Buy thirty new Gibson basses blind off the rack, put them in a time machine and send them back to bassists in the early seventies, they would be raving about each one of them and Bass Player would run a full feature on the magnificent new TB Plus pup. That's the truth, everything else is just rose-tinted nostalgia. Grabber II, Ripper II and the G-3 Tribute are all better-made than their ancestors and sound rounder, more consistent and more assertive too.
Hey, and Dave, don't knock the Dutch kid if for once he agrees with me!
TB Plus pickups are nice, I love them in my IV. Just a great sound that works in a live band situation straight out of the bag. So agreed, I'm sure people back in the 70s would have been very excited about them.
I would rather have the original G-3 though. But we all know why that is and how sour my experience with the new one was. I have tried both, and there's no rose tinted spectacles here - all happened in the last 5 years. I can't begin to tell you how underwhelmed I was by the Grabber 3 '70's Tribute. Never mind the faults of the two that had brief stays in my house - that flat satin finish was just that - flat and was missing the last stages of care and attention (and buffing) that normally happens. It just looked cheap to me and it pains me so much to speak ill of my favourite brand, but I was really put off. That satin finish honestly reminds me of sticky backed plastic, if you want to get all 70s about it. I doubt very much if you transported me back to the 70s too that my opinion would change either.
You stand an original G-3 next to a Tribute and my eyes and my ears would be drawn to the old gal every time. I'm not old enough to be nostalgic about it the first time round
But you know way more about the relative merits of them all, so perhaps I should curb my insolent tongue
Can't comment on the others, having played neither the new or original ones.