Initial Reactions:
When I pulled it out of it's case, it seemed much bigger than I though it was going to be. I guess my expectations where of a Les Paul guitar but with a bigger neck. It's a "bulky" bass guitar. The neck is slightly fatter than my Thunderbird, the body is the thickest of any bass I've ever owned. It's heavy, but mainly body heavy so the weight "felt" by hold it by the neck is somewhat misleading. With a nice padded Brooklyn Gear Comfort strap, it was very reasonable and never become unwieldy (although I only played it for about three songs back to back). I would put it in the 10 lb area, but that's just a guess since I don't own a scale.
The maple top has a somewhat 3D effect. The pictures on the internet make it look like "scales" from reptile, but it's not that pronounced, in fact you can barely feel the ridges. The finish is worn ebony and is applied throughout the body on everything except the rosewood board (which is quite dark itself). The wood knobs don't actually look all that bad on the body, but they do feel cheap. My band mates (all in their 40's +) liked the knobs, then again they're guitards too. The three pickups are set into the body without pickup rings, which on one hand looks weird actually gives your thumb someplace to rest while playing the bass. The fretwork and finish on this bass may perhaps be the best Gibson has produced in the last 10 years. Granted I've never owned a brand new Gibson, from the stories I read around here, the neck feels great with no fret sprout and the finish has no "orange peel".
The three pickups are black, almost glossy in a way finished like the crinkle control plates of the old G&L basses. The neck pickup is set at level with the actual bass top, the middle pickup is up from the top just a little, and the bridge pickup is raised much more as a bridge pickup should be. The controls are VOL VOL VOL TONE and the switch is actually a kill switch like on the Nikki Sixx basses and not a selector switch. The knobs are set up like typical Gibson guitars. Closest to the strings, top to bottom: Middle pup VOL, Bridge pup VOL. Farthest from the strings, top to bottom: Neck pup VOL, Tone.
The bass was set up very well out of the case, just needed a tune up. In fact, for my playing style, it was set up almost perfect. The strings are nice and have a good bright "twang" to them but not overly bright like new strings can be. The neck profile had scared me initially when I had picked up the bass, mainly because it was much fatter than my Thunderbird. It's the standard Les Paul Bass 1.625 at the nut, but while being semi-fat to the back, the neck is very playable to my smaller hands (which prefer Thunderbird necks to everything but '62 RI Jazz necks). It was very comfortable and I had no problems playing Sweet Child 'O Mine on it. The two-point seems to be easier to do set ups on compared to the three point, but then again, I didn't touch it so that's a guess.
The tone: WHOA! I loved playing this bass. I believe the maple top on it really gives that Gibson tone a nice foundation in snap and brightness that the Thunderbirds seem to lack a little. I used this bass in lieu of my Nikki Sixx Blackbird on all my Eb tuned songs, and was almost surprised on how much better it did the job immediately. It's there with the great growl of the Thunderbird, but with an added top end that was almost Fender-ish in presence. It was the best of both worlds for me. This was almost my first set-neck bass and I think that also made a difference when comparing it to my Thunderbird. After playing it at the end of the second set last night, my keyboard player (a drummer and bassist who is a High School Band teacher around here) immediately commented on it and gave it a rave review saying that he "dug it" and was "feeling it" better than my Nikki Sixx. He really was wow-ed by both the look and sound of the bass, he wanted one. I used mainly the bridge pup and middle pickups for most of the songs. I found the neck pickup to be too much for the songs I was playing last night. The greatest thing about this bass has to be the bridge pickup. It has a lot more "power" than the Thunderbird bridge pickups. I could actually use it solo if I wanted and it stayed in the mix without being over powered. When I play my Thunderbird I always have to have the neck pickup on full with the bridge either mixed in or full as well. With this bass, I could use the bridge and still have the "ooomph" there. The neck pickup also gave me a great tone and I enjoyed running middle and bridge pups at full bore. The combination of all three pickups was also nice, added some fatness to the already growly tone.
I'll be added some pics later of the bass, it was rainy today so I didn't get much sun.
PS: Someone PLEASE buy my Nikki Sixx Blackbird in the For Sale forum, I want to buy one of these right away. Otherwise Ze Reich might be getting a Blackbird in the mail...
