TB-70VS Deluxe Series : This Bass Will Leave You Speechless

I have wanted a Thunderbird-style bass since hearing John Entwistle's golden but thunderous tone on The Who records. I knew that he was on to something special with that long string of T-Bird inspired basses over the decades.

So when I saw Ian of "Scott's Bass Lessons" extolling the virtues of the Thunderbird being not only an earth-shattering Rock instrument on the low end but sweet as honey on the high end, I was intrigued. Then he demoed it and I was sold. I started jonesing for a T-Bird so much that it hurt! (not joking)

So I did my research and discovered that this bass was consistently getting rave reviews from everyone on the Internet. And, yes, the fact that was at a far more reasonable price than the alternatives was a big factor too.

Well, it's true. This bass is not only everything that I had hoped for but more. The setup was perfect out of the box and I didn't have to spend additional funds to get my tech (who is a Rock Star in his own right) to "make it sweet". The strings appear to be Daddarios and they're the same gauge as what Entwistle used on his T-Birds.

The only mods that I made were replacing the pickguard with a flat black single-ply (see the ESP Phoenix Tobacco Sunburst to see what this looks like) and replacing the knobs with custom goldtopped black-sided knobs. The factory look was fine but now it's better, IMO - call me vain, I don't mind. The bass has the traditional T-Bird neck dive problem but I'm used to playing Gibsons so that's kind of a given with them. It's really no big deal.

Now let's get to the bottom line: The tone. Ian was spot on, this bass is thunder in an earthquake on the low end and sweet as honey on the high end. This bird sings AND roars!

Entwistle nailed it.

This bass has very quickly become my favorite bass - so much so that I'm thinking about buying another one with a different finish. I suspect that you will love it as much as I do.

Now if you'll excuse me, my Harley Benton TB-70vs is calling and I must answer. Rock on kids!