Epiphone's "Thunderbird" Bass

This Epiphone equivalent of the highly sought-after Gibson Thunderbird bass weighs just 7.80 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 1/2 inches and a scale length of 34 inches. Solid mahogany body, three-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with gold silk-screened Epiphone logo. Individual four-on-a-side tuners with cloverleaf metal buttons. Two metal-covered pickups with no visible polepieces and balanced outputs of 7.78k and 7.88k. Four-layer (white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Thumb brace mounted on pickguard. Three controls (one volume, one tone), all mounted on pickguard. Black plastic knobs with ribbed sides and metal tops. Individual adjustable bridge saddles and stop tailpiece. With the original metal hand rest covers over pickup and bridge. This guitar is in excellent plus (8.75) condition. The neck has small area of surface wear at the back of the 14th fret. Housed in its original Epiphone gray hardshell case with blue plush lining (8.00). With the original tag. Exceptionally rare.

"The Embassy Deluxe is the Epiphone equivalent to the highly sought-after Gibson Thunderbird basses, and it has the potential to gain much of the appeal that Thunderbirds hold for collectors and players" (Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars, p. 56).

"Epi's first electric bass, the Rivoli, debuted in 1959, and it was the equivalent of Gibson's EB-2, a semi-hollowbody archtop modeled after the Gibson ES-335 and Epi Sheraton. Solidbody basses soon followed: the Newport in 1961 and the Embassy Deluxe in 1963. The Newport had a single pickup. When guitars went to the six-on-a-side, bat-wing headstock in 1963, the Newport followed, with all four tuners moving to one side…The Embassy Deluxe had two pickups" (Walter Carter, Epiphone: The Complete History, p. 68).