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This is why Gibson sucks at making basses...

Haha good point! Fender mandolins suck.

As do their acoustics and a vast majority of their hollowbodies IMO. That's clearly Gibson territory.

That being said, I don't recall anyone playing a Gibson electric piano...:)

Now everyone can return to the Gibson-bashing as scheduled following this short intermission...:D
 
They sunk because Henry J. kept on buying business and not doing anything with them, largely outside of the industry itself. Their guitar business side was always profitable. Not profitable enough to sustain Henry's insane projects though.

^This. A thousand times this.

Gibson under Henry J could easily serve as a case study in how not to run a company for any business school worthy of the name. Yet another victim of the Cult of Charisma that plagues many businesses. Unfortunately for Gibson, Henry wasn’t another Steve Jobs. The only true believer in Henry’s cult was Henry himself.
 
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I always thought they sucked b/c they( gibson) has no history within the bass world,or nothing of significance invested. unlike fender, MM,or even G&L.

That’s really not quite true. They do have a history. Even if their popularity has diminished over time, the TBird and EB-3 have long been a presence in the bass world. And various groups in Gibson invested considerable ingenuity and creativity in producing series of unique basses over the years that failed to gain popularity. Arguably from a lack of serious marketing more than anything else.

Seriously, where is Fender’s innovation? Fender makes two guitars and two basses. All came out in the 50s and except for very minor tweaks and the additional finish colors, have remained essentially unchanged since then. All the “exciting new features” they’ve boasted about over the last few years (contoured heel, wagon wheel truss adjuster, active electronics, compound radius necks, various new pickup formulations, etc.) have all been done years earlier by various companies - and by owners who modded theirs.

Leo ended up leaving the company he founded - but no longer controlled - because he wanted to introduce a newer bass design Fender wasn’t interested in making. And thus Music Man and the Stingray was born.

Even Fender itself was a victim of the same thing when it introduced the superb Dimension series of basses. Their customer base wasn’t having any of this new fangled nonsense. Many of the Fender players who I talked to when it came out told me they didn’t like it. When I asked them if they had actually demoed one yet (since I had) I got told by almost all of them that they hadn’t - and weren't interested in trying one either. So Fender let it quietly die on the vine. Lesson learned.

People say they want innovation. But what they really mean is: “Gimme “new” and “innovative” and “different” - but don’t change anything.”
 
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OP: So wait which is it? Does Gibson suck at making basses, or did they make some great basses you wish they hadn't discontinue? It can't be both.

Some could suck, some could be great.
It actually COULD be both.

Personally, I cant stand the LP shabe for a bass guitar, but hey, that's an opinion.

These guys just didn't appear to take bass makin seriously. Just took their guitars and made em.. "bassier"..


"Hey guys, this guitar doesn't sound bassy enough.. waay too trebly ..(thru this open back guitar amp).. . Leos P bass has a pickup in that so called sweet spot. How bout we move the pickup even further away from the bridge?, and just to make sure people play it this way, only give em the 1 pickup..at the neck..


DONE!!


View attachment 3797591


Hmm.. sounds GRREAT.. but is there a way to mount the pickup ON the neck..just to be sure?..





JMO, of course..

and yes, I have played the silly things too. would NEVER own one personally.

We all get our opinions.

I agree about the LP shaped basses, in fact,
Gibson may be the reason I never liked single cuts,
although Gretsch brought me out of it.

I do like the SG, EB2, and TBird style basses,
which is why I have an Epi SG, Epi TBird, and Fender Coronado II.

All of these were better on my pocket than the Gibson counterpart,
and I'm just as content.

057912
 
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Maybe some thought should be given to almost “reverse engineering “ the situation. Imagine the powers that be at Gibson waking up every day and reading the stuff here where a fair amount of folks have said “you guys stink”. They could be just lying in wait, like a Lion in the tall grass. So a hypothetical board room meeting get’s called, guy says we are going to show all those fools over at TB what we are made of. Gather up all of that leftover wood from the LP, and SG stuff, tomorrow we build!.
 
I've
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gone thru too many basses in last handful of years, this one has stayed with me, one of the best and fastest playing basses i've owned, its just super fun to play and looks cool too imo...