Guitar

Guitar #095

Custom Maple and Cherry Thunderbird-ish Bass

Completed Feb 02, 2026

This is a commissioned 4-string bass inspired by the Gibson Thunderbird, but taking a lot of departures from the traditional design. The most drastic change is the selection of woods, replacing Gibson's Mahogany build with a Hard Maple through neck. The through-neck design extends the taper of the neck into the body area and into the headstock (1 ¹/₈" at the tip of the head to 3 ¹/₄" at the far end of the body). This bass also uses the Fender style 34" scale length with a neck feel like that of a Fender Jazz Bass.
The Gibson Thunderbird has a stepped body with the wings being thinner than the through neck. In contrast, the body of this bass has a top and bottom convex carve starting with the standard width in the middle, slopping to the thinner edges of the T-bass, plus and arm rest and belly carve for better ergonomic feel. The T-bass is also known to "head dive"; therefore, the contour where the strap button is normally located was moved forward a little to help counteract this tendancy.
The body wings are made with separate highly flamed Soft Maple tops, and Black Cherry backs, with black died veneer between the neck and body wings. This same design was carried into the back of the head stock design, with a matching flame Soft Maple head cap.
The Fret Board is Black Locust. Black Locust is a tree species in the same family as the Rose Woods, with much the same qualities as Indian Rosewood, with the exception of it's golden color.

This bass has passive a pickups system, using a Seymour Duncan SJB-1 Vintage Jazz at the neck position, and a Seymour Duncan SMB-4a Alnico Music Man at the bridge. These are controlled by daul volume and a common tone. Hipshot brand bridge and turners complete the package.

The Penguin inlay is made of various Mother of Pearl and Ebony.

Specs

Back