Epiphone Thunderbird Pro-V 5-string Bass Vintage Sunburst

Great Bass guitar for the money.I bought it for my son and he hates to put it down.

The appearance, finish, action and sound on the TBird Pro-V has been at least on par, if not above, its retail price. But there are a few design flaws - or failures in the manufacturing line, I cannot say - that hold it back from greatness. 1) The bridge, at least on mine, was completely ungrounded. Not because a wire fell off or a soldering point was left unattended; there was simply no way to ground the bridge as delivered. Taking it to a local luthier, he removed the bridge, drilled a tiny port from the electrical cavity out to a location behind the bridge, scraped a small area on the back of the bridge to expose metal and passed a small wire through (no soldering was necessary). The result? An *insane* buzz was cured. 2) Another bridge issue... I happened to get mine used and after repeatedly tuning low B I realized the factory string had been damaged (and soldered... Do people really do this?) No big deal, I should have a spare set on hand anyway. Getting the lighter gauge (low B @ 125), as factory sets seem to be light, I didn't expect to have any trouble fitting a new low B into the bridge. In this case the set was an Ernie Ball Super Slinky 5. They were double-wound along the ball area and the gap in the bridge was too skinny to accept the extra girth. The bridge only needs to restrain the ball, why is the tolerance *so* tight in the string passthrough area?! Using a Dremel and some care I bored out the pass through. Strings that don't have extra wrapping along the ball area will not have this problem, but I'm not even sure if a 130 or higher would fit through the pass without the extra wrapping. On to the good... The strong neck keeps a nice low angle for easy popping without buzz. My old Washburn T14 simply couldn't be set up with action this low and still be buzzless. Other reviewers have complained about low B playing quietly compared with the other strings. I have had no such issue. Low B plays loud and kicks you in the guts (rattles the floorboards and ventilation) on a little GK MB115 (200W single 15"). The sound quality and variety are both great for what I play. It can be very clean, bright and snappy or tonal and booming with plenty of mix between. So far I've simply kept the adjustment knobs in the middle, the volume all the way up and have been happy right there. Using an old Zoom B1 pedal I can get some great distortion growl or fuzz while maintaining note clarity; vastly superior sound compared with my old Washburn T14 Taurus using the same pedal. The problems *are* thoroughly annoying on a mid-to-high-grade guitar, however having been dealt with I love the way the guitar plays and how it sounds. With the annoyances put to rest I anticipate that this will be my one guitar for quite some time.

Please check the gibson/epiphone website. they have annonced that defective pickups were used. this only affects the 5-strings. i just bought this bass, didn't notice any problems, but it is a freakin' sweet bass, and i suggests contacting the company. i would hate for people to get a bad, and undeserving opinion of this instrument.

Ordered it on friday, got it on saturday. A sweet looking trans black pro V. Warmed up the mesa boogie and plugged it in. The wiz was so loud i think it blew a tweeter. After some adjustments to the boogie i dertermined theres a ground issue somwhere in the pre-amp. I dont know what to do. Im heartbroken.

Nice bass, but Epiphone really needs to start watching the Daewon/Dalian China plant a bit better. They have been notorious for bad paint jobs and gluey overruns, poorly shipped guitars and basses that render many unplayable due to twisted necks and high frets. So what if they can pop out guitars like candybars?

i like this guitar. i had a few other 5 string and the heavier string gauge always becomes more of a feel. this is common. easy fix is adjusting string gauges accordingly (ie. dont count on bigger being better and start putting some thought towards speakers), and putting treble into your sound, also raising pickup. some say the head dips, but... figure it out, need to think about some science (leverage). very good guitar.