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Epiphone Thunderbird E1 Bass Guitar - Vintage Sunburst

4-string Electric Bass with Mahogany Body, Maple Neck, Rosewood Fingerboard, and 2 Humbucking Pickups - Vintage Sunburst
$449.00

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Epiphone Thunderbird E1 Bass Guitar - Vintage Sunburst
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A Distinctive, Great-playing Bass from Epiphone

The Epiphone Thunderbird IV bass provides you with tone that lives up to its name! Its distinctive mahogany body and fast 34"-scale neck give the Thunderbird IV a great combination of striking looks and unbeatable playability. Two well-placed pickups put out plenty of volume, plus tonality that ranges from thick to punchy. Though it features a substantial body shape, this bass is lightweight and very comfortable for holding down the bottom end onstage. You'll get a ton of tone when you pick up the thunderous Epiphone Thunderbird IV!

A history of distinctive quality

Nearly four decades ago, the Thunderbird bass design was introduced by Gibson. Bassists could now enjoy some distinctively shaped instruments and get their moment in the spotlight. It doesn't hurt that the Epiphone Thunderbird IV sounds amazing! Much thought went into the design of this bass, including a thicker middle/thinner wing mahogany body construction for a substantial yet lightweight playing experience.

Great tone

The pickup configuration on the Epiphone Thunderbird IV is unique. Rather than placing a pickup near the neck, which could muddy up the tone and reduce its effectiveness, Epiphone gives the bass essentially middle and bridge pickups. This lets you dial in everything from growling tones to funky punch. Each pickup gets its own volume control, along with a single tone knob for fine-tweaking.

Epiphone Thunderbird E1 Bass Features:

  • A distinctive and great-sounding playing experience
  • Mahogany body and maple neck set the stage for fantastic tone
  • Rosewood fingerboard for a great fretting experience
  • 2 humbucking pickups with volume and tone controls to nail your tone
  • Uniquely spaced pickups lend this bass a voice of its own
  • Substantial construction, lightweight playability

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See how Sweetwater goes to great lengths to give you the very best online guitar buying experience. From our online Guitar Gallery that allows you to see and select the exact instrument you want to our 55-point Inspection process and our in-house guitar techs, we take the guesswork out of buying your next guitar online.

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Tech Specs

  • Number of Strings: 4
  • Left-/Right-handed: Right-handed
  • Body Shape: Thunderbird
  • Body Material: Mahogany
  • Body Finish: Polyurethane
  • Color: Vintage Sunburst
  • Neck Material: Maple
  • Neck Shape: SlimTaper
  • Radius: 12"
  • Fingerboard Material: Rosewood
  • Fingerboard Inlay: White Dots
  • Number of Frets: 20
  • Scale Length: 34"
  • Nut Width: 1.73"
  • Bridge/Tailpiece: Flush Stoptail
  • Tuners: Die-Cast
  • Middle Pickup: 2-TB Plus Humbucker
  • Bridge Pickup: 2-TB Plus Humbucker
  • Controls: 2 x volume, 1 x master tone
  • Strings: .045-.105
  • Case Included: Sold Separately
  • Manufacturer Part Number: EBTBVSBH1

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Customer Reviews

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Rated 5/5

Sexy bass. a couple of girls used to call me sexy Steve once.

I was going thru all purchase history, and I cannot believe I got this art bass, for the price, I got it. It is so nice it is a bit scarey nice. Like the Also Firebird '22 I bought, and It satisfied my heavy metal friend, more than other purchases. Firebirds will scream at you and throw dishes. ha, i am so glad I got to find my Collection from Sweetwater Music com. pmt plans, long and short.peace
Music background: home recording to Facebook, and I made the Show, on FB music videos, instead of my page only. I actually show up in a video list with the Greats before and after me. Hallelujah, it only took two years of daily recording post.
Rated 4/5

Perfect, but Bridge isn't correct

Sounds great, looks great, made great,

BUT the bridge radius doesn't correspond to the the radius of the the fret board. The Bridge is NON adjustable for individual strings. Thee two middle strings are too low and buzz one the frets, i could raise all of them, but the action would be too high, i could also file the two outter bridge string contacts, but im not that high-tech. the fix is an upgrade.

So the upgrade can be the BABICZ FCH 3-POINT, FOUR STRING BASS BRIDGE, which cost around 200.00 USD. I'm gonna try to find one cheaper.
Rated 5/5

Takes some getting used to

I ordered a Thunderbird off Reverb but it came in a Sweetwater box w/ "demo" taped on it. Was not expecting that sweet Sweetwater candy to come with it! Immediately replaced stock strings with my go-to D'Addario black nylon tapewounds. Sounds *expletive-ing* amazing out of the box with just a bit of fret buzz on the first and seconds frets of the D and G that I'll need to truss out eventually. I've never played a bass with such great SUSTAIN, wowee, and this is with the bolt-on neck Epiphone model; I can't imagine what the solidbody Thunderbird pros must be like in that department.

Neck dive was one of the main things that held me back from ordering a TBird earlier. It exists, but isn't nearly as bad as I worried it would be, and I was able to iron it out changing my posture slightly. As for intonation on the stock pickups, I've had to sink more time in to adjusting EQs to match the tone I'm shooting for. If I raise the bass, it really leans into the muddy, sludge territory, which is fine for Dethklok-style bass. If I lower the bass to 9, mids to 10, and treble to 3, and with a little bit of compression, I can pretty consistently pull off a Silversun Pickups or The Pixies-esque tone with quite clear intonation.

I've seen and heard of a few bass players that play more ambient/shoegaze-y/indie pop sort of lines pick these up once, put them down, and never try them again. On some level, I get it; these are a few ounces heavier than jazz and P basses and the top of the neck rests noticeably further from the core of my body if I don't change my posture to accommodate for it. I'm not much a fan of P basses or mustang basses because they feel a little too small and Fischer-Price for my taste and my Thunderbird gives me the opposite feeling. With the awesome sustain, I can play leading lines on the G string that droning Ds and As add amazing color to.

YMMV, but this feels like it will be my main bass for a while to come.
Rated 5/5

Great bass for a great price.

For $, Epiphone knocked it out of the park with this Thunderbird. Plays smooth, good material, good for a beginner or a seasoned bassist, in my opinion.
Music background: Play bass at home. Currently a music student
Rated 5/5

Worth Every Penny

I ordered this guitar a couple of weeks ago and I am very happy with it. I know people always say that a guitar is "great for the price" but this bass would be solid even if the price were higher. The finish is beautiful and it plays like a dream. I got a lot of compliments on it when I used it this past weekend. Epiphone is doing great work as a company and it shows in this instrument. Of course the guitar came ready to go right out of the box and the service was first class (as you would expect from Sweetwater.) I even got it earlier than it was scheduled to arrive. I made point to order this bass from Sweetwater and I will order my next instrument from them as well. Nice work!
Music background: Church Musician

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What Do Our In-house Gear Experts Think?

Mark Magdich

This bass is flat out AMAZING! I first saw the low price and of course had some reservations. I now have one and believe me, the tone is thick, cuts through, and records beautifully! As an owner of eight basses, including this Thunderbird IV, it's fast becoming my go-to!! Worth every penny!!
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