Nevermind... (Ping John Fertig!!!!!!!!!)

[Basvarken]

Yeah I did se that thread Uwe.

But the Gibson site now mentions a Baritone Explorer on their site

the info and pics aren't even uploaded yet

http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Electric-Guitars/Explorer/Gibson-USA/Explorer-Baritone.aspx


But the product feature made me think they really mean a Baritone Explorer

Product Features:

Solid Mahogany body with hi-gloss Silverburst finish

Comfortable, "Explorer" bass neck profile

34" scale length Rosewood fingerboard with acrylic dot inlaysPair of "Thunderbird Bass" humbucking pickups with ceramic magnets

In-line Mini Grover™ tuners with 14:1 tuning ratio

[godofthunder]

Say, isn't Gibson supposed to be working on a Non reverse Thunderbird...?

Seems to have stalled

[lowend1]

I guess ya gotta have one to go with this:
http://www.fender.com/products/kurtcobain

[Denis]

I guess ya gotta have one to go with this:
http://www.fender.com/products/kurtcobain

Bogus! He was a lefty and that's a righty Jag. Inaccurate! Heh. 

[uwe]

A Baritone Explorer tuned to guitar B or A in a 34" scale - wouldn't work for anything except cutting bread, the tension would drive guitards away in droves. "Comfortable Explorer bass neck" - yeah, right, guitarists will love it!

[Basvarken]

Baritone guitars are quite popular among Metal guitarists who want to tune down several steps.
My guess is that Gibson is aiming at that part of the market, not bass players who play John Denver songs 

[Dave W]

So is that the way of the future for Gibson then, bringing out lots of new bass models - this would be number 5 (Hobbitbird, Junior, pregnant LP, Explorer and now this here, Shavo Signature and possibly coming Flying V bass not yet counted) within a year - in smaller numbers to gratify collectors and niche people? I wouldn't have thought I'd see the day. Let's face it, Gibson essentially lost the bass battle as early as the fifties, regained some ground in the sixties and early seventies and by the eighties, nineties, noughties and today was back to being a niche and esoteric producer of basses again. If they now highlight exact that image they at least flaunt what they've already got.

Seems so. Still they're showing a severe lack of imagination. No genuine reissues on one hand, no real innovation on the other. How about a decent bridge and something besides TB Plus pickups in non-TB basses? How about some chrome?

The only real change is no Indian rosewood or ebony boards, and that was an unplanned change.

[Basvarken]

something besides TB Plus pickups in non-TB basses?

What about the Ripper II Dave?

[Dave W]

What about the Ripper II Dave?

Are they any different internally?

[uwe]

Yup, Seymour Duncans of single colish nature, nice, but not very rock. But they have the TB Plus equipped basses for that.

[Basvarken]

Uwe beat me to it.
Seymour Duncan indeed
http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/custom-shop/bass-2/ripper_bass_rep/

[uwe]

Yes, but Uwe hasn't forgotten what a nasty piece of work you can be!!!!   "John Denver songs" - hmmmph!  

I'm well aware of Baritone guitars, but you can't chord decently a full octave down from a regularly tuned guitar. So you are stuck with five or seven halfsteps down. And that is unplayable for a guitarist on a 34" scale, they already have issues with a 28" as most baritone guitars tend to be.

This man is an exception, but then he's Dutch and it's a Fender 6 with hardly any chording:







 

[Basvarken]

Worse even; he's from Arnhem!
Every time the words Rock, Arnhem and Band are mentioned in the local papers, Hank the Knife comes along in the next sentence...

[Dave W]

Wow. The one that's not a TB Plus, they have made by someone else. That's some talented pickup design team they have.

[Basvarken]

pickup design team.

I don't think they have one