Gibson RD basses are already an unusual and striking instrument. But what someone did to this RD Standard is… well, as my wife put it, horrifyingly beautiful.
These maple boat anchors aren’t for everyone, but I love them. So when Austin of Trogly’s Guitar Show fame posted this on Reverb last week, I couldn’t help myself:
I happened to have a NOS pickguard and pickup set that I bought off of eBay awhile back as well as a pile of 70s Gibson bass hardware from other restorations, so this was a no-brainer.
I may someday replace the missing maple, but for now it’s a solid player again. I gave it a light level and crown, cleaned up the nut and installed hipshot tuners (this particular instrument was drilled for the smaller machines Gibson was using at the time, not the larger clovers I had on hand), and went about removing and replacing wiring. Gibson used 100K pots on some standards and 300K on others, but I went the easy route with 300K replacements in the original control wiring holes.
The bass set up like a dream, even with a 70s three-point bridge. I could have put a hipshot on it, but the rest of the instrument is horrific - why break with the theme?
I haven’t found anything out in the wilds of the internet about this particular instrument, but if anyone has seen it before I’d love to know more!
These maple boat anchors aren’t for everyone, but I love them. So when Austin of Trogly’s Guitar Show fame posted this on Reverb last week, I couldn’t help myself:
I happened to have a NOS pickguard and pickup set that I bought off of eBay awhile back as well as a pile of 70s Gibson bass hardware from other restorations, so this was a no-brainer.
I may someday replace the missing maple, but for now it’s a solid player again. I gave it a light level and crown, cleaned up the nut and installed hipshot tuners (this particular instrument was drilled for the smaller machines Gibson was using at the time, not the larger clovers I had on hand), and went about removing and replacing wiring. Gibson used 100K pots on some standards and 300K on others, but I went the easy route with 300K replacements in the original control wiring holes.
The bass set up like a dream, even with a 70s three-point bridge. I could have put a hipshot on it, but the rest of the instrument is horrific - why break with the theme?
I haven’t found anything out in the wilds of the internet about this particular instrument, but if anyone has seen it before I’d love to know more!
