Any chance they reissue the Grabber, Ripper, or Victory basses?
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Gibson basses
- Thread starter vivaknoxvegas
- Start date
Last edited:
I'm still waiting on a faithful mid-1960's Thunderbird reissue. 
Considering how all the major companies reissue almost everything at one point or another...I'd say chances are real good, just a matter of when and at what price point.
They recently announced non-reverse T-Birds are coming back. Maybe something else will be next.
The Grabber and Ripper were re-vamped a decade or so ago and didn't sell well at the time. I seriously doubt that Gibson will give them a shot anytime soon. Victory re-issue is anyone's guess but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Yeah Gibson the 34” scale Gibson basses have kind of flown under the radar. With the exception maby of the thunderbird. Witch is too bad because they did produce some great basses. Ripper, Grabber, G3, Victory , RD . Never say never, trends are hard to predict.
IF I were in the new regime at Gibson:
Re-Issue the Ripper. To my mind, the closest they ever came to a mainstream bass that would compete honestly with the rest of the market. Traditional EB's are married to that tone, and T-Birds often struggle with neck dive. Contact Seymour, use his Ripper pickups, use the HipShot replacement Gibson bridge and update the rotary switch functions. The re-issue they attempted some years back was still-born alongside the originals.
A subtle fine-tuning of the Thunderbird (puh-leeze go to UltraLight keys !) by smart engineers would cure the neck dive. Offer them with Nordstrand passives or let Lindy Fralin take a whack at updated pickups. It's iconic, but just needs a little careful fine-tuning to really make it a useful alternative. Do NOT give up the neckthru construction, and add the Hipshot bridge.
A new version of the Victory Bass: Easier as they weren't as iconic as their other offerings. Take about a 1/2" out of an often heavy body, streamline the slightly-too-big headstock, and work with EMG or Bart for replacement pickups and tone network, and keep that slanted neck pickup, a visual landmark for these. Make this a sophisticated choice, in various woods.
And finally, what with the selling-like-hotcakes Jack Cassady's, a real, ES-based long scale bass, fretted and fretless, within the genuine Gibson line.
Despite my frequent snipes ('Gibson Bass is an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp or government intelligence') with a little careful development and input from accomplished players, the roots are there. They just need to go to finishing school. Gibson basses always seemed to me the way bass guitars in the early days were also-ran, extra income products made by a guitar company. Ease them into a product identity where they finally feel and look like basses built by a bass company, they might laugh all the way to the bank.
Stranger things . . . . . have happened.
Re-Issue the Ripper. To my mind, the closest they ever came to a mainstream bass that would compete honestly with the rest of the market. Traditional EB's are married to that tone, and T-Birds often struggle with neck dive. Contact Seymour, use his Ripper pickups, use the HipShot replacement Gibson bridge and update the rotary switch functions. The re-issue they attempted some years back was still-born alongside the originals.
A subtle fine-tuning of the Thunderbird (puh-leeze go to UltraLight keys !) by smart engineers would cure the neck dive. Offer them with Nordstrand passives or let Lindy Fralin take a whack at updated pickups. It's iconic, but just needs a little careful fine-tuning to really make it a useful alternative. Do NOT give up the neckthru construction, and add the Hipshot bridge.
A new version of the Victory Bass: Easier as they weren't as iconic as their other offerings. Take about a 1/2" out of an often heavy body, streamline the slightly-too-big headstock, and work with EMG or Bart for replacement pickups and tone network, and keep that slanted neck pickup, a visual landmark for these. Make this a sophisticated choice, in various woods.
And finally, what with the selling-like-hotcakes Jack Cassady's, a real, ES-based long scale bass, fretted and fretless, within the genuine Gibson line.
Despite my frequent snipes ('Gibson Bass is an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp or government intelligence') with a little careful development and input from accomplished players, the roots are there. They just need to go to finishing school. Gibson basses always seemed to me the way bass guitars in the early days were also-ran, extra income products made by a guitar company. Ease them into a product identity where they finally feel and look like basses built by a bass company, they might laugh all the way to the bank.
Stranger things . . . . . have happened.
Gibson should hire you! They need someone with a vision and with knowledge of what real musicians are looking for. I especially appreciate your comments about the Nordstrand Audio pickups and I know those would deliver more of what modern bassists want
I heartily endorse this, but with one caveat: ditch the center block and make it a true hollowbody like the Bone Buzzer or National N-850 and every Gretsch hollowbody except the G6072 reissue.
Six or eight years ago Dillion made a short run of the 335-004 bass, which pretty much is a long-scale EB-2DC. A marvelous, well-constructed instrument that can hold its own against any more prestigious marque (I have two; @B-Mac has one).
Because of its length the bass hangs awkwardly (like a Gretsch 6070/72), and I suspect the center block is to counter that, along with the excessively heavy two-piece metal tailpiece bridge combination. I suspect that going to a trapeze tailpiece and a tuneable bridge with a wooden base would shave at least half a pound from its nine-pound bathroom scale weight. Ditching the center block as well probably would get the weight below 7.5. And then banjo tuners. Yes, banjo tuners all around for everything, except four-on-a-side headstocks.
The Ripper “reissue” wasn’t anything but a halfhearted attempt to cash in on nostalgia. All it had in common with the original was the body shape. The electronics were completely different. And a Ripper without the pickups and tonestack Bill Lawrence designed for it is not Ripper. Dual SD humbuckers and a 6-position varitone won’t give you the sound or note response of a Ripper.
And issuing it as a deliberately limited production run with an inflated price tag to make it seem “special” was doomed from the start. It might have appealed to the “doctor’s guitar collection” crowd. But the Ripper community wasn’t falling for it.
Gotta hand whoever came up with that brilliant plan some credit. How often can you succeed in alienating your existing customers and simultaneously fail to gain any new ones - all in one fell swoop? That’s got to be a gift.
The Victory Standard would be great...if Epiphone followed with a better-priced version that was equal in every way.
An east coast tech told me this decades ago: "Gibson basses are like rare tropical diseases...they're really interesting but I wouldn't want to have one".
OTOH, I think some of their pickup / harness packages are fantastic and, hopefully, would sound just as good when installed in a different platform. IIRC, Mike Lull offered his version of the T'bird pickups in a J bass configuration...and don't forget JE's "FenderBirds"!
Riis
OTOH, I think some of their pickup / harness packages are fantastic and, hopefully, would sound just as good when installed in a different platform. IIRC, Mike Lull offered his version of the T'bird pickups in a J bass configuration...and don't forget JE's "FenderBirds"!
Riis
Seriously?
And produce a “me too” bass that sounds like a bass you can already get elsewhere from a half dozen other companies?
Where is there any innovation to be found in that?
The last thing most Gibson players I know want from Gibson is a “same old same old” bass with Gibson’s name on it. Gibson tried that with the Ripper II. And it was one of Gibson’s most spectacular flops.
Maybe Fender can get its fanbase and the music press foaming in ecstasy over an announcement Fender is introducing three new limited-edition finish colors.
Gibson owner/players are far less easily impressed and expect more from Gibson than simple cosmetics. Or copying the electronics from somebody else’s bass.
One of the best things about Gibson basses was how they didn’t all look different but still sound the same. Each major model in their lineup had its own voice. It’d be a shame to lose that.
So no. Just no.
Last edited:
I always liked the Victory Artist Bass tone as it was, right out of the box. Looked good in Tobacco as well.
Much as I’d enjoy seeing them do up a new run of Ripper and/or Victory basses, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Right now Gibson is too busy abusing the legal process with hopeless IP litigation lawsuits and bogus threats - and milking its established cash cows - to do anything that chancy.
Giz, the idea was that if you look around, very few basses use pickups from the manufacturer, lots and lots use EMG, Nordys, Barts, etc., and this would be a cue, 'hey, we're listening and we're serious about this'. Seymour makes exact replacement Ripper pickups, which I thought would save them time and gain a little marketing clout by using them, and I'll assume they would work with the original Ripper rotary selector/circuitry.
