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Favorite Gibson bass

#161
JohnMalay said:
Doing something randomly different and then calling it a Limited Edition smacks of Fender's marketing department...
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Only Gibson started that game much earlier. For many years I owned a '72 Les Paul which was a re-issue of the original '56 Black Beauty and sure enough it had the letters LE as a part of its serial number. Now, that was a *real* limited edition that only ran for a year. Later on, the term started to...get stretched, shall we say...:)

Many 2018 models were billed as "Limited Edition" due to some type of anniversary, and some of them - such as the RD Artist Bass reissue - only ran for a year. There was a bunch of guitars in that story as well.

laristotle said:
Forgot to mention, it's 34" scale.
I'm not much of a short scale fan, otherwise I'd search out a DC or SG/EB3 (or 4L).
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If you want an SG-shaped long scale bass there's EB-0L, EB-3L, EB-4L and SG-Z. The last one is fairly rare, though.
 
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#163
Oh, and if it isn't obvious from my avatar, my favorite Gibson bass is the Thunderbird. It was a dream come true in 2013 when Gibson finally put out a left-handed version. It's pretty much all I've played ever since. I find the neck and ergonomics incredibly comfortable. No neck dive. And the barely-existent upper bout doesn't poke me in the ribs like Fender Shaped Objects. And a pretty light 8.5 lbs. I had a MIM Fender Jazz for many years. It was very well made, but I just never bonded with it. Good thing there's variety out there.

Edit: And it sounds great. I don't understand the comment about Gibson bass owners wanting their basses to sound like Fenders. Mine doesn't sound like any Fender I've heard, and I like it that way.
 
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#166
bobyoung53 said:
It made a big difference in mine, it's a '66 EB-2, the choke also deadens the mids, it will sound more like an EB-0, but make it a lot more present, they remind me of uprights with the chokes intact with the big lows and anemic high fundamentals, removing the choke allows the fundamentals to boom all the way up the neck, it's easily reversible as long as the wire doesn't break which happened to mine.
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Doesn't the choke cut the pickup output? I usually play my EB-2 with the cut, sounds growly but still plenty of bass. Otherwise it's sooo bottom heavy it can level small structures with a single note! :D
 
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#167
I enjoyed the short time I had with a 2010s Thunderbird, just didn't have the context to use it in. Also a Gibson Grabber that I couldn't put down at a GC is still one I wish I purchased, a close second is Les Paul (Studio?) bass at another GC.
 
#168
Mastermold said:
Doesn't the choke cut the pickup output? I usually play my EB-2 with the cut, sounds growly but still plenty of bass. Otherwise it's sooo bottom heavy it can level small structures with a single note! :D
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The circuitry takes out most of the bottom (at least with mine) with the button engaged (I believe it's the series cap that does that) and takes out a lot of the mids and highs when out (I believe the choke does that), if you unhook the choke the bottom stays but you get back the mids and highs which makes the bottom less pronounced because both are taken out of the circuit, I still cut the bass on the amp though when playing it but it sounds a lot more balanced between high and low notes, I think it's more like an EB-0, those don't have chokes, the top diagram is the EB-2 and the bottom is the EB-0. Someone that reads schematics better than me can probably explain it better.


Rivoli_EB2.gif


ebo-circuit1960s.gif
 
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#170
Converted guitar player, bought my first bass in 1975 and bought a Gibson Grabber largely because of the cover of Alive! And of course if it was good enough for Gene, it was good enough for me (I was 16, please save the grrrrr). I traded it almost immediately for a G-3 as I thought the sliding pickup on the Grabber was silly. In that era, the only guy I saw playing a G-3 was Kelly Groucutt of ELO. It was actually an easy playing, good sounding bass but I didn't have it for long, trading up to a MusicMan Stingray that I kept until a couple of years ago.

Always will have a soft spot for my first though...
 
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#180
I was primarily a Fender Jazz guy but had a Tbird back in the day, sold it, and regretted it. I recently got a 2019 Tbird and really love it. It will never sound just like a Jazz but I can get tones reminiscent of one if I want them. I think it is tonaly more versatile than it is given credit for. Ergonomically it is a transition but I don't find it to be drastic. The only other Gibson bass that I have any experience with was a faded series Les Paul. It had great tone but the LP body style did not work for me with a 34" scale neck.
 

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