John Birch Thunderbird Bass on Gumtree

[Bassassin]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

 

If it is the same one, there's not much of a profit there. £11.32, to be exact. Cost including 26.4% hammer fee, £783.68.

 

It may be an optical illusion, but it looks as if the switch is orientated at 90 degrees to the one on Gumtree.

 

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?

[W1_Pro]

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?

[NancyJohnson]

On 25/11/2025 at 08:24, 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 If it was a genuine JB it would have had John Birch pickups on it when it was originally made, and I can't think of any sensible reason to replace them.

 

General consenus and 'the rest could be anything'?  People do change their pickups - just look at this site - there's hundreds of people swapping out pickups.

 

If you have a look at the photos of the Gardiner Houlgate auction and compare to the Gumtree bass, I'd say everything matches except the Gumtree bass has - for some reason - P90 pickups in it.  

 

As I said in the original thread I posted, that seller doesn't seem to stock junk.  He's had some spectacular kit through.

 

[Bassassin]

3 hours ago, W1_Pro said:

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?

 

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.

Edited 1 hour ago by Bassassin

[W1_Pro]

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😆

[BigRedX]

1 hour ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

General consenus and 'the rest could be anything'?  People do change their pickups - just look at this site - there's hundreds of people swapping out pickups.

 

If you have a look at the photos of the Gardiner Houlgate auction and compare to the Gumtree bass, I'd say everything matches except the Gumtree bass has - for some reason - P90 pickups in it.  

 

As I said in the original thread I posted, that seller doesn't seem to stock junk.  He's had some spectacular kit through.

 

 

Back when this thread started the Gardiner Houlgate bass wasn't known. 

 

However we still only have the previous and the current seller's word that this bass is actually by John Birch. There's no logo on the headstock as there is in the example in the 70s catalogue and no documentation. The Hyperflux pickups that were in the bass when Gardiner Houlgate were selling it have been removed which IMO seriously impacts on this instrument's worth, and the wiring installed in both versions of this bass are very conventional by John Birch standards. All that can be said for sure is that the bridge is a John Birch bridge. Everything else is heresy and speculation.

[Bassassin]

38 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Everything else is heresy and speculation.

 

I fully understand how making claims about the origin & pedigree of an unbranded bass is dubious & potentially deceptive - but heresy?

 

Not sure the seller deserves actually being burned at the stake!