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No Gibson's??

#181
Two bass players that I know of that used a Gibson bass was Ralphe Armstrong when he played with Jean-Luc Ponty.He played a fretless RD.


And Stanley Clarke used a Gibson EB2 before he started using Alembic basses.
The thing sounded awful.Like a mortally wounded whoolly mammoth.Listen to his distorted solo at 2:45
Stanley Clarke & Gibson
Stanley Clarke is most famously associated with Alembic, but it is also known that he used a Gibson EB-2 from early on. In the May 1980 Guitar Player, he stated, "Well, I used [a Kent hollowbody bass] until I got a Gibson EB-2, a hollow-body in 11th or 12th grade. It was the worst bass they ever made, but it worked for me and I loved the feeling of it."

The Alembic connection involved a chance meeting with Rick Turner:

GP: By the time you did "Where Have I Known You Before", you were playing string bass only a small part of the time. (This was released 7/1974)

SC: . . . and that's when I got turned onto the Alembic bass. I met Rick Turner when we were playing at the Boarding House in SF, and in a nice way he told me, "Look, you really play well, but your sound is atrocious" He told me to try the bass he had with him; I think it was one of the first alembic basses. So I tried it out and it was great. And I haven't changed since.
 
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#182
I absolutely love my Gibson's. Many of the complaints you hear are retreads of worn out arguments that do not have a basis in reality. Gibson is a different beast from Fender.

Price - Gibson's are only made in the US. There are only four models this year and the cheapest is the SG at $1,600.00 but this is not out of line with Fender and last year you could get an EB with coil splits, good balance and extremely light for the price of an American Special. You could get an SG special for $200.00 less than a Fender American Special.

Pro's- John Entwisle, Jack Bruce, Mike Watt, Nikki Sixx, Gene Simmons, Peter Cetera, tons of sixties British bands and garage bands.

Gibson just churns out copies of it's guitars - People seem to forget that the original precision used a telecaster body. Gibson has tried many bass only designs but the buying public is hooked on American Icons. EB's, Victories, Ripper/grabbers, The V bass.... When it comes to variety let's face it, Fender sells ton's of P's and J's and like Gibson the buying public largely ignores their attempts to step out of that niche

Muddy Sound - This may have been true for the mud-bucker years but those pups have not been around in years. I currently have three Gibson's none of which are muddy and two of the three are quite versatile in tone. My flying V has matched T-Bird pups that are very hot and somewhat of a one trick pony but I love the one trick and played a two and a half hour set with all positive results. My SG and Midtown have Alnico and ceramic pups and this gives me loads of usable tones. All Gibson's have two pups where as P's have one. With modern amps and EQ there are tons of tonal options available for any bass out there

Neck Dive - This one is true. My SG dives (my flying V and Midtown do not). I use a three inch strap and this eliminates the issue on the SG. I have never had a T-bird but can understand how this could be an issue with that design.

Quality Control - I have not had any issues and can only speak from my personal experience. I think many people hated the look of the satin/worn finishes but this is a matter of taste and these finishes are no longer available. All Gibson's are finished in Nitro rather than poly and this is a labor intensive process which adds to the cost but or many of us is preferable to thick deep poly.

Feel - This is subjective. Any bass that is dramatically different than what you are used to playing takes time to adapt to. I am currently running into this with My Lakland. The Lakland is perfectly balanced, fit and finish are excellent but it is active and there is no comfortable place to anchor my thumb. This does not make it a bad bass it just means I need to put some time in on it so that I feel comfortable with it.

The Bridge - I am a finger style player so I do not like my action too low. The new Gibson's have the Babicz bridges which are more standard in the adjust- ability and there is the Hip-shot's. I find the three-point more aesthetically pleasing and the adjust-ability is much easier than people may think.

They are all Short Scale - No they are not. SG's are 30.5" but grabbers, rippers, T-birds, RD's, Les Paul's, 450's, SG-Z's, Explorer's, SGL's, Victory's, and Triumphs are not

I have only owned one Fender. It was a 2011 American Special Jazz. I never bonded with it and it had some dead spots. This does not mean that all Fender's suck. I could have done a fresh set up and changed the strings to address the dead spot issue but after a year I just never became attached. I will likely own another Fender in the future and ultimately we are lucky to be in a time where good basses outweigh crappy basses. Ultimately one needs to use the right tool for them.
 
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#184
Fender got it right first with the precision and then nailed it again with the jazz, Gibson caught on but that early success of fender and the use of them on many records made fender the "sound" that a lot people wanted. Back when the electric bass first started catching on, there was the upright bassists and the fender players. Gibson did make some awesome basses like the thunderbird, eb-3, ripper, grabber,eb-1,etc they could never match the popularity of fender basses. Even today you see more people playing a fender style bass than a Gibson. Price also plays a part in this too, someone can get a Fender Mexican or used American and upgrade a little and still save money rather than get a Gibson. I honestly love Gibson thunderbirds and EB-3s but I use my p bass more because it just works better in more situations.
 
#185
I had a 1975 Ripper that I picked up in the early 90's for a steal and kept for 20 years. As much as I wanted to love it - I never truly bonded with it. It played well but I couldn't get tones out of it I liked and it did have serious neck dive as others have mentioned - which wasn't a big deal but annoying. It looked awesome and was a great conversation piece when i brought it out to jams etc because it was pretty rare - but I never brought it to a gig as it just wasn't good enough IMO. I finally traded it for AVRI 75 Jazz a few months ago and the difference was very noticeable in quality, tone, playability etc. I am not a Fender fanboy by any means and YMMV - but the Gibson just didn't have it
 
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#186
I swore I would stop, really, I did, especially with those Stratosphere folks, but I just bought:
$_57.jpg

And 2 of these:
Guild_BiSonic.jpg


Never did like the Gibson EB* pickups, these ought to do the trick! (Guild Bisonics from bbg.)

My first "SG" bass.
 
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#187
Ianhin said:
I m a rookie bassist, but it just struck me the other day, that there s barely a mention of Gibson basses on TB? In fact u hardly EVER see Gibson basses except with Gene Simmons and a very small handfull of others?
Why is this, i mean they make stunning guitars but u hardly ever hear or see Gibson basses? Looking forward to the answers!
Click to expand...
Personally I can't stand Gibson basses. You are right, they make awesome guitars but don't know a bass from a hole in their head. PRS is the same way in my option.
The Thunderbird and SG are neck heavy, and the EB5 I tried was just a cheap instrument. I've never seen a Grabber in person.
It just seems like Gibson basses are an after thought with little or no effort put in to making them work for a bass player. They don't look or sound like something I'd want, and aren't comfortable to play for me, so no thanks.
 
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#188
Watchootognbout said:
Two bass players that I know of that used a Gibson bass was Ralphe Armstrong when he played with Jean-Luc Ponty.He played a fretless RD.


And Stanley Clarke used a Gibson EB2 before he started using Alembic basses.
The thing sounded awful.Like a mortally wounded whoolly mammoth.Listen to his distorted solo at 2:45
Stanley Clarke & Gibson
Stanley Clarke is most famously associated with Alembic, but it is also known that he used a Gibson EB-2 from early on. In the May 1980 Guitar Player, he stated, "Well, I used [a Kent hollowbody bass] until I got a Gibson EB-2, a hollow-body in 11th or 12th grade. It was the worst bass they ever made, but it worked for me and I loved the feeling of it."

The Alembic connection involved a chance meeting with Rick Turner:

GP: By the time you did "Where Have I Known You Before", you were playing string bass only a small part of the time. (This was released 7/1974)

SC: . . . and that's when I got turned onto the Alembic bass. I met Rick Turner when we were playing at the Boarding House in SF, and in a nice way he told me, "Look, you really play well, but your sound is atrocious" He told me to try the bass he had with him; I think it was one of the first alembic basses. So I tried it out and it was great. And I haven't changed since.
Click to expand...


Wow! I didn't know Stanley played an EB-2. That solo sounds good to me! Thanks for sharing the info bud.
 
#191
I must be the luckiest guy on the planet, I have yet to find a current Gibson thunderbird that neck dives. Epiphone bolt on necks - yes, Gibson neck through - not in my humble experience. I've only tried one Gibson SG and it didn't neck dive either. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, or maybe I should just take Fender fanboy rants with a grain of salt.
 
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#192
BearCave said:
Just got the notification from Sweetwater that the 55-point inspection was done and my ES-Les Paul Gold Top bass has shipped. It was the first one they got in. They even sent a bunch of pics of the bass (here are a couple). I can't wait! :)

View attachment 615523 View attachment 615525
Click to expand...
I so need one of those!
Please be sure to post a review with pics when you've had a chance to run it through the paces.
PS - post a pic of her backside if you have one.
 
#194
BearCave said:
You got it! No neck dive with this one either because they put lightweight Hipshot tuners on it. Here's a backside pic....
View attachment 615528
Click to expand...
Ok, so I'm the second luckiest guy on the planet. BearCave moves to number one with that bass!

Quick question - is it vol/vol/tone/tone with a typical Les Paul neck/both/bridge toggle?
 
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#196
GBassNorth said:
I must be the luckiest guy on the planet, I have yet to find a current Gibson thunderbird that neck dives. Epiphone bolt on necks - yes, Gibson neck through - not in my humble experience. I've only tried one Gibson SG and it didn't neck dive either. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, or maybe I should just take Fender fanboy rants with a grain of salt.
Click to expand...

The Gibson EB-O and EB-3 basses also don't have any neck dive. Epiphone is a whole different story.
 
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#197
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#198
Watchootognbout said:
Two bass players that I know of that used a Gibson bass was Ralphe Armstrong when he played with Jean-Luc Ponty.He played a fretless RD.


And Stanley Clarke used a Gibson EB2 before he started using Alembic basses.
The thing sounded awful.Like a mortally wounded whoolly mammoth.Listen to his distorted solo at 2:45
Stanley Clarke & Gibson
Stanley Clarke is most famously associated with Alembic, but it is also known that he used a Gibson EB-2 from early on. In the May 1980 Guitar Player, he stated, "Well, I used [a Kent hollowbody bass] until I got a Gibson EB-2, a hollow-body in 11th or 12th grade. It was the worst bass they ever made, but it worked for me and I loved the feeling of it."

The Alembic connection involved a chance meeting with Rick Turner:

GP: By the time you did "Where Have I Known You Before", you were playing string bass only a small part of the time. (This was released 7/1974)

SC: . . . and that's when I got turned onto the Alembic bass. I met Rick Turner when we were playing at the Boarding House in SF, and in a nice way he told me, "Look, you really play well, but your sound is atrocious" He told me to try the bass he had with him; I think it was one of the first alembic basses. So I tried it out and it was great. And I haven't changed since.
Click to expand...


OH god my ears, my ears!!
 
#199
I love my Gibson guitars, but I don't have a Gibson bass. My SG Standard, L-4CES and ES125 are what I call quintessential guitars. When I jumped back into the bass scene I walked right past the Gibson/Epiphone basses and went straight to the Fender section. Bought the honey blonde 50's P. The feel of that neck made my heart thump. Still does.

I don't know why my preferences are that way, but it may have something to do with my youth. When I was a teen back in the 70's my friend played a Gibson SG bass, but we both wanted Precisions. To us kids, Fender made basses and Gibson made guitars.
To this day, I still wouldn't even consider buying a Strat or Tele. A little odd...I know.

However, when I glance at Gibson basses (and the Epiphones too) I admire the quality and craftsmanship. They are beautiful instruments. Maybe someday I'll ignore my prejudices and deign (j/k) to pick one up, just to see what I'm missing.
 
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#200
I had gas for a Les Paul bass and found a brand new one at my local shop. One of the prettiest basses I had ever seen.
I played it at the shop for some time and although others may like the feel of the neck and the way it hangs on a strap, it just wasn't for me.
I really wanted to like it and tried really hard to justify purchasing it, but in the end, it just didn't make sense.
I found the sound of the bass to be almost zingy it was so bright. Upon closer inspection, it had some fit and finish issues with some of the joints and frets.
I could have lived with those, given the depth of gas I was suffering from, but in the end, it just wasn't for me.
Fishheadjoe
 

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