The Last Bass Outpost

It is not limited to Epiphones - I was stretching the strings on a Gibson Midtown Standard and out popped the post, taking a star shaped chunk out of the finish with it.  Gutted!

Yeow! That is distressing! I wouldn't imagine that to be an issue on an actual Gibson. 

I have a white one and the first thing I did was replace the hardware.

Bass arrives and I check it out. The strings on it were awful, but everything else looked okay. I immediately
knew I wanted a set of Chromes on it. I put them on and start tuning up. The E won't tune - goes up and goes flat etc.

I finally look down and the bridge posts were halfway out of the body! I do not like Gibson 3-point bridges to start with and the Epi version is very much lacking. I went with a black Hipshot SuperTone.

The tuners were meh and manageable but now I had to have black all around, so a set of Hipshot HB6's completed the deal.

Crappy pic but you get the idea.

Thank you Bassilisk. The book is on its way to the USA now 

Got my book yesterday - Wow! I had some things to do so I figured I'd give it a quick skim until I could settle down
and check it out. An hour later I was still "skimming" with hardly a dent in it, everything else on the back burner!

Beautifully done Rob! I am really enjoying it.

P.S. That is quite an impressive a collection Uwe! All the familiars and a slew of never seen(s), for me at any rate.

Rob and Uwe - great stuff, wonderfully executed!

Around 1982-83 I was looking for another body for my '70 Tele bass neck because I had no more wood real estate in the original body to hack up for more/different pickups etc. Here in NYC Rudy's Music Stop had 2 bodies in the window at that time. One was a one-piece Koa Jazz bass body which, after rubbing my nose on the window for months, I finally broke down and bought for $165.

The other was a one-piece Brazilian Rosewood Strat body, and they wanted $350 for it back then.
I remember vividly that it was quite amazing to look at. If it was a bass body there would've been no way I could afford it.

P.S. I still have the Koa bass - it's one of my very favorites and I use it regularly.

I think it was last year when I saw a show on PBS about Elderly. What a cool place. Amazing instruments everywhere and a staff that clearly knows what they're talking about. John Jorgensen of The Hellecasters is not just a regular but gives group lessons at the store!!!

Overall a fine respected establishment. Congrats on having your book there.

Each humbucker's coils are wired in series. The two-pickup circuit is parallel.

Thanks Dave. I'm going to assume a TBird is the same.

Here's my story. Back in '03 I bought my LPB-2 which was loaded with Barts and a Bart pre. I was okay with it for a while but found myself wanting to go passive. At that time HB shapes for bass were pretty limited. I didn't want EMG's and there was very little review info on the Rio Grande Pitbull i.e. (Apparently they've come a long way).

Right around that time Gibson announced they would begin selling chrome TB+ pickups outboard. Great! I had an '02 TBird at this point and really liked its tone palette, meaning it could be a TBird wide open, and tamed down some for more traditional bass sounds.

I get a set and have my tech do the install. I'm pretty sure I used what the TBird had - Gibson 300k pots, 047 caps, wired VT-VT.

I just couldn't get it to sound like the TBIrd, meaning, it was a lot of grindy midrange without much latitude. Not really my cuppa.
Now, this all happened some years ago so exact details are furry. My gear at the time could've been a factor as well. Still, overall I wasn't happy, and that sucked because I really like this bass a lot. It plays so very evenly across the entire neck, and looks pretty good as well with the premium top.

Next option was to try and find the DiMarzio's that Kramers were using at the time (DP121 Model G). These still showed up periodically on ebay and I managed to snag a DiMarzio and a Schaller (basically identical). That's what I have in it now and there's not much difference from what I remember about the TB+. They are very hot and mid heavy, not "toneful" at all.

Now I'm ready to tackle the LP one more time. I made a buddy over at the Gibson forum who put some Alumitones in his LP. He has made several "Strat" Gibsons and wound up with an extra set. He likes them a lot - they are broad spectrum guitar pickups so they don't make a separate neck and bridge model. I will say they look cool as all getout.

This was why I asked about the TB+ - I might want to give them another go. I did see some LP models that went with chrome TB+ with a Bart preamp. Is this the same Bart pre that was used with the Bart pickups or another model?

Sorry for all the questions. This is clearly the only place I can finally get some answers, or at the very least, some good direction.
I've been waiting to ask these for, literally, years. I very much want to get the LP back on the road with regularity.

Much obliged in advance.

Any suggestions for maxing out their versatility?

Thanks for that - I knew you guys would cover it all!

I've noticed that, for a bass that basically became invisible from its outset, it has gotten pretty pricey relatively speaking for an 80's bass.

With examples hovering in the $1K range it sits squarely in the midst of used Fender/MM/G&L territory, not to mention others like Warwick and Spector i.e. With those much more common (and popular) choices available, what would drive the price up? It's only interesting to us fogeys...

The same thing has happened to basses like Peavey's original Rudy Sarzo model. I think I got the last one of those at $425 a couple of years back. I will say it's an excellent bass and easily worth twice my cost, but that connection to the 80's kept it off the radar for a lot of years. Couldn't give them away.

Personally I don't understand this aversion to the 80's connection. I've always felt any well made/good sounding bass, regardless of it's visuals, was something worth having and playing. It seems this is now starting to trend.

When I would bring my '02 TBird to a wedding gig nobody snickered, and it sounded right at home playing Sinatra.
Same for my 80's BC Rich Mockingbird.... Or my '86 Steinberger XL-2.....