Epiphone Jack Casady and Gibson Les Paul Signature

[D Bopp]

I've seen a few threads with members owning the Les Paul Sig bass. I just recently bought one of these and thought I would take some pics comparing it with the Jack Casady bass. Here you go:



The 73 LP Sig:


The JC:


LP Back:


Both backs:




With flash:

[Johnny Alien]

Cool!!!

Give us a playability comparison too. I think the JC bass is great but it's not often you can get someone to give you a side by side comparison.

[Mastermold]

Yeah I'd really like hearing a tonal comparison between them. I've had a JC for a while now and love it, curious to know how you think it compares to the Gibson.

[main_sale]

Here's my pair! I don't know about you but I found both of these basses to be very close in tone with the edge going to the Gibson in richness and warmth.

[hdracer]

STOP IT!!!! GAS GAS Your killing me here!!
Nice basses. Pure bass porn

[main_sale]

Sorry about that but the really nice thing about these basses is that they sound much, much better than they look!!!



'72 was a very good year!

[A.K.]

Love those basses. I know Simon Gallup from The Cure uses the Epiphone Jack Casady on stage a lot.

AK

[faivy]

Never played the epi but I have a sig and it is a great bass.

[Simo98]

Originally Posted by main_sale

With flash:

Fixed...

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

They look like a really nice bass, i was actually looking at a JC signiature not too long ago.

Anyone got one with a darkstar? if i got one id have to put one in it

[stranded horse]

Funny thing that back in the days Jack Cassady didn't play Gibson, but Guild basses
Why out of all people did they make a signature bass for him? They should make one for Mike Watt instead

[D Bopp]

Is mine wired incorrectly? On My JC, the 500 setting is the loudest, but my Gibson, the 50 setting is the loudest

[rekesbass]

that sunburst Jack very nice.

[Johnny Alien]

Seeing them side by side I like the gold finish on the Gibson more. I wish the Epi had that hue.

[GM60466]

I heard Hot Tuna play in the late '70s. Jack was playing a crazy looking Flying V that Glen Quan made for him. I heard Hot Tuna in 1985 and Jack was playing a Gibson. He's playing his Gibson during his video that was put together in the mid-90s. I heard them again in 2000. Jack was playing a Gibson. I don't think he started playing an Epiphone until years after his signature model was available.

[D Bopp]

I played the Les Paul tonight at practice for the first time and wow! Man, it probably has the best overall tone of any of my basses. The mids, lows and highs were all the same volume. I can't stand when certain notes disappear in a live setting. But this bass didn't do that at all. I think it will become my main bass at gigs. My JC sounds great but I feel the Gibson is a little better.

[cymbop]

Originally Posted by Johnny Alien

Seeing them side by side I like the gold finish on the Gibson more. I wish the Epi had that hue.

Aw, c'mon! Give it 35 years to pick up some character.

[MikeLawson]

Originally Posted by stranded horse

Funny thing that back in the days Jack Cassady didn't play Gibson, but Guild basses
Why out of all people did they make a signature bass for him? They should make one for Mike Watt instead

Hi there, here's how it happened. In 1994 I was working in marketing for Gibson. I was and am a big Hot Tuna fan. Love Jorma, love Jack. I got in touch with them through Relix Magazine's owners, who also had Relix Records, for whom Hot Tuna and Jorma had released a number of albums.

At the time, Gibson was pushing the awful new Les Paul basses that were solid body models, like the Special, the Standard, etc. We had a heck of a time getting endorsers to play them. Most liked the tone ok, like the looks, when they got them, they hated the gawdawful weight of them.

I got Jack to do some clinics for us, using the solid body Standards. For many years he had been playing a vintage LP Signature Model. I tried like crazy to get my boss to do a signature model for Jack at Gibson, and re-do the original LP bass with them, and was told sternly, NO! One day, fed up with it, at lunch I walked across the lawn in front of the factory and over to the Epiphone building and into the office of Jim Rosenberg. I told Jim about Jack, told him about the desire to do a signature model, that he wanted the old LP but with a new pickup that he'd like to hands-on design with the R&D genius at Gibson then, J.T. Ribiloff. At that point, Epi had very few good signature models, having recently done some with Skunk Baxter, and a recently-inducted to the RnR Hall of Famer like Jack was just the thing that seemed a great idea.

I snuck back over to my office thrilled that I had a green light to call Jack and set this into motion, which I did. I picked him up at the Nashville airport a few weeks later, took him around to meet everyone, got him to sign some solid body LP standard bass models to send to dealers, while we were in the old distribution center for Gibson. He started playing the White Rabbit lick on one that was plugged in, and the guitar techs working the line started playing the guitar parts, and doing their best Grace impression, it was awesome. I took him to meet JT, and he went back and forth with JT over the pickup designs over and over, personally until he got it just right, and then made sure the Korean factory was making them like he and JT designed them to sound.

The bass turned out to be awesome. This was no "slap his name on it" model, Jack was hand's-on in making its tonal quality happen, and the bottom line is that if I had not used my lunch hour and my tenacious righteous indignation at having had the current director of Entertainment Relations (who lasted about three months), laughing at me for diggin' on Tuna, while helping to shoot the idea down, it would never have happened. I lit the fuse, but Jack busted his butt to get the thing done and worked hard to promote it.

I am told it is the biggest-selling artist model in Epiphone's history (not counting of course, LP knock-offs, of which you could kind of call this, but its not really other than the body/neck). May I add, I think this Epi is one of the finest basses for recording, especially, that I've ever played. Some quality issues come through from imports, like jacks coming loose, etc, but the "bottom line" is that the sound from these things is simply the roundest, fattest, warmest tone I've ever recorded, and plugged into an Avalon 737SP is bass-gasmic!

If you ever meet Jack he'll vouch for the story. It was one of my best-memories of working for that company. If this were a regular guitar forum, I'd tell you how the limited run Jorma model came about a few years later.

[Mastermold]

Originally Posted by MikeLawson

Hi there, here's how it happened. In 1994 I was working in marketing for Gibson. I was and am a big Hot Tuna fan. Love Jorma, love Jack. I got in touch with them through Relix Magazine's owners, who also had Relix Records, for whom Hot Tuna and Jorma had released a number of albums.

At the time, Gibson was pushing the awful new Les Paul basses that were solid body models, like the Special, the Standard, etc. We had a heck of a time getting endorsers to play them. Most liked the tone ok, like the looks, when they got them, they hated the gawdawful weight of them.

I got Jack to do some clinics for us, using the solid body Standards. For many years he had been playing a vintage LP Signature Model. I tried like crazy to get my boss to do a signature model for Jack at Gibson, and re-do the original LP bass with them, and was told sternly, NO! One day, fed up with it, at lunch I walked across the lawn in front of the factory and over to the Epiphone building and into the office of Jim Rosenberg. I told Jim about Jack, told him about the desire to do a signature model, that he wanted the old LP but with a new pickup that he'd like to hands-on design with the R&D genius at Gibson then, J.T. Ribiloff. At that point, Epi had very few good signature models, having recently done some with Skunk Baxter, and a recently-inducted to the RnR Hall of Famer like Jack was just the thing that seemed a great idea.

I snuck back over to my office thrilled that I had a green light to call Jack and set this into motion, which I did. I picked him up at the Nashville airport a few weeks later, took him around to meet everyone, got him to sign some solid body LP standard bass models to send to dealers, while we were in the old distribution center for Gibson. He started playing the White Rabbit lick on one that was plugged in, and the guitar techs working the line started playing the guitar parts, and doing their best Grace impression, it was awesome. I took him to meet JT, and he went back and forth with JT over the pickup designs over and over, personally until he got it just right, and then made sure the Korean factory was making them like he and JT designed them to sound.

The bass turned out to be awesome. This was no "slap his name on it" model, Jack was hand's-on in making its tonal quality happen, and the bottom line is that if I had not used my lunch hour and my tenacious righteous indignation at having had the current director of Entertainment Relations (who lasted about three months), laughing at me for diggin' on Tuna, while helping to shoot the idea down, it would never have happened. I lit the fuse, but Jack busted his butt to get the thing done and worked hard to promote it.

I am told it is the biggest-selling artist model in Epiphone's history (not counting of course, LP knock-offs, of which you could kind of call this, but its not really other than the body/neck). May I add, I think this Epi is one of the finest basses for recording, especially, that I've ever played. Some quality issues come through from imports, like jacks coming loose, etc, but the "bottom line" is that the sound from these things is simply the roundest, fattest, warmest tone I've ever recorded, and plugged into an Avalon 737SP is bass-gasmic!

If you ever meet Jack he'll vouch for the story. It was one of my best-memories of working for that company. If this were a regular guitar forum, I'd tell you how the limited run Jorma model came about a few years later.

Cool, thanks for keeping at it and sharing the story! I've had my Epi JC for a while now and really enjoy the tone with TI flats. Great bass! Now if you could just persuade Gibson to build a '64 T-bird reissue I'd be eternally in your debt!

[Deluge Of Sound]

I'm glad its an Epi instead of a Gibson. So is my wallet.

[MikeLawson]

I think Epiphone is/was/always-will-be easier to work with if you're an artist, especially as much as they worked with Jack to get the balance, feel, finish, tone, and everything else just right. I love my Jack bass, its so fat and round and warm, uh, just like me!

And remember, if you don't know Jorma, you don't know Jack!