Epiphone Thunderbird IV Reverse Bass

2009 Epiphone Thunderbird IV bass, Made in China. If you've read any of the previous reviews then you already know the specs. Mine is in the Vintage Starburst finish with white pickguard and black hardware. Aside from a cheap quality cable and allen wrench for truss rod adjustments, no other accessores come with the bass. It's difficult to find a case large enough for this bass, so it would have been nice had a gig bag been included, but otherwise

Basic active pickups are nothing to write home about, but the bass can produce a nice warm punchy sound. Not too shabby considering it's price.

Made the mistake of buying it at a local Guitar Center, but the neck was good and the body's finish was excellent, however, out of the box the setup was horrible. The bass had 2 Quality Control inspector stickers on it along with a QC checklist, but the action was way too high and it's intonation wasn't even close. Worst of all was the bridge kept popping out of the socket as I tried tuning the bass. Not good at all. I don't know how 2 QC inspectors let this one slide by, but it was aweful. Some Quickwood on the sockets helped keep the bridge in place, but this bass should have never left the factory in the condition it was in.

After a good set up, the bass is decent enough to play live. I may replace the bridge in the futuure, but so far so good. My biggest gripe was the lack of quality control, but otherwise the bass is certainly gig worthy.

Love the look and feel and I actually don't mind the neck dive, but it took quite a bit to get this bass set up well enough to play. If it were stolen, I'd probably get a different type of bass.

Everyone can obviously tell what this bass has. The biggest concern anyone should have is getting a hardshell that will fit this monster. An option is to move the forward stap button below the neck joint to balance out the neck dive that this body shape is known to have. The electronics sound fine and are a good sound for a general purpose bass, but nothing fancy.

You can tweak you amp for most of the sound you will want. I see it as being close to the telecaster metheodology: Less features for more known sound. The electronis sound clear and the soder has not been an issue as in other basses i've owned/worked on.

The vintage sunbirst is amazing... like veryone says, you have to see it to believe it. Mine was used, so a good set up was already paid for.

This bass has not failed me yet nor has it failed the previous owner... ever. The only issue i had was when i installed a straplock i moved the location to under the neck joint for better stability.

Like i said, no issue has ever needed to be taken to the parent company.

Its a great bass for anyone looking to upgrade on a budget from thier first bass. I will mostlikely never let go of this bass.

4 string, 34" neck, bolt on, passive elctronics, Non-locking tuners, made in Korean in 2007

This is the second bass [my main baby is a MIM Jazz bass which I've moded.
I play out of a Peavey and it has a great classic rock THUMP to it. Nice smooth neck, way better than many basses I have tried at double the price.
Mediocre pickups, but that is to taste.
Nicely set up right out of the box, but as long as the neck is straight and there is no buzz, everything else or EVERY bass out there has to be set up for the individual player.
Built well, nice finish and when I tried the "business card" thru the neck joint test, it passed with flying colors.

Decent set up, action the way I liked it
Cannot tell anything about the wood but the controls were NOT noisy or loose, the nut was cut well and the saddles cut well.

Its a BARGAIN for a under 500 dollar base. GC was blowing them out for 250, so when my son decided he liked the look of it I gave it a look. I was originally turned off by the bolt on neck [I am a set/neck thru snob] however this was well made and well finished.
We did not like the floor model so the mng. at GC went and got a brand new one OUT OF THE BOX. Clean and well set up.

It is built like a rock, and it will last as long as my son remains interested in bass guitar [he is 16 playing for three years already

No issues with Epi yet, and I will deal with the local GC. THIS IS NOT a 3000 dollar custom bass. It is a classic rock machine that is decent.
Could it use a badass bridge: YES, could it use better pickups [YES], but it is decent OUT OF THE BOX. Add another two hundred dollars of mods which will be done but probably NOT right away
new pickups, straplocks which are important for every guitar especially those with "non traditional" shapes, a bad ass bridge [probably a requirement of all new basses, the original issues JUST DONT cut it: and you have a pro level bass.

My son has played for 3 years. I have been playing since Woodstock [so figure it out yourself]. It is not perfect. However for the money we paid for it, even with mods, the wood and finish are excellent, the fretwork is decent [at the first string change, I can crown the frets myself] and the internal electronics are OK

epi thunderbird 4 reverse bass vint sunburst, KC. what does the KC stand for...don't know. nothing on it tells where it was made...korea?? paid $229.

looks great, sounds great..BUT...the neck is sooooo flexible that if i put any torque on it, it bows so much that all the strings buzz..very very bad thing. i literally cannot play it. i checked the neck bolts, they are tight. the neck itself if fairly straight. i called muscian friends and their tech dept is getting back to me. in the meantime, i am sending it back, thinking about exchanging but if the super flexible neck is common...i have no use for it. Has anyone else had this problem or is it a fluke?

good fit, action (except when all the strings are buzzing on all the frets) and fine finish. very very dark sunburst...but i like it.

muscians friends are very cooperative. no question...they emailed me a shipping label. i did not have to pay to ship it back. i have alwayas had really positive experiences with them.

been playing ten years, in a small time band, playing gigs occasionally. haven't had it long enough to know much. when i was a kid in 1964, my brother bought a new firebird. always loved the look and sound of the gibson firebird and thunderbird. i have a fender pc and i love the old dual humbucker sound. if i sell one more condo, i would go for it and buy the gibson reissue for $1600

Mine is a 2004 model made in Korea. two volumes one tone.

The main problem that i find is the lack of control on the sound other than volume but it is still better than most as it does have two volume controls. But you can get a fantastic slap sound and with the right settings a nice blues sound can be made!

My previous bass i considered to have a large action but the action on the thunder bird is about double! At first i thought it would be a problem but dispite being a little hard to play due to high action and heavy strings but the sound is FANTASTIC!

I have bashed this against walls and only just marked the finish it is incredibly durable!

I have been playing a good 4/5 years and used many guittars and this is my favourate so far. I find that unless they need a five string my freinds ask to borrow this for live shows!

I bought this bass new february 2004 cause i had an upcoming gig and wanted to look really cool on stage. This is a four string bass and i decided to make the switch from five string to four when i realised that i just simply wasn't using the fith string. Four suits me fine. The controls are quite useful, volume for each pick-up and a tone. One important thing to note is it's F***ing huge, and i didn't buy a case with it. I wish i had. it's ridiculous carrying it in the box.Active pickups included. The pickguard has the cool little thunderbird logo on it and the tuning pegs look massively cool. what more could you want?

This instrument was designed for rock, the active pick ups blast the sound at you. so much more impact. I'm not quit happy trying to get the Guns n roses sound or Iron Maiden sound that I want with it, but if i wanted that sound that badly i'd have bought a 70's precision. If you fiddle with your amp or effects pedal the sounds fine. I would replace the epiphone strings though. Rotosound flatwounds are cool.

You can throw it really high and it's only damaged slightly when it lands. How rock is that??!!! Sturdy bridge, unlike fenders

N/A- never broke it or neeede this service

This rules cause my main requirement is that it matched my cowboy boots and leather trosers. It looks so cool. I calls you to play it. I sit and look at it for 10 mins sometimes, i have little better to do. Very good and without the price of the gibson. I hear some say it's as good as the gibson model- wouldn't surprise me!

I believe it's the most recent model, but I'm not entire sure. It looks like the 2003 model to me. It's a 20 fret 4-string with dual passive humbuckers and volume/volume/tone controls. The bridge is a little screwy, as it is detatchable. This caught me by surprise when I first changed the strings on it, but the bridge has open string slots so you don't have to pull the strings all the way through (I love this feature!). It's got 4 gotoh-style tuners on the E-string side. This may or may not put you off, as I prefer 2x2 headstocks.

May not suprise you that I play all styles of Rock and Roll (my other bass is a BC Rich NJ Series Warlock!), and I'd say it suits my style just fine. I use the bass to add a little mid-range grind to my sounds, as my Warlock handles the low end well enough. I would say that the sound of this bass falls somewhere between a Jazz and a Precision. I run it through 2 Peavey Basic 112 amps in stereo, a Zoom 506II multi-effects pedal for my clean sound and a Boss ODB-3 pedal for my distorted sound. There is quite a bit of tone variation, but I find that the tone knob does very little for the sounds. The real variation comes from changing pick-up volume. This could be because it's passive, or that my amps just suck.

Well, a factory set up basically means that it came with strings on it. It wasn't set up nearly as well as my Warlock was when I first purchased it, but it was still far from bad. The saddles were a little uneven, and string height was well screwy, but these are all minor adjustments that damn well everyone can make. The fret job is flawless, but it seems like they half-assed the fret board finish, though this is stricly a cosmetic thing. There's a small crack in the finish right near the neck joint, but the guys at the music store have me a discount as a result.

Epiphone makes instruments that are meant to be played live. I've heard a lot of people complain about the neck dive that these things have. And to that I say, try playing a BC Rick Warlock for a year and a half, then talk to me about neck dive. It's a substantial instrument and can easily take a little throwing around. My only complaint here is that if you play pick style (like myself), the wing on the E-string side can be a little uncomfortable to rest your arm on. One thing I really like is that the pick-ups are tapered on the E-string side to make resting your thumb on them more comfortable. All basses should have this feature! It's hard to say if I would play live without a back up, because for the most part, this thing IS my back up.

Never dealt with them, but I hear they're a lot better than some companies *cough* *cough* FENDER! *cough*

I've played several different types of basses. Fenders, Ibanezes, Jay Tursers, BC Riches, and I definitely rank Epiphone as one of the best brands I've used. I would totally buy another one if something happened to it. While I don't think it can contend with my Warlock, it is definitely a more than capable instrument. Highly recommended.

My model is a 4 string made in December of 2003 in Korea. Made in Korea, but it says "set up and inspected in the US." All black hardware. It is a solid body guitar with a main central piece and two solid wings attached to the center piece. But you can hardly tell it isn't all one solid piece. Has a small white pick guard with a picture of a Thunderbird on it. It has two big, passive humbuckers and a volume for each and a main tone knob. The body is alder and the neck is maple. The neck is bolt on, has a rosewood fretboard, and stained the same color as the body and is lacquered as well. The frets are dressed nicely. The finish is awesome. Mine is an orange-ish, antique red and shines like a new penny. Has a detachable panel on the back to get to the electronics. Nice touch. Not sure what the name is for the type of tuners (Grover?), but they are the smaller, thicker, closed type, not like the open "shamrock" shaped ones Fender uses. The headstock is massive, resulting in some neck heaviness. Would definitely get strap locks and I've heard of folks moving the one strap button to balance it out. Came with an allen wrench for the truss rod and a cheap-o cord. I'd rather see Epiphone nix the cord and put some better knobs on the thing.

I love the sound of this bass. I use an Ampeg BA-115 and a Digitech BP50 modeling processor. It is just big....fat....bass. Awesome for straight up rock or punk. Wouldn't recommend for funk or anything like that. Has kind of a dark, warm sound, but it isn't muddy or anything and it sustains like a champ. Sounds great through my pedal processor or straight into the amp. I like the sound much better than my Schecter with the P/J pick-ups. Never really knew what people meant by "growl" in a bass until now. Growls like a momma lion protecting her cubs.

The set-up on mine was fine. Maybe a little high for some folks but it's not the end of the world. I did notice the bridge pick up sits much higher than the neck pic-up. Don't know if that was on purpose or not, but it doesn't seem to effect the playability. Very fast fretboard! The only manufacturing problem I could find, and it seems more a problem of quality control, is that the plastic part of the one volume knob is stripped. It just spins on the pot. The pot is fine, just needs some new plastic knobs. They're really cheap anyway. A couple of bucks spent and problem over. Other than that the finish is near flawless and it is really a gorgeous bass.

This bass is very sturdy. Looks like it could last a very long time if taken care of. One thing though, there is a joint in the neck by the headstock, so try not to lean it up against anything by the headstock. Doesn't look flimsy or anything, but just to let you know. I've never played live, but I've heard that to play live without a back-up is not a good idea. The strap buttons seem solid and I haven't had it long enough to try and adjust the truss rod.

N/A

I've been playing for a few years now and this is my 3rd bass. The first two were P-bass types and tis bass has a sound all it's own. For what you pay for this thing, you can't go wrong. It has the looks and sound to back it up. I would buy another one in a heartbeat if it were lost or stolen. I wish it wasn't as neck heavy and Epiphone splurged a little on the knobs, but let's face it, Epiphones are made specifically to meet a price point. You can always trick it out after you get it. I like the detachable panel on the back to get to the electronics!

2001 Epiphone Thunderbird IV, reverse body model. Made in Korea. basic 20 fret, 4 string bass, Alder body, stained in a dark sunburt, and almost looks like Mahogany. Actually, looks alot like a $6-700 coffee table(in a really cool way). Came with 2 humbuckers, a seperate volume for each and a master tone control. i re-wired mine with a toggle switch in place of one of the volumes...so now i have a master volume, a master tone, and a toggle for switching pick ups.
everything else is stick, and as of now, i see no reason to modify anything(tuners, bridge, etc..) i give it a 9 because it's got all the stuff i want, but not quite a 10 because at the same time i'm very fussy. it'd have to be THE perfect bass.

Great sound. i prefer the neck pick up. lots of variety in sound using the tone control. goes from a warm thick sound, to that 'dark growl' that you've probably heard of. the neck pick up is good too, but more of a trebley, harsh dry sound. for some types of music, that'd probably be really good. i've played live several times, and the sound goes over really well, and the bass just looks impressive as hell to everyone in the audience.

Everything was good when i bought this bass. i got it new, and the action was factory set-up. not quite to my preference, so i lowered it, and did the truss-rod up, and it was just about perfect. pick up height was fine. the finish was and still is BEAUTIFUL. the wood shows a gorgeous grain. the neck is straight and smooth, and fretboard os rosewood and very nice, and all the hardware is good too. No Flaws.

it's been very reliable. i've had no real problems with this bass. whenever i play somewhere, i take this one, and my fender p-bass. not neccessarily because i need 2 basses, but because i always like to have a back up - no matter what. the bass has a balance problem. it almost hurts the playability, but something has to be sacrficed for thos looks, right? i changed the position of the top strap button...i used and extran long screw and put it through the button at the top forward screw hole on the neck plate. some guitars come like that, and this one should. no more neck heavy dive.

never had to deal with them, but brand new it comes with a massive warrenty, so it's probably all good. than again, my warranty it no more good, since i modified the bass. oh well.

Been playing guitar for about 7 years, bass for about 6. i play through an Ampeg B115(not a big ampeg, but great for practice and small venues). i've got 3 epiphone basses, a washburn, and a Fender precision. the t-bird and fender take top spot. couldn't pick one over the other. if i absolutely had to, it'd be the fender, it's has all the sound and maybe more, but it's mainly a comfort thing. Fender p-bass is THE bass. but the Thunderbird is way more impressive to look it. it gathers attention, turns heads. i feel like a rock-god when i play it(not literally). if it were stolen, i'd cry - i cant afford another one right now. the only thing i'd change about it? well, it'd be a Gibson, not an Epi.