Doing Things Wrong

Gibson

Gibson Fenderbird Bass 1
Gibson Fenderbird Bass 2
Gibson Reverse Fenderbird Bass
Samick SG450 Guitar

The "Fenderbird" is a mash-up of a Gibson Thunderbird body and a Fender neck. You'd expect such a thing to be a mutt, but this mutt comes with a great pedigree - invented by no less than John Entwistle of The Who.


Together with the guitar, this was the first of my modified Audiovox design to be completed. Solid poplar bodies, stained to look like walnut, with single bindings. Each pickguard used an entire sheet of material; only these two got the pearl treatment, the rest got much less expensive masonite pickguards.


This was the first of my modified Audiovox design to be completed. Solid poplar bodies, stained to look like walnut, with single bindings. Each pickguard used an entire sheet of material; only these two got the pearl treatment, the rest got much less expensive masonite pickguards.


For those of you who thought my Stratocaster bass was an abomination, feast your eyes on this. The MusicmanBird. ThunderJazzRay. FenderManBird. I just call it FenderBird #2.


This started out as a broken Epiphone, one of the very nice Pro models. Turns out the Epi copy was a bit too authentic - it even reproduced the standard Gibson pop-off headstock. I removed the neck, re-finished the stump, routed out a neck pocket, and installed a Fender Mexico Precision neck. The pickups are stock, the active electronics are a replacement as the originals blew up. I also made the pickguard. The high frets are basically inaccessible, but the trade-off is much better balance.


Solid poplar body, lightly stained and finished in polyurethane. Korean Squire neck, active electronics. Is it a reverse, or a non-reverse? Since this is a reverse of the original Thunderbird body ( more-or-less ) I say it is a reverse. If this is a non-reverse, then the original would have to be the reverse. Reverse of what? Makes no sense.


The SG, or 'Spanish Guitar', is without a doubt Gibson's best solid-body guitar design. Unlike the massive overweight Les Paul, the SG is small and light and just feels like fun in your hands. Sound-wise, the two are indistinguishable. The SG body has comfortable bevels and round-overs in place of the Les Paul's arm-gouging sharp bound edges. And the little devil horns are unmistakable.


North American house wiring

Tube amps lend themselves more naturally to distortion than solid-state. When overdriven, tubes produce more of the nice-sounding even harmonics, while transistors produce more of the odd harmonics, which don't sound as good. Early solid-state amps distorted very un-musically. Bass is generally played clean and requires a good deal more power, which would require a very large, heavy, expensive, and delicate tube amp, so solid-state became a good alternative for bassists.

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