Uwe's RD and me........

[Denis]

At least the J pups don't stand out as much since the bass and the pg are all black. I like certain all black basses and the RD is one of them.
What do those things go for?

I still think a Ripper with an indention in the body woud be a more accurate Krist signature model.

[nofi]

gibsonites, what an unbendable bunch.

[Nocturnal]

I find it a little odd and somewhat lazy on Gibson's part to put the Jazz pickups in this bass. It wouldn't stop me from buying the bass if I wanted one. Fender and Gibson pickups look out of place on the other brands basses, but it isn't the first time Gibson used them. The Sklar bass has 2 Precision pickups and one of those Q80 or Q90 style had a P-J setup. There may be others but I can't think of any right now. The Jazz pickups don't look out of place on this in the same way that a P pickup looks out of place on a EB bass IMO. Using the Jazz pickups on this bass was I'm sure much faster and cheaper than rebuilding the type of pickups that the RD would have originally used, and I'm sure making it true to Krists bass was a convenient excuse for Gibson to make. It does add fuel to the "Gibson doesn't care about basses" outlook as well.

[ilan]

Fender and Gibson pickups look out of place on the other brands basses

Tele bass mark II comes to mind...

[dadagoboi]

Fender and Gibson pickups look out of place on the other brands basses...

[ilan]

I must admit to never liking the shape of J pickups, not even on a Fender J. Skinny little pickups with four bulges. Leo evidently didn't think they were pretty either, and took the effort and expense to hide them under massive chrome covers. Gibson's bass pickups were always more aesthetically pleasing... especially in chrome.

[Dave W]

gibsonites, what an unbendable bunch.

I don't really think Gibson bass fans are any more unbending than any other brand fans. The problem is that Gibson doesn't really care about its bass fans. Yeah, yeah, they offer several limited runs, but none of them even pretend to being legit reissues. They offer crumbs. Yet they can offer dozens of versions of their historic guitar models, enough to satisfy everyone from the customer who wants an exact historic reissue to someone who wants a modern version.

IMHO the most defining part of an electric guitar or bass is its pickups. Gibson offers guitar humbuckers and P-90s with the same construction as the originals. There's not a reason in the world that Gibson couldn't be offering a real mudbucker and chrome 60s construction T-bird pickups. Yet all Gibson offers is variations of the same pickup in every bass*, and it's a pickup of a style that didn't exist back in the heyday of Gibson basses. They even phony it up to look like a real mudbucker in the SG Bass.

Can you imagine a Gibson reissue of the doublecut LP Junior guitar but with an extended upper horn, a completely different design pickup hidden under the cover, and a completely different bridge? It would never sell. Yet Gibson had no problem issuing the EB11, a limited run that still hasn't sold out. No doubt they will use this as an excuse instead of understanding why it hasn't sold.

*except when they use Fender-style pickups to copy the mods on a signature bass.

[Denis]

That's still a beauty!

[dadagoboi]

That's still a beauty!

Thanks, I think it's gonna be even nicer with a Tbird style bridge/tailpiece and a rear control cavity.

[exiledarchangel]

Thanks, I think it's gonna be even nicer with a Tbird style bridge/tailpiece and a rear control cavity.

True, gibby people like it better from behind.

[uwe]

"Skinny little pickups with four bulges."

Unlike Mark herself who is skinny too, but only has one bulge!  

And if I may add: When Gibson does a release of a classic model I expect to still recognize it, yes, but I don't expect it to be a slavish copy. Why should a passive RD have today the same pups as the RD Standard model of yore which only existed for hardly a year and flopped commercially? Because all you guys are such avid RD Standard fans when in this illustrious circle I believe I'm the only one who has one and who actually prefers it to the Artist?  I have the old model (which is not yet prohibitively priced either), give me something that carries the tradition but looks forward.



It's nice to give a nod to the past and I like the RD shape, but nodding isn't nostalgia. I don't see all those people clamoring for an authentic RD Standard queuing up to buy one when they apper an ebay. If they had brought out the new RD with two Music Man pups because that is what Krist used then I would have no issues with it. I wouldn't even have issues with it if they just sounded better than the old RD Standard pups (which by no means sounded bad).

[TBird1958]

True, gibby people like it better from behind.

 There's a certain irony that our lone greek is, errmmmmmm........posting about "getting it from behind" 

 I sure can't speak to Gibson's reasons for chosing to issue the bass this way, perhaps it really was budget. But, by doing what they did and so labeling it as a Sig model it's fine to me as that, Novoselic (Love him and Nirvana or not) did have a bass done just this way, misaligned pole pieces and all, Gibson recreated it - The bigger difference in mind is headstock, it's smaller tho certainly not a deal breaker.

 BTW at this price the bass is a steal compared to a Fender Jaco Sig 

 

[exiledarchangel]

 There's a certain irony that our lone greek is, errmmmmmm........posting about "getting it from behind" 

Had good (online) teachers about the subject I suppose

[ilan]

I don't think Krist's fans would have complained much if the polepieces were aligned to the strings.

[Dave W]

 There's a certain irony that our lone greek is, errmmmmmm........posting about "getting it from behind" 

From Dave Barry's Year In Review 2011:

In Europe, the economic crisis continues to worsen, especially in Greece, which has been operating under a financial model in which the government spends approximately $150 billion a year while taking in revenue totaling $336.50 from the lone Greek taxpayer, an Athens businessman who plans to retire in April. Greece has been making up the shortfall by charging everything to a MasterCard account that the Greek government applied for — in what some critics consider a questionable financial practice — using the name “Germany.”