There is a lot of wood to it and it's a limited run plus the outsize case must cost something too, but other than that it's a TBird minus the time- and materal-consuming neck thru construction. It's priced about right I think. By the ingredients only, it's neither lavish nor a lovelessly cobbled together piece of junk like the 80ies models were. It's a coherent re-release or in fact the first release of a worthy Explorer bass model by Gibson. It infuriates me how they missed the market when everybody and his brother - cue in Rick Savage of the Def Leps - wanted to play the Explorer shape in the early eighties. Had they produced something back then equivalent to the TBird 1987 release, history might have been different.
I wouldn't be surprised if Warwick's comparative success with the Stryker kick-started some action by Gibson here. It's a bit like Gibson building a bass with a Thumb-like look and Warwick not having an equivalent for it. Of course, that doesn't happen with a well-prepared, diligent Teutonic Kömpänie knowing its market. Mad German scientists, however, held the design plans the wrong way up and look what we are left with:
These Krauts, how they overengineer every- and anything ...
And now for something completely different: Did you know that, strictly as a bass player, I personally think that Adam Clayton ...
