Thunderbird basses, one of which was accidentally destroyed by Keith Moon at a concert in New York in 1971, and John subsequently damaged it. Bought at Sotheby's May 2003 auction for 28,800 GBP by David Swartz. It was display in October 2019 at the "Play It Loud" Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Entwistle was once quoted as saying: "Once you turn up the treble on a Precision, the bottom drops out." "In big arenas, I wasn't getting enough bottom end from the P-Basses when I had the treble all the way up." Entwistle also played an instrument called a "Fenderbird", which used the maple neck of a CBS Fender Precision bass bolted onto a custom mahogany Thunderbird IV-clone body (slightly thicker than a standard Thunderbird IV body to accept the Fender bolt-on neck – possibly the same thickness as a Fender Precision; which improved the tone, according to Entwistle). It also used a Gibson Thunderbird bridge and electronics. The height-adjustment screws of the pickups were set slightly sunk into the pickup-covers by Peter Cook so that Entwistle would not tear his fingernails on them. Paxman designed cases specifically for the Fenderbirds. Leon Wilkeson, bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd, played several Thunderbirds and a Fenderbird during his musical career, as well as various Fender basses. Allen Woody, bassist for The Allman Brothers Band, was an avid collector of Gibson Thunderbird and Epiphone Thunderbird basses. In 2011, Epiphone created a limited edition signature model Epiphone Allen Woody Thunderbird bass. Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith was known to use a white Gibson Thunderbird bass from 1973 to early 1977, rotating between the Thunderbird, a Fender Jazz Bass and a Fender Precision Bass, before using a sunburst Music Man StingRay by the time Draw the Line was released in 1977. Roger Glover of Deep Purple and Rainbow used a Gibson Thunderbird bass, which was used on the album Come Taste the Band in 1975 as well as the Rainbow album Down to Earth. The Thunderbird can also be seen in the video for the Rainbow single "Since You Been Gone". Stefan Olsdal of Placebo Martin Turner of Wishbone Ash played a reverse Thunderbird IV. Margrét Rósa of Kælan Mikla has played several Thunderbird basses, including an Epiphone Goth and Vintage Pro. References External links Gibson Blackbird– Information, and pictures of the Gibson Blackbird. Thunderbird 1963 musical instruments