![]() ![]() Left: This 1973 picture of Martin Turner shows the Thunderbird IV before it's refinish. Away I went and I had to get it rebuilt then. He was fine, he had quite a few of them anyway and it was very sweet of him, very generous of him. I knew because I'd been talking to Mick Ralphs he was quite hard up at the time so of course he said 'oh really um, ah alright well why don't you come over and you know we'll have a cup of tea and talk about it.' So I went round there and chucked the money on the table. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna buy it off you and get it sorted out.' And he's like 'Oh I don't wanna sell it, you know I just lent it to you' and I said 'well that's a pity cause I was just about to drive over to your flat with a fistful of nice crisp, new, smelly bank notes'. It's a great old machine and it's as pissed as a rat because it's been so badly abused. After about a week I rang him up and I said 'Pete, you're a', I won't repeat the exact expression, and he said 'What da you mean?' and I said 'the bloody way you've treated this instrument, it's a disgrace. I think it was in 13 separate pieces and the road crew had glued it back together on the road. He did however give me this dog of a Thunderbird that he'd smashed to bits. When I rang Peter Watts up and said I need to borrow an instrument he was like 'yeah sure, come round'. They were a brilliant bunch of guys, were really good to us, and the bands I think complimented each other really well. Got on brilliantly with them particularly Mick Ralphs, Peter and Buffin the drummer, I didn't get to know Ian (Hunter) so well. We had been out on the road with Mott The Hoople, we supported them on their first headline tour you know when All The Young Dudes was a big hit. Presumably he had got a few of the Thunderbirds kicking around at that time? Live at the Glastonbury festival 26/5/05 - photo Lauren LargeįlyGuitars Your main stage bass is one you've being playing since 1972 an early 1960s Thunderbird IV that you initially borrowed from Pete (Overend) Watts. 1981 Victory Standard (Candy Apple Red).Glenn Cornick Tone and volume usually all the way up. What sound were you going for with the Thunderbirds, and how did the vibrola help? I was so attached to the one that got stolen that I swore I would never again get so attached to any one instrument or play anything that was so difficult to replace.įlyGuitars The vibrola is an interesting addition. I always wanted another original reverse Thunderbird but never got one. I don't remember what bass I used on the Battle Hymn album but it must have been one or more of the T Birds. The 3 T Birds were my primary basses for the first couple of years of Wild Turkey. The T Birds sounded great overdriven with lots of distortion. Glenn Cornick I soon adjusted to the long scale of the T Bird which I found to be the best physically balanced design of bass I had ever played. For your interest reverse and non-reverse Firebirds and Thunderbirds were always known as 'Upside Down Gibsons' and 'Right Way Up Gibsons' in Britain in those days.įlyGuitars How was the move from short scale EB basses to long scale Thunderbirds? It was metallic green and I used that for a year or two although it ended up much modified - I added a Guild bass humbucker and eventually a Gibson Vibrola which worked well except that the arms used to break and I had to have someone make one out of heavy duty steel! Like the white one, it ended up with a broken neck and a cracked body and eventually was broken up for parts. The headstock got broken after a few months so I ordered another to be sent to England. They had a stack of them unsold in the basement and they were $100 each with soft case. Glenn Cornick In 1971 (with Wild Tukey) I bought a white non reverse T Bird from Manny's in New York. ![]() It was stolen late in 1971 and I never had another Gibson reverse.įlyGuitars You then moved on to the non-reverse bodied birds? Ian (Anderson) preferred the EB3 to the T Bird. I used it at the Isle of Wight festival ( the entire Tull performance soon to be released on DVD ). ![]() I loved everything about it but never got to record with it with Tull though I used it all the time on stage as soon as I got it. ![]() Glenn Cornick Late in 1970 after about a year of searching, I bought my original reverse T Bird single pickup. 1981 Victory Standard (Candy Apple Red)įlyGuitars Your early 1970s work is characterised by your Gibson Thunderbirds. ![]()
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