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Gibson basses?

#2
Broach_insound said:
I was just wondering what people thought about Gibson bases? I never hear much about them but obviously gibson is a high end brand , are their bases not that great? For example gibson les paul bass :confused:
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While an excellent maker of g-tars Gibson basse never had the acclaim of their conterparts. Back in the 60's when there wasn't a lot of bass makers to choose from Gibson had their place albeit mud city and lows that became unnecessary in the early 70's. Bass players wanted something alttle cleaner and gibson basses weren"t it. most popular Gibson basses where short scale and didn't lend themselves to changing taste in bass styles and music to come later like funk and disco.
 
#4
I have played a '90's Les Paul Standard bass and it was quite a bit different from the usual Fender sound. Very bottomy, which Gibson is known for, but with a Hartke 410XL it sounded pretty good, with nice note definition and retaining the low end (4-string, by the way). That said, I couldn't deal with the weight over the long term.
 
#7
Like people have mentioned, gibsons have their fans. personally im a huge fan of the gibson Thunderbird and explorer body shape. But i dont think they sound that amzing, especially for the price.

ive heard people say something along the lines of:

"the sound of a hondo for the price of a sadowsky "

that is a bit exagarated i think though
 
#8
I just got my Gibson Thunderbird Studio, it replaced my Ibanez BTB 405... I'm really happy with it... the balance and sustain are both incredible... the tone is really bassy, but not too bassy..... massive punch...

Never dreamed gibson would be so good...

Wh4len
 
#14
I get the feeling that guys who criticize all Gibson basses probably haven't actually played them. Or else they're basing it on one or two they've tried. Gibsons aren't the answer for everybody but they've made lots of models over the years that sound different from each other. I think some of them are very good, others not so hot.
 
#17
Gibson's hit/miss ratio is high considering how pricey their stuff is and how much acclaim their guitars get. Still, I really like the Gibson Grabber, Ripper and Thunderbird. Their EB series is hit & miss, I've played EB-0's with the cutaway headstock, and it sounded great (at least for stoner/doom metal stuff). The Les Paul bass, however, sounded terrible and weighed a ton, plus it looked kind of dumb. Not a fan of those.

Epiphone does reproductions of a number of Gibson basses, but very few of them live up to the OOP classic models.
 
#19
war_n_peace said:
Here take the Gibson USA Factory Plant Tour

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Looks like they have several Quality Control checks along
the production line...
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Well when I got my 2001 Thunderbird directly from the Gibson factory the nut was cut so badly the "A" string was virtually unplayable, the neck was badly bowed, there were 2 screws missing from the pickguard & whatever yahoo checked off the inpection/warranty card left his ball point pen bouncing around in the section of the case that actually holds the bass.

Let's hope things have improved since then.
 
#20
I recently bought a Tobias Killer B, which is made by Gibson. I've tried quite a few models of their Tobias line, coming out of their Arkansas plant, and all of them have been truly excellent in every way, and IMO easily worth the (admittedly high) price they're charging for these things.

But the Tobias bass is like the Kramer, Epiphone, Steinberg stuff - names Gibson bought. You have to know that the parent company is Gibson; it doesn't say anything about that on the instrument itself.
 

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