The Gibson Thunderbird

FlyGuitars Your early 1970s work is characterised by your Gibson Thunderbirds. Which was your first?

Glenn Cornick Late in 1970 after about a year of searching, I bought my original reverse T Bird single pickup. 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. I used it at the Isle of Wight festival ( the entire Tull performance soon to be released on DVD ). Ian (Anderson) preferred the EB3 to the T Bird. It was stolen late in 1971 and I never had another Gibson reverse.

FlyGuitars You then moved on to the non-reverse bodied birds?

Glenn Cornick In 1971 (with Wild Tukey) I bought a white non reverse T Bird from Manny's in New York. They had a stack of them unsold in the basement and they were $100 each with soft case. The headstock got broken after a few months so I ordered another to be sent to England. 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. 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.

FlyGuitars How was the move from short scale EB basses to long scale Thunderbirds?

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. The T Birds sounded great overdriven with lots of distortion. The 3 T Birds were my primary basses for the first couple of years of Wild Turkey. 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. I always wanted another original reverse Thunderbird but never got one. 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.

FlyGuitars The vibrola is an interesting addition. What sound were you going for with the Thunderbirds, and how did the vibrola help?

Glenn Cornick Tone and volume usually all the way up. For a short while I used a distortion box only for my bass solo with Wild Turkey to get feedback and other generally obnoxious effects! - especially funny with the Vibrola! There might be some vibrola stuff on the Live Wild Turkey stuff that came out recently but I've never listened to it!