.dv247.com/guitars/emg-emg-35hz-black--56148"]£119.98 from Digital Village[/url] Sticker Paper [url="http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/.-Adhesive-Papers_075.htm"]£9.04 from Crafty Computer paper[/url] Roksak gig bag [url="http://www.wembleyguitarcentre.com/Catalogue/Guitar-Centre/Cases-Bags/Gig-Bags/Rok-Sak-TBG20-Thunderbird-Bass-20mm-Gig-Bag-TBG20"]£43 delivered from Wembley Guitar Centre[/url] Schaller Strap locks [url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/480-schaller_straplocks_black"]£16 from strings direct[/url] Rotosound Jazz Flats [url="http://www.stringsdirect.co.uk/products/606-rotosound_4_string_jazz_bass_flatwound_bass_guitar_strings"]£25.95 from Strings Direct[/url] I'm not going to include the prices for the knobs, pots and cap as I already had them. I'll be taking the Darth Vader knob off prior to sending as it has been on many a bass of mine and will put the original black one back on. In total that comes to £627.09 for you to do all of this yourself but I am going to offer this for sale for the rediculously low price of £350 plus postage which will be around £10 to mainland UK. I really must be off my nut cos this is the longest I have had a bass in recent years and many have been through my hands in the time I've had this. I don't have any of the original parts that were replaced so can't sell bits of it off.