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Gibson making basses again

Body shape has a Tobias vibe. Surprise surprise!

I think I start to like it.

smart move.....the previous EBs were fantastic Swiss Army basses, just kinda fugly.......basically the same bass but prettier with other refinements (too bad the coils cant be tapped like on the previous EB - that was an awesome feature and should have been on this one, imo)
 
smart move.....the previous EBs were fantastic Swiss Army basses, just kinda fugly.......basically the same bass but prettier with other refinements (too bad the coils cant be tapped like on the previous EB - that was an awesome feature and should have been on this one, imo)
The coil tap is a neat feature that I love about my EB. The good news is it's relatively easy to add a couple of coil tap switches after the fact as long as there's room in the control cavity. The control layout would then look like the last Thunderbird (vol, vol, tone, tap neck, tap bridge). If it were me, and I was adding two coil tap switches I'd also add a kill switch while I was in there. That would complete the picture for me.
 
At first glance, I really liked it. But once I saw a full-on profile, my intrigue turned to ick. The horns are too pointy for my taste. And what's the deal with the gloss black headstock and a natural satin body? Plain awful.
 
At first glance, I really liked it. But once I saw a full-on profile, my intrigue turned to ick. The horns are too pointy for my taste. And what's the deal with the gloss black headstock and a natural satin body? Plain awful.
If it was painted lime yellow or electric blue, those pointy horns would be outstanding.
 
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The coil tap is a neat feature that I love about my EB. The good news is it's relatively easy to add a couple of coil tap switches after the fact as long as there's room in the control cavity. The control layout would then look like the last Thunderbird (vol, vol, tone, tap neck, tap bridge). If it were me, and I was adding two coil tap switches I'd also add a kill switch while I was in there. That would complete the picture for me.

Could just use push/pull volume pots as it is with the 2013/2014 EB.

Very easy & inexpensive, presuming the pickups are wired for splitting.
 
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Could just use push/pull volume pots as it is with the 2013/2014 EB.

Very easy & inexpensive, presuming the pickups are wired for splitting.


I imagine they are the same pickups so it should just be a matter of rewiring.

I went ahead and ordered one of these to check out. I think it has a lot going for it. If it's a dud I'll send it back. I personally like the design and am hoping for the best. Need a beefier sounding 5 string for a project while I wait to get my Spector back.
 
Gibson's debt rating got further downgraded the other day. Deep into junk territory now. Among some of the problems cited, inability to retain financial executives, and failure to pay various suppliers. And their debt to eat but the ratio of 10 times doesn't help things.

They won't be making anything soon.
 
Gibson's debt rating got further downgraded the other day. Deep into junk territory now. Among some of the problems cited, inability to retain financial executives, and failure to pay various suppliers. And their debt to eat but the ratio of 10 times doesn't help things.

They won't be making anything soon.


besides the above, I found this tidbit interesting:

The downgrade comes on the heels of Gibson aggressively acquiring consumer electronics companies, including Onkyo, and shifting its strategy from focusing primarily on guitars and other instruments to more broadly becoming a music lifestyles company.
 
besides the above, I found this tidbit interesting:

A fish rots from the head down. Their CEO has a text book disordered narcissistic personality which is the cause of their problems.

In addition to him being the cause of the companies inability to retain any talent, they have made numerous major missteps at his behest. Some examples that come to mind – putting robots standard on every single Gibson, and the Firebird X, among others. Said CEO then turns around and makes everybody's life miserable because he cannot be accountable for his own actions and poor decisions.

By many accounts Henry may be the most hated person in the music instrument business (for good reason) and why the board of that company hasn't quietly and swiftly removed from the building is the source of frustration for most that work there I would imagine. The only joke bigger than Henry is his impotent and toothless board of directors which can't seem to see through his nonsense or keep him in line.

This forray into consumer electronics only underscores though. Bigger is better right? Nonsense! Hi fi systems don't sell like they used to so. They are declining because people are in earbuds. And other than the anomaly that is Beats, people are not running out in droves by the hottest new headphones etc. These are commodity products.

Somewhere in spring of 2014 you'll find the press release me indicating that Gibson did a major transaction with Phillips entertainment and consumer electronics. And if you read that press release you will see that in the same piece it indicates they did a leaseback arrangement, a straight up licensing agreement, and an acquisition all on the same article. It was as if it was written to confuse people. And I find it remarkable that even though Gibson did some sort of license or purchase of Phillips consumer electronics, I can still buy earbuds marketed, manufactured, and sold by Phillips, at my local CVS pharmacy for eight dollars. And they sound fantastic! So do the premium headphones which are $25. So did Gibson just spend a whole ton of money to license Phillips technology to then have to turn around and compete with Phillips who still is selling them in the pharmacy for commodity prices?

This is corporate stupidity at such a level that I wish they were publicly listed company so I could borrow against everthing I own to be and short their stock while I watch it ride to zero.
 
A fish rots from the head down. Their CEO has a text book disordered narcissistic personality which is the cause of their problems.

In addition to him being the cause of the companies inability to retain any talent, they have made numerous major missteps at his behest. Some examples that come to mind – putting robots standard on every single Gibson, and the Firebird X, among others. Said CEO then turns around and makes everybody's life miserable because he cannot be accountable for his own actions and poor decisions.

By many accounts Henry may be the most hated person in the music instrument business (for good reason) and why the board of that company hasn't quietly and swiftly removed from the building is the source of frustration for most that work there I would imagine. The only joke bigger than Henry is his impotent and toothless board of directors which can't seem to see through his nonsense or keep him in line.

This forray into consumer electronics only underscores though. Bigger is better right? Nonsense! Hi fi systems don't sell like they used to so. They are declining because people are in earbuds. And other than the anomaly that is Beats, people are not running out in droves by the hottest new headphones etc. These are commodity products.

Somewhere in spring of 2014 you'll find the press release me indicating that Gibson did a major transaction with Phillips entertainment and consumer electronics. And if you read that press release you will see that in the same piece it indicates they did a leaseback arrangement, a straight up licensing agreement, and an acquisition all on the same article. It was as if it was written to confuse people. And I find it remarkable that even though Gibson did some sort of license or purchase of Phillips consumer electronics, I can still buy earbuds marketed, manufactured, and sold by Phillips, at my local CVS pharmacy for eight dollars. And they sound fantastic! So do the premium headphones which are $25. So did Gibson just spend a whole ton of money to license Phillips technology to then have to turn around and compete with Phillips who still is selling them in the pharmacy for commodity prices?

This is corporate stupidity at such a level that I wish they were publicly listed company so I could borrow against everthing I own to be and short their stock while I watch it ride to zero.
Looks like you've got no love loss if Gibson were to crash and burn tomorrow.

Goofy CEO or not, I'd seriously miss the Gibson brand if it no longer existed. Their current guitar and bass offerings fill a void that Fender can't seem to fill. They've had some truly epic bass offerings in the past and I hope they bring some of them back in 2017.

Besides their great products, they also have a number of great employees. And in today's stinking economy I'd sure hate to see a bunch of hard working talented people turned out jobless on the street, wouldn't wish that on anybody. So while you may take great relish in deriding everyone in the company from the head down along with every instrument they've ever made and hoping their stock goes to zero, I'll be continuing to buy the best Gibson and their competitors have to offer.

Fender had its dark days under CBS and seems to have recovered. I'd assume Gibson will too, but Henry has got to go before the healing can start.
 
Looks like you've got no love loss if Gibson were to crash and burn tomorrow.

Goofy CEO or not, I'd seriously miss the Gibson brand if it no longer existed. Their current guitar and bass offerings fill a void that Fender can't seem to fill. They've had some truly epic bass offerings in the past and I hope they bring some of them back in 2017.

Besides their great products, they also have a number of great employees. And in today's stinking economy I'd sure hate to see a bunch of hard working talented people turned out jobless on the street, wouldn't wish that on anybody. So while you may take great relish in deriding everyone in the company from the head down along with every instrument they've ever made and hoping their stock goes to zero, I'll be continuing to buy the best Gibson and their competitors have to offer.

Fender had its dark days under CBS and seems to have recovered. I'd assume Gibson will too, but Henry has got to go before the healing can start.
+1. As much as some players despise Gibby basses, they do have a beautiful and unique voice, distinctive look, and a fit that many players prefer. They are decidedly different than Fender, and it would suck to see them go under. The current moron running the show over there needs to go before it's too late.
 
Looks like you've got no love loss if Gibson were to crash and burn tomorrow.

Goofy CEO or not, I'd seriously miss the Gibson brand if it no longer existed. Their current guitar and bass offerings fill a void that Fender can't seem to fill. They've had some truly epic bass offerings in the past and I hope they bring some of them back in 2017.

Besides their great products, they also have a number of great employees. And in today's stinking economy I'd sure hate to see a bunch of hard working talented people turned out jobless on the street, wouldn't wish that on anybody. So while you may take great relish in deriding everyone in the company from the head down along with every instrument they've ever made and hoping their stock goes to zero, I'll be continuing to buy the best Gibson and their competitors have to offer.

Fender had its dark days under CBS and seems to have recovered. I'd assume Gibson will too, but Henry has got to go before the healing can start.

Even if your not revved up by an axe with the Gibson brand on it, the Epiphone brand is starting to pick up the slack on the Gibson bass deficiencies. Epi is turning out some good basses. All things being equal, my Epi EB-3 is a better made bass than some Gibson SG Std.'s I've had recently.
 
Looks like you've got no love loss if Gibson were to crash and burn tomorrow.

Goofy CEO or not, I'd seriously miss the Gibson brand if it no longer existed. Their current guitar and bass offerings fill a void that Fender can't seem to fill. They've had some truly epic bass offerings in the past and I hope they bring some of them back in 2017.

Besides their great products, they also have a number of great employees. And in today's stinking economy I'd sure hate to see a bunch of hard working talented people turned out jobless on the street, wouldn't wish that on anybody. So while you may take great relish in deriding everyone in the company from the head down along with every instrument they've ever made and hoping their stock goes to zero, I'll be continuing to buy the best Gibson and their competitors have to offer.

Fender had its dark days under CBS and seems to have recovered. I'd assume Gibson will too, but Henry has got to go before the healing can start.

That is fair and I didn't mean to give the impression that I want the company to die or that it deserves to. That would be a sad day if it were to happen.

Where I have no love lost is for a disdainful CEO who is clearly running it into the ground, and feeble board that is not doing its job in governing the enterprise.
 
That is fair and I didn't mean to give the impression that I want the company to die or that it deserves to. That would be a sad day if it were to happen.

Where I have no love lost is for a disdainful CEO who is clearly running it into the ground, and feeble board that is not doing its job in governing the enterprise.
That I can agree with!
 
I imagine they are the same pickups so it should just be a matter of rewiring.

I went ahead and ordered one of these to check out. I think it has a lot going for it. If it's a dud I'll send it back. I personally like the design and am hoping for the best. Need a beefier sounding 5 string for a project while I wait to get my Spector back.

On the EB 13/14 basses, they used what Gibson called "frequency tuned coil tapping". This takes the coil return to ground through a 100nF capacitor. You could do a straightforward coil tap and take it straight to ground, but I imagine it would be more trebly and lose some mid and low end definition.

This is a schematic of how I rewired my EB 13. In it you can see the factory 100nF cap used for the coil taps. (Please excuse the poor 3 way switch drawing, Visio did not have one and this was the best I could do).
 

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As far as the new bass is concerned, my thoughts are that I'm happy Gibson is building basses again. This isn't my cup of tea in the looks department, but based on the 2013/2014 EBs, it will sound good.

Besides, part of the appeal that Gibson holds for me is their incredibly quirky history. This leads to some serious head scratching over certain models, but they are always interesting. Including one of the 1st electric basses in the 30's.
 

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I'd like to see another run of the Flying V they did in 2012. It's actually not terrible like the overpriced 80s ones, it's basically a T Bird without the neck dive. My only gripe is that finish, as cool as it looked it seemed really fragile. A lacquered finished model would be great, or a Korina with clearcoat *drools*.
 
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On the EB 13/14 basses, they used what Gibson called "frequency tuned coil tapping". This takes the coil return to ground through a 100nF capacitor. You could do a straightforward coil tap and take it straight to ground, but I imagine it would be more trebly and lose some mid and low end definition.

This is a schematic of how I rewired my EB 13. In it you can see the factory 100nF cap used for the coil taps. (Please excuse the poor 3 way switch drawing, Visio did not have one and this was the best I could do).

Thanks a lot! And it's an actual schematic not a wiring diagram labeled as a schematic.

If I really like it. I'll probably drop a decent preamp into it and wire a coil tap switch. My current favorite being the Pope Flexcore.