Looks like Gibson cut-off Warmoth.

[Flux Jetson]

This kinda blows ....

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies...rect.aspx?i=27

I only say that because I have nearly saved up some munay-checkage to buy an Explorer bass body that I wanted to use to make own "Exploiter". Shoot! I've been wanting to do that for ages, now I can't. Major league suckage!

I checked Warmoth's bodies in stock for one and .... nothin.

Dang me.

One thing for certain, I'm not gonna go right out and buy some Gibson or Epiphone now just because I can't buy an exact duplicate of the Explorer bass body. Other shapes will work for my purposes. For that matter I'm sure I could pay a luthier to cut me out a "replacement" body with an ever-so-slight shape difference. I wasn't going to leave it stock shaped anyhow.

If you try to buy any Gibson body type from them (T-Bird, Explorer, SG, Flying V, Les Paul, and maybe one or two others I may have missed) you get that same "NOT NO BUT HELL NO!" page that I linked above.

Warmoth has been offering those styles for years, perhaps decades. Suddenly Gibson has a stick up their butt about it. Do they really think folks are going to buy a Les Paul from Gibson rather than buy a body from Warmoth? People that buy that stuff want to DIY an axe, they aren't in the market for a complete guitar. I realize that Warmoth supplies untold numbers of luthiers and builders that sell "copies" .. but what Gibson is failing to understand is that all this will serve to do is have Warmoth design some ever-so-slight difference in the body shapes, rename them to something obvious (the "Less Paul" or perhaps "Single Cut") and perhaps even increase sales due to an improved design. Forced Evolution.

It takes teensy tiny minute design changes to legally sidestep design copyrights, an audience will never ever be able to tell the difference between a "real" Gibson and a copied body shape, even if it is done to respect the copyrights.

It seems Gibson may not have heard the phrase "be careful what you wish for, you just may get it!"

There's most likely a multitude of facets in this issue, many sides to take, many points of view to snuggle up with. I'm sure the litigation must be all encompassing ... I mean even companies like Dean, ESP, Carvin, many others, make Les Paul, Explorer, Flying V, et-al ~copies~ .. so I would guess Gibson is taking on everyone. I suppose it is going to depend on the judge that oversees the case. I mean, what exactly will define what a Les Paul looks like? Or how close/far from one body shape (or another) does something have to be before it's in violation of the design copyright? Could get ugly.

Whatever man .... I just work here.



Just for trivial reasons, here's what I was going to do to it ... so it's not like it was going to be an exact ~dupe~ of the Explorer ....

STOCK ...



Cut#5 ...



Or perhaps Cut#7 .. a dehorned Cut#5.





My feelings exactly, John.

These times we live in!

[AltGrendel]

About a month ago, Warmoth had an absolutely stunning Thunderbird bass body (proper sunburst, mahogany, etc) that I was seriously thinking of getting for a Fenderbird project. Then it vanished, I wonder if that's what happened to it. Hope they sold it.

Oh well.

[TBird1958]

Can't say that I blame Gibson for wanting to protect shapes they *think* are their property.
Truth is they never copywrited them and have no legal standing, they can however threaten lawsuits, that's their legal right. I had this discussion with Mike Lull before he produced his Thunderbird, I'm parphrasing here but that is in essence what he told me.
Obviously Warmoth didn't want to take up Gibson's challenge.

[BassZilla5]

I like this line... "New, similar but non infringing, bodies will be available in the coming months."

I'm actually kind of excited to see what new(ish) shapes they come up with.

[kris pung]

Originally Posted by BassZilla5

I like this line... "New, similar but non infringing, bodies will be available in the coming months."

I'm actually kind of excited to see what new(ish) shapes they come up with.

+1

[Dan B]

I just hope the LP shape doesn't deviate too much from the traditional LP shape. One of the things I would have loved to do is build a carve top LP bass with their parts.

[jumbodbassman]

having had prior dealings with Henry J i will say he will sue and enjoy doing it. very litigious

[ZombieSpacebat]

I wonder if they will start going after everyone who makes a clone of one of their shapes then? Why choose now to go after one company?

[the wako kid]

it's sad how lawsuit-happy gibson is,and its really sad that theyre going after warmoth. companies like dean and esp make complete les paul copies,and not just bodies. oh weell,no fenderbirds for a few months.

[mr.mow]

It was probably more to do with warmoth offering a Gibson style headstock (the moustache) as well.

[dannster]

The "T-bird" body needed a redesign anyway. that neck was way out in front. I've heard rumblings for years that would happen. Maybe now that their hand was coerced we'll see a better design.

If you look at jobs available they are looking for a CNC programmer for developing prototypes.

[punkjazzben]

Well, let's just be thankful Fender has not started acting like a child who knows he's lost a toy but accuses a sibling of stealing it anyway. *cough*Gibson, Rickenbacker*cough*