New Gibson Basses - Where Are They?

Funny that, coz I was thinking that there are have been no Thunderbirds for sale in the Talkbass and Basschat classifieds for ages either. Having said that, my 2013 is definitely a keeper....

 

The DC Jr became a favourite of mine . Beautiful little thing !

 

Good luck. They exist but Gibson is really not pushing the line which is a shame because they have cool product.

As for Gene, that's a global conspiracy for sure.

 

gibson does not seem terribly focused on basses it seems..

fair enough, they make a ton of guitars. (make AND sell... thats the key!)

it'd be really cool if they made a bass push in the coming years. heaven forbid, maybe even some new designs.

idk or maybe they'll keep filing lawsuits for guitars "with a headstock" for copyright infringement instead. who knows whats goin on over there. all I can say is my les paul, that i inherited from a deceased friend, is a really fantastic guitar and worth the high "new" price tag.

 

Love my new SG, have about 15 hrs play time on it, and its most def a keeper.

 

This is the case. I also have a LP. Gibson is pretty diversified. They sell a ton of flagship guitars, mostly LP and SG styles but so many others and they have other brands. I know as a bassist it's crummy to see a favorite brand excluding the market. But as a conglomerate, I hate to say it but the bass market is not that large. It might make sense to them to focus on the guitars and leave the majority of their basses in their other brands. You can get Birds and SG and even LP Jr. if you look. Of course, if the price floor gets high enough they'll make anything you want. I not so secretly actually like that Simmons TBird with the split block inlays.

 

Gibson basses are very niche, for two reasons:

1) The more orthodox designs are very dark sounding because of the huge sidewinder pickup up at the neck. You have to really like the tone.

2) The Thunderbird sounds amazing, but is physically enormous, the rounded-explorer thing may not work with your band aesthetically, and it's an over-achiever in the neck-dive department.

Gibson just doesn't seem to care enough to take the best aspects from points one and two and hit the ball out of the park, i.e. an SG with Thunderbird pickups and positioning.

 

I just bought a non-reverse Thunderbird from them. My first Gibson and I am totally smitten. I can't believe how much I love that thing! Also, the Music Zoo is great to deal with. The showroom is still closed though.

 

I bought an SG after I had the Jr for a while . I like the simple set up on the Jr better . The pickup sits right in the sweet spot . It’s thunderous . It’s also better balanced , and lighter . The SG is a fine bass , but I prefer the sound and feel of the Jr .

 

I saw a video on The Bass Channel on youtube, and he seemed to prefer a newer SG bass to his older 2011 or so.

There seem to be a lot of 2019-2021s for sale lately. That may just be flippers though.

I actually don’t care for the 2022 trapezoid inlays on the board. Just a tad too fancy for an SG bass in my view.

 

I’m just South of Vancouver. The L&M in Van sometimes has one or two Gibsons if you’re lucky. I bought my Les Paul Doublecut there.

 

Two weeks ago, I went to the Gibson Garage, ostensibly their 'factory store' here in downtown Nashville in Cummins Station (I'd like to have it explained to me how that exists when they quite a few Authorized Dealers here in town).

Full of everything Gibson makes, vintage birds on display from the vaults, their acoustics, some Mesa amps, and a large Epiphone presence, including Casadys and TBirds in every available color.

Overall, a huge selection of everything, like a NAMM Show display on steroids. Amazing axes, from mild to wild.

And . . . not one Gibson bass. Three things struck me:

Basses have always been a side business for them, and in every case, they hang on to derivations of best selling guitar models: Firebirds/TBirds, Les Paul shapes, 335 shapes. Rippers, Victory's, rarely if ever are revisited.

The basses they do make tend to be niche pieces, not axes broadly used in varied performance or recording situations, unless you're after that tone.

The newly reinvigorated Gibson is simply, by and large, making the best axes they've made in 2 forevers. There are lots of smart, talented people working there. But I don't know how deep their bench is when it comes to making contemporary, modern basses, though I certainly imagine they could. They will have to determine if their long term plan is to continue making modern production vintage basses like Rickenbacker and others, or if they want additional market share from new products that would benchmark the current standards.

 

Not in Brazil, for sure.

Good luck, OP.