Maruszczyk Phoenix

[Guest]

Any thoughts on this design visually?

[ezbass]

Ooh, a StingBird! Or, maybe, a ThunderRay.

Edited May 23, 2023 by ezbass

[Guest]

You mean simply because the poles are showing on the pickups this becomes partially a Stingray?

[BigRedX]

I suppose it depends on what you consider the important characteristics of a bass are. Is it the body shape or the elements that go give it a characteristic sound?

 

Most "Thunderbirds" made since 1976 are simply thunderbird shaped basses that have little in common otherwise with the original Gibson bass of that name.

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

I suppose it depends on what you consider the important characteristics of a bass are. Is it the body shape or the elements that go give it a characteristic sound?

 

Most "Thunderbirds" made since 1976 are simply thunderbird shaped basses that have little in common otherwise with the original Gibson bass of that name.

My question was specifically about visuals, that’s all I’m interested in reading opinions about in this post. Personally I wanted something which is a recognisable shape but is also unique due to colours, no fret inlays etc. I just wondered if anyone else liked or disliked the look of this. I’m interested in both sides.

[ezbass]

31 minutes ago, Lord Summerisle said:

You mean simply because the poles are showing on the pickups this becomes partially a Stingray?

Certainly visually to my eyes. To be clear there's nothing wrong with that look IMO and if it gains some Stingray tonality, or at least the versatility of a twin pick up 'Ray, that would be no bad thing. I love the look of the T'bird and its skinny stringed sibling, sexiest looking basses/guitars by far, for me. I just don't get on with the ergonomics, but I could look at them for hours.

[Adee]

1 hour ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Any thoughts on this design visually?

Gibson already did the look in 2015

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, Adee said:

Gibson already did the look in 2015

Very nice! I wouldn’t look at that and think of a Stingray either. I can see from these pictures above each other that the body shape is very similar indeed.

[lidl e]

Beautiful to me.

 

Neck thru i assume?

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, lidl e said:

Beautiful to me.

 

Neck thru i assume?

Unfortunately not, bolt on.

[lidl e]

8 minutes ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Unfortunately not, bolt on.

Shame...

[Cato]

3 hours ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Any thoughts on this design visually?

 

I'm no afficionado, but it looks like a Thunderbird to me, presumably you did this on the configurator and chose the exposed pickup poles?

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Cato said:

 

I'm no afficionado, but it looks like a Thunderbird to me, presumably you did this on the configurator and chose the exposed pickup poles?

Yes exactly that. I listened to videos of the various pickup options available and the ones in the picture here are the ones I most liked the tone of. Just happened to have exposed pickup poles but I think they look pretty good anyway. It’s obviously not a true Thunderbird because of the other aesthetics so I thought the pickups don’t need to replicate Gibson T’bird pickups anyway.

[Cato]

24 minutes ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Yes exactly that. I listened to videos of the various pickup options available and the ones in the picture here are the ones I most liked the tone of. Just happened to have exposed pickup poles but I think they look pretty good anyway. It’s obviously not a true Thunderbird because of the other aesthetics so I thought the pickups don’t need to replicate Gibson T’bird pickups anyway.

 

Looks pretty good to me too.

[snorkie635]

3 hours ago, Adee said:

Gibson already did the look in 2015

I think the Gibson had coil tapping switches for each pickup and a full-contact Babicz bridge. This does look remarkably similar to your example, with the open pole-pieces. The Gibson sounds nothing like a Musicman Stingray whatsoever. Might be wrong, but the pups were those used on Gibson's EB4/5 basses and sound very good (to my ears anyway). I like the one you posted, for what it's worth. 😁

[NancyJohnson]

I played Gibson Thunderbirds exclusively for about a decade and while I'n still using basses of a similar shape (Lull/Spector/Hamer), they're all different to the Gibsons I owned.

 

In answer to the OP, I'd consider three things, price, how long you're going to keep it for and resale value once you decide to chase down a Gibson (because you will).  A while back there was a configuration tool on the Phoenix page and obviously I had a play; it spat out a purchase price and it wasn't cheap by any stretch.

 

I mean, it looks similar to the model it's apeing, headstock is a little odd, maybe the body geometry is a bit off too.  You're going to be buying blind unless you can work out a way to play before you buy it and most of us have read the manufacturers feelings about QC and aftercare.

 

So, not for me, no.  

[Guest]

2 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

I played Gibson Thunderbirds exclusively for about a decade and while I'n still using basses of a similar shape (Lull/Spector/Hamer), they're all different to the Gibsons I owned.

 

In answer to the OP, I'd consider three things, price, how long you're going to keep it for and resale value once you decide to chase down a Gibson (because you will).  A while back there was a configuration tool on the Phoenix page and obviously I had a play; it spat out a purchase price and it wasn't cheap by any stretch.

 

I mean, it looks similar to the model it's apeing, headstock is a little odd, maybe the body geometry is a bit off too.  You're going to be buying blind unless you can work out a way to play before you buy it and most of us have read the manufacturers feelings about QC and aftercare.

 

So, not for me, no.  

Fair points but I won’t be buying a Gibson bass at any point. Ironically the sound of the Gibson Thunderbird doesn’t appeal even though the shape does.

 

Other points are all valid though, thanks.

[Paul S]

On 23/05/2023 at 15:51, Lord Summerisle said:

Unfortunately not, bolt on.

 

You can opt for a set neck for an extra £100.  I went through the configurator and managed to spend over £2K.

 

I Ilke Thunderbirds.  Love the shape, a really beautiful bit of design.  I had a Gibson for a while, the 3 point bridge was shocking, up on its pillars like a jetty at low tide.  Replaced it with a Hipshot and a mahogany shim.  Sold it, missed it, replaced with a rather nice white Epiphone Classic Pro.  These have a set neck and Gibson pickups and tbh doesn't feel or sound a whole lot different to the Gibson I had but at 1/4 of the price.  It was a rare lightweight one, too.  You don't have to spend Marczucyzcjchycyczk money to get a decent Thunderbird.

[NancyJohnson]

26 minutes ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Fair points but I won’t be buying a Gibson bass at any point. Ironically the sound of the Gibson Thunderbird doesn’t appeal even though the shape does.

 

Other points are all valid though, thanks.

 

Of the dozen or so Gibson models I owned, I'd say two were head and shoulders above the rest - a white one I imported from Japan (sold to @police squad) and a limited run Gothic (which now resides in Spain).  This was nothing to do with tone or anything; the neck on the white one was skinny as hell, the black a bit more chunky.  Both these had additional bridge replacements (Babicz FCH). 

 

To be brutally honest, I don't buy the 'ironically the sound...' argument...we've done the blind tone test at a pre-pandemic Bass Bash and scores were exceedingly low; all of them sounded more or less the same.  Tone comes from a combination of many things, from your hands through to the backline the bass is going through.  Nobody could tell the difference between Precisions, Jazzes, Musicmans etc.

 

 

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

 

Of the dozen or so Gibson models I owned, I'd say two were head and shoulders above the rest - a white one I imported from Japan (sold to @police squad) and a limited run Gothic (which now resides in Spain).  This was nothing to do with tone or anything; the neck on the white one was skinny as hell, the black a bit more chunky.  Both these had additional bridge replacements (Babicz FCH). 

 

To be brutally honest, I don't buy the 'ironically the sound...' argument...we've done the blind tone test at a pre-pandemic Bass Bash and scores were exceedingly low; all of them sounded more or less the same.  Tone comes from a combination of many things, from your hands through to the backline the bass is going through.  Nobody could tell the difference between Precisions, Jazzes, Musicmans etc.

 

 

I think pickups make a world of difference. I’ve got a Schecter, a Sterling Sub, a MIM Precision and a Yamaha BB734A and they all sound very different through the same rig and with the same NYXL strings. The difference is really really obvious. So whether you buy it or not, to be brutally honest in return I’d question your ability to hear different tones. The Schecter and the Precision for example could not be shaped with any kind of EQ to sound similar. The P has a hard thump whereas the Schecter has a kind of overly compressed almost synth type tone with very little expression.

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 23/05/2023 at 14:43, Lord Summerisle said:

You mean simply because the poles are showing on the pickups this becomes partially a Stingray?

Dude, those are literally Sting Ray pickups, not Thunderbird pickups with exposed poles.

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Guest]

44 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Dude, those are literally Sting Ray pickups, not Thunderbird pickups with exposed poles.

 

Err dude, I know that. But I don’t mind and I don’t think one type of bass “owns” a particular pickup type.

[Guest]

Another thing is that the position of the single pickup on a Stingray is quite close to the bridge, and that in itself has a lot to do with the Stingray sound. The configuration in my picture will give broader tonal options.

[Baloney Balderdash]

20 minutes ago, Lord Summerisle said:

Err dude, I know that. But I don’t mind and I don’t think one type of bass “owns” a particular pickup type.

So one should refrain calling pickups what they are really called, so that a P pickup should not be called a P pickup and a J pickup should not be called a J pickup, and a Sting Ray pickup not a Sting Ray pickup?

 

It's what the actual pickup type/model is actually called, named after what those was originally was used for.

 

Also it's not just about how the pickups look they will sound it too, a specific pickup design lends it self to certain tones, and a bass with a P pickup will sound somewhat like a P Bass, and a bass with a Sting Ray pickup will sound somewhat like a Sting Ray Bass.

 

That's why he called it a StingBird or ThunderRay, not simply because the pickup poles are exposed.

 

With those pickups its tone will have some at that typical Sting Ray Bass character/quality.

 

Design does influence greatly on tone, and that doesn't just go for pickups either.

 

Edited May 26, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

So one should refrain calling pickups what they are really called, so that a P pickup should not be called a P pickup and a J pickup should not be called a J pickup, and a Sting Ray pickup not a Sting Ray pickup?

 

It's what the actual pickup type/model is actually called, named after what those was originally was used for.

 

Also it's not just about how the pickups look they will sound it too, a specific pickup design lends it self to certain tones, and a bass with a P pickup will sound somewhat like a P Bass, and a bass with a Sting Ray pickup will sound somewhat like a Sting Ray Bass.

 

That's why he called it a StingBird or ThunderRay, not simply because the pickup poles are exposed.

 

With those pickups its tone will have some at that typical Sting Ray Bass character/quality.

 

Design does influence greatly on tone, and that doesn't just go for pickups either.

 

I generally (not just with bass but in other areas of life) try not to feel restricted by conventions of the past. I liked the sound of these pickups on demos more than the other options available, I didn’t think they sounded particularly Stingray-esque but they’re the pickups I wanted based on how they sounded. In terms of the usual Thunderbird tone - I’ve always loved the look of them but have never quite liked the pickups and found the usual ones too muddy for my personal tastes. I’ve always found it rather limiting that bass players who want a particular body shape for their instrument must restrict themselves to the pickup type mostly associated with that body shape. I think mixing and matching more than makes sense but people are naturally reluctant to break with tradition.

 

Yes for ease of identification it’s logical to use the phrases P pickups, J pickups etc. But that still doesn’t mean those basses “own” those pickups. I have a Yamaha bass with PJ pickups but it doesn’t sound anything like the Fender PJ I used to own. Ideally there would be another label attached to pickup types but I understand where the current names came from and no one’s going to change the naming convention now.

 

I don’t believe that this Phoenix will sound much like a Stingray because there will be a neck pickup as well as a bridge pickup and I’ve always generally favoured neck pickups As stated I think (being the owner of a Sub and having replaced the pickup of that with a Seymour Duncan) that the Stingray tone has a lot to do with the pickup being so closely located near to the bridge. I’m not very keen on that limitation.

 

This bass will actually be unique. It will have the body shape of a Thunderbird but will sound like neither a Thunderbird nor a Stingray. I wanted clear sounding pickups but not single coils and I’m happy that the configuration will allow me to choose the blend between bridge and neck pickups.

 

Perhaps the ThunderRay name would’ve been more appropriate had I chosen to have a single pickup quite near the bridge, but I’m glad I didn’t. 
 

What I wanted and what I believe I’m getting is a well constructed and unique bass with more clarity than a Thunderbird and more tonal options than a Stingray. And with an awesome red burst body with black hardware. It may well be the only bass of this exact configuration and appearance in the world. I can’t wait to receive it. I will give you my verdict when it arrives.