No Gibson's??

[BearCave]

It showed up today! Only got to spend a few minutes with it checking the controls and tone. Very deep, throaty tone. Came strung with flatwounds. Fast neck (just like a regular Les Paul), very light....no neck dive. Fast player. I'll try to give a more thorough review when I get more time with it. Beautiful, awesome bass.

 

[BassHappy]

It showed up today! Only got to spend a few minutes with it checking the controls and tone. Very deep, throaty tone. Came strung with flatwounds. Fast neck (just like a regular Les Paul), very light....no neck dive. Fast player. I'll try to give a more thorough review when I get more time with it. Beautiful, awesome bass.

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Congrats! Nice NICE bass~

Would love to hear some clips if you have a chance.....

 

[shadven]

Plenty of Thunderbird LOVE here..........RD's and any other Gibson's are welcome too, they're the path less taken - c'mon on over!


At my house fenders are car parts

I love your band Tbird. I hope you are still going strong because man, that is some fun!!

 

[georgiagoodie]

It showed up today! Only got to spend a few minutes with it checking the controls and tone. Very deep, throaty tone. Came strung with flatwounds. Fast neck (just like a regular Les Paul), very light....no neck dive. Fast player. I'll try to give a more thorough review when I get more time with it. Beautiful, awesome bass.

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I dig it.

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[Ianhin]

Me

Congrats! Nice NICE bass~

Would love to hear some clips if you have a chance.....

Me too!

 

[GBassNorth]

Me

Me too!

Me three!

 

[ctmullins]

I found the sound of the bass to be almost zingy it was so bright.

No it wasn't. It was muddy. It is a well-established and indisputable TalkBass fact that all Gibson basses are muddy. Your ears must be defective.

 

[GBassNorth]

No it wasn't. It was muddy. It is a well-established and indisputable TalkBass fact that all Gibson basses are muddy. Your ears must be defective.

Not only that, the neck weighed like 300 pounds and drug on the floor just like EVERY Gibson does.

In fact, not only do all Gibsons sound like mud and drag on the floor, they also cost ten times more than any MIA Fender while having a complete lack of quality control and total disdain for international wood protection laws.

Gee, its kinda easy being a Fender fanboy and making stuff up that isn't true, maybe I'll pick on Rics next.

 

[PianoOfDoom]

I really want a TBird next, but I will probably have to go Epi.

 

[UK Philip]

I completely agree! The "Gibsons sound like mud" statement is rooted in complete ignorance of the brand and all of its different models and options which leads me to believe that the myth is continuing to be perpetuated by totally incompetent self proclaimed "bass players" that play with their computer keyboards more than their basses.

thunderbird? like them.
hollow-bodies? like them.
EB (modern 34" incarnation)? really like them.

but the SG is always just so underwhelming. those basses, to my ear, manage to sound both muddy and a little bit tinny at the same time. even after the price-hike!

 

[bholder]

thunderbird? like them.
hollow-bodies? like them.
EB (modern 34" incarnation)? really like them.

but the SG is always just so underwhelming. those basses, to my ear, manage to sound both muddy and a little bit tinny at the same time. even after the price-hike!

I'm hoping I solved this - bought an EB-3 with the electronics gutted, going to try the Guild BiSonic reissues first, if those don't cut it, I'll be placing another order with Mr. Novak.

Edit: In the interests of disclosure, it just arrived, I must admit I'd forgotten it was an Epi not a Gibson, though just consider the amount I paid would have told me that as well. Slapped a HipShot Supertone I had laying around on it, a set of old DR hi beams I had just taken off another bass, and stuck on the Lace thinline pickup that I use for such purposes on to it with double sided foam tape, just to hear it. I think this is going to work out rather nicely. I have more than enough JC basses to satisfy my Jack Casady wannabe needs, time to get caught up on my Jack Bruce wannabe practicing!

 

[GBassNorth]

thunderbird? like them.
hollow-bodies? like them.
EB (modern 34" incarnation)? really like them.

but the SG is always just so underwhelming. those basses, to my ear, manage to sound both muddy and a little bit tinny at the same time. even after the price-hike!

I'm right with ya on the first three. Love the sounds I can get out of my Gibson thunderbird and the way it feels and looks. Haven't played the new hollowbody Gibson yet but that new Goldtop Memphis is competing with a new Alembic for my next major bass purchase. The EB looks and sounds interesting, kind of Gibsons take on a Fender and will probably be my next used bass purchase.

Where our experience differs is on the Gibson SG bass. The one I have is relatively light, completely flawless, plays like a dream and has a range of sounds that go from deep dark buttery lows to crystal clear highs. You can peek at my profile and see I have a lot of nice basses, but this is the only bass I own that I'm actively looking to duplicate so I'll have a spare in case anything happens to this one. Its my go to bass right now and gets about as much play time as all my other basses combined. YMMV.

 

[fuzzychaos]

Wasn't a fan until I played around with a Gibson EB. Very nice.

 

[Chef]

Gibson still make basses?
Who knew...............


I had an EB-something a million years ago. It sucked.
I had a Les Paul Studio/Recording bass for a minute...whichever that was called. It had some nice enough tones in it but it weighed a ton and it was short scale.
I had an Epiphone Jack Casady bass that had one good tone (IMO), and the bridge pulled out of it.
And then I was done.

 

[Joe Nerve]

It showed up today! Only got to spend a few minutes with it checking the controls and tone. Very deep, throaty tone. Came strung with flatwounds. Fast neck (just like a regular Les Paul), very light....no neck dive. Fast player. I'll try to give a more thorough review when I get more time with it. Beautiful, awesome bass.

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I hate that bass.

I hate it because I really want it, but it's too expensive to justify. If it were under a grand, I'd buy it, but I know it'll never be my main player and would wind up spending most of its time in my house on a stand.

Perhaps I'll put it on my bucket list for the day that I have money to burn.

Congrats. I'm jealous .

 

[Rocker949]

Gibson still make basses?
Who knew...............


I had an EB-something a million years ago. It sucked.
I had a Les Paul Studio/Recording bass for a minute...whichever that was called. It had some nice enough tones in it but it weighed a ton and it was short scale.
I had an Epiphone Jack Casady bass that had one good tone (IMO), and the bridge pulled out of it.
And then I was done.

I agree that Les Pauls weigh too much for me to ever consider. For people who don't mind a heavy bass, they may be all right. Fender has some heavy basses, too, though. I have a friend who has played most Gibson basses through the years and is very familiar with them. His experience with the Jack Casady bass was much the same as yours. On the other hand, strictly speaking, it really isn't a Gibson anyway. It's just my personal opinion, but I view the gap between Gibson and Epiphone to be pretty great. I could give some examples, but I think I'm stating the obvious even without them. The point is, though, there are plenty of Gibson basses out there. Some people have had success with them. This includes Jack Bruce--someone who wasn't exactly an amateur. The EB type Gibsons--that is the EB-O/EB-3/SG tend not to be as highly regarded as, for example, the TBirds, Gibson's most popular bass. But I'm in the minority I suppose and have had great success with those types of basses.

 

[fuzzychaos]

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still my favorite Gibson, then the Gibson EB

 

[TBird1958]

I love your band Tbird. I hope you are still going strong because man, that is some fun!!

Absolutely! I had to take about 5 months to take care of a bad right shoulder - Just returned from a very good two day trip

 

[hrodbert696]

The odd thing I find about Gibson is that a number of the basses seem to be derived from guitars - 4 string SGs etc. Perhaps basses derived from guitars is not a good thing.

That's pretty much what Tony Bacon thought in the Bass Book. Gibson focused on their guitars and most of their bass designs are pretty much their guitars with longer necks - the SG, Les Paul, TBird (from the Explorer), etc. There are exceptions - the Grabbers and Rippers, the EB - but they don't seem to have pushed them or kept making them as long. Fender's bass designs did interact with guitar designs - from the Tele to the P to the Strat to the J - but it was more like Leo was using ideas and experience from each instrument's design to influence a fresh design on the next model. A P, even an early P, isn't a Tele with a bass neck.

The marketing is also probably very much an issue. Lots of people are testifying that their Gibsons don't sound muddy or neck dive. That's great. But a lot of people's do, and how much opportunity do most people get to try out three or four examples till they find the right one? When a Gibson is that scarce and that expensive, you're not going to get many chances to try others if you don't like one, and will be less accepting of flaws you do find in one. And the problems are that much more prevalent in the budget lines (I don't hear even the Gibson fans advocating Epiphones on this thread), so you get a lot less people cutting their teeth on an SG or Les Paul bass and feeling it's "theirs," then upgrading to the proper Gibsons. Squiers and MIM Fenders may have their own quality issues at times, especially in the past, but a lot of people got happily acclimated to Ps and Js with them.

So, I hear and appreciate that there are a bunch of Gibson fans, and that's great. But there are some pretty clear reasons why they're more of a minority compared to fans of Gibson guitars in 25" scale world.

 

[MAJOR METAL]

It showed up today! Only got to spend a few minutes with it checking the controls and tone. Very deep, throaty tone. Came strung with flatwounds. Fast neck (just like a regular Les Paul), very light....no neck dive. Fast player. I'll try to give a more thorough review when I get more time with it. Beautiful, awesome bass.

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How is it working out for you?