The Last Bass Outpost
Gear Discussion Forums => Gibson Basses => Topic started by: Deathshead on February 17, 2010, 12:42:12 PM
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http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-Les-Paul-SmartWood-5-String-Bass-EXCELLENT_W0QQitemZ270532936468QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item3efd050314 (http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-Les-Paul-SmartWood-5-String-Bass-EXCELLENT_W0QQitemZ270532936468QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item3efd050314)
idk, still doesnt do it for me.. I love the standards though!
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Hmmm, am I tempted? :-[ It is rare. :-X
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Are you tempted? It might be the only one made. I've never seen or heard of one before. Anyone else??
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I feel a collectist urge mounting in me ... :-\
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Aaaaaaaargh, the color, the fretboard, even the gold hardware ... it is growing on me!!!!!!!
(http://images.google.com/url?source=imgres&ct=tbn&q=http://hulkcollection.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/hulk-stuff-5-096.jpg&usg=AFQjCNFcDurIa9hLjIXBRe3Xr8umCGS4mg)
Drag me away, earthlings!
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Alas, I have sinned. Again. Put in a best offer ... None of you held me back. As usual. :-\
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Let's hope he bites!
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http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-USA-LES-PAUL-EB-650-HOLLOW-BODY-BASS-W-OHSC_W0QQitemZ330404219587QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item4ceda04ac3 (http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-USA-LES-PAUL-EB-650-HOLLOW-BODY-BASS-W-OHSC_W0QQitemZ330404219587QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item4ceda04ac3)
EB-650, seems to me like a decent deal, pretty rare basses
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I have one in red. Hulk no collect for fins.
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Top is made from gorgeous exotic Peroba wood with mahogany back & neck with Curapay fretboard. Features Bartolini pickups, Grover tuners and gold hardware throughout. A singularly beautiful guitar.
Are those the "Smart Woods" ?
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If it's hard to pronounce it must be smart wood.
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Are those the "Smart Woods" ?
Morning wood maybe?
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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.............. Completism is your weakness ;)
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Yes, I can't deny it. I always wanted to get a smartwood bass while you guys are caught in a forever time-warp slobbering over the umpteenth sixties TBird! ; - )
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Interesting. 10,000 Maniacs and Steve G. are from my hometown. Over a 15 year period I only ever saw him play Guild Pilots on stage.
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None of you held me back. As usual. :-\
Perhaps a post mortem comment? Gotoh-style bridge+ Barts = ass tone. 8)
Of course, that's just my assessment. :mrgreen: ;)
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ass tone ;)
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Hush. It's for my Level 42 tribute band.
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ass tone ;)
...not the good ass: the bad one, like a midrangey fart, only with less substance and more nasal honk. I don't care if you're into double anal fisting ala John Waters' standup routine, that bass is going to sound like garbage. :P ;D :o
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Clickuh-dee-clack & snap!
I'm no Barts fan myself. They sound alright on my fretless LPs, but that isa about it. That sound - state of the art as it was at the time - has aged about as well as shoulder pads.
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But I don't find it middish at all. The issue is that it lacks mids, it's all sparkling presence and subwoofish lows, no gut in the middle. Hence my slap-bass allusion.
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To me, there are good mids, around 200-300 Hz, and bad mids, anything 500Hz on up. (Can you tell I LOVE the Ampeg tone stack?) Those pickups have, as you said, 'subwoofery' lows, but no low-mid girth to help define the note and set it in a mix. To try and make up for it, they have an insanely exaggerated top end to put "clack and sizzle" in there in an attempt to help give the instrument a voice. The Les Paul bass sounds good and unique because it has a natural low-mid boom that Fenders and Fender-types usually lack. The Barts completely negate that, and add a crappy sound of their own to boot.
Can you guys tell that I'm beginning to get the Gibson bug? What the hell have you done to me? I've always been a passing fan of a GOOD T-Bird or Les Paul bass, but never really considered them "my thing." The ONLY set neck instruments in my house are my Waterstone 12'er and my wife's Guild Bluesbird. Now I find myself drawn to the "mudbucker side."
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Your slowly recovering from fenderitis, a common and vile disease that needs to be eradicated off the face of this earth.
I agree with everything you wrote about the Barts. I wonder if they sound any better without the TCT active circuit?
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Now now, Herr Bassmeister... as Dave explained to me quite succinctly... Fender's have their rightful place... ;)
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Your slowly recovering from fenderitis, a common and vile disease that needs to be eradicated off the face of this earth.
HEY! I resemble that remark!!
(http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j306/apowell1/200px-Curlyhoward.jpg)
(http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j306/apowell1/Electric%20Basses/P-bass.jpg)
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That LP bass was on craigslist in Buffalo for $1400 a week ago. That might help you in choosing a price if you were to put an offer in on it.
Oops, I see that you already put a bid in on it.
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Missed something... "Smart Wood"...?
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Clickuh-dee-clack & snap!
I'm no Barts fan myself. They sound alright on my fretless LPs, but that isa about it. That sound - state of the art as it was at the time - has aged about as well as shoulder pads.
(http://i49.tinypic.com/311uasi.jpg)
Mmmmmmmmmmmm.............Shoulder pads........
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http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-USA-LES-PAUL-EB-650-HOLLOW-BODY-BASS-W-OHSC_W0QQitemZ330404219587QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item4ceda04ac3 (http://cgi.ebay.com/GIBSON-USA-LES-PAUL-EB-650-HOLLOW-BODY-BASS-W-OHSC_W0QQitemZ330404219587QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGuitar?hash=item4ceda04ac3)
EB-650, seems to me like a decent deal, pretty rare basses
GROSSLY overpriced.
We just discussed this over at Jules' place because another EB-650 just went for $1026.11 http://forums.vintageguitars.org.uk/showthread.php?t=2508
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I agree with everything you wrote about the Barts. I wonder if they sound any better without the TCT active circuit?
I doubt it. My G&L (another company whose bass sound is normally very pickup-defined) L5500 which has EMG's (another 'neutral sounding' pickup) and a similar preamp, sounds great, but it doesn't sound like any other G&L. The Bart equipped Les Pauls just sound bad. I guess you could compress the crap outta them in the studio for a psuedo-Ken Smith tone, but it's a crying shame to take such a naturally raucous instrument and for all intents and purposes, neuter its sound. The Designing Women picture is an apt comparison.
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these usually had the preamp too correct?
I know my 96' les paul standard sounded great with the Bart preamp but always thought the pups were Bartolinis but made special for gibson with the chrome covers...Perhaps they were just tb plus's.
Anyway that was the only active bass I ever played that that a tone that was very organic and sweet, the total opposite of alot of active preamp equip basses, However it was a 1 trick pony, but it did that 1 trick very well.
The lp specials with the barts in them didnt sound too great huh? "ass tone"?
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The chrome cover pups on the Standards were TB Plus, initially pumped up via the tct active circuit which was later abandoned. They sound - active or passive - nothing like the Barts. Unsurprisingly they are more akin to the TB Plus soaps in the non-topped budget Special/LPB-1 series, just a bit more aggressive.
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HEY! I resemble that remark!!
(http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j306/apowell1/200px-Curlyhoward.jpg)
(http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j306/apowell1/Electric%20Basses/P-bass.jpg)
That is a nice P, admittedly! Old Brownie.
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Ze deed is done. Vene, vidi, vici.
I came, saw and conquered. 8)
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Will it be displayed in its own ecologically sound Smartwood display case, or will you just put it next to your other Gibsons?
I prefer Dumbwood basses.
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I'll put it next my LP with the rosewood board from the last tree on earth. That'll teach it!
Come on guys, can't you at least fake some enthusiasm for another modern day Gibson rarity? Why am I always the odd man out here? :-\
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I'm excited for your latest conquest.
Can't have too many LP's
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John, you would have made a horrible call girl. :-\ :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
I meant "credible faking".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nNhOH4Y0bI
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Congrats Uwe! I was also wondering if you bought that Custom Shop Explorer that was at Bass Emporium. It was gone last time I was there.
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Congratulations Uwe!
"I'll have what she's having."
Ha haaa haaaaa haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Is that Smartwood the reason Gibson is being trounced? heh
That could make this bass even more valuable.
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paul's rule!
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Is that Smartwood the reason Gibson is being trounced?
More likely it's due to Stupidwood in the executive offices.
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Congrats Uwe! I was also wondering if you bought that Custom Shop Explorer that was at Bass Emporium. It was gone last time I was there.
Naw, I shunned away from that, there was nothing special about it, not the wood, not the pups, not the hardware and not the scale.
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Do you have any 5-string Gibsons tuned EADGC, Uwe?
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Yes, one, a tiger stripe (book matched so perfectly you have to squint your eyes to not be fooled into believing the top is one piece) LP DeLuxe from 1995. Funnily enough, on that the Bart pups and the TCT active circuit sounds pretty forceful. The C string is powerful, but - like all C strings - sounds already quite guitarish. I haven't come across a C string that doesn't sound guitarish on any bass yet - laws of physics I guess.
And of course the two six string EBs (hollow body and SG shape).
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Congratulations! I like it. Don't listen to the others.
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OK... I looked it up... so it's a green fin, yeah...? (or at least it should be... :mrgreen:)
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Gratuliere Uwe! :toast:
We expect a full report when it arrives in Ze Fatherland
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Congratulations! I like it. Don't listen to the others.
I dont remember anyone bashing it???
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Some of my criticisms of similar versions of the bass (90's LP Studio's) were less than charitable. I sincerely hope Uwe's is contrary to my experience with them.
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I've bashed the Barts here myself, there is no disagreement between you and me that they are anodyne affairs as bass pups go. Wonder if the wood will make a real difference in sound.
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Isn't it good... smart bass-guitar wood... :mrgreen:
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I've bashed the Barts here myself, there is no disagreement between you and me that they are anodyne affairs as bass pups go. Wonder if the wood will make a real difference in sound.
Wood matters? Never heard of that! :D
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Isn't it good... smart bass-guitar wood... :mrgreen:
Ha ha Cue the sitar! lol
Smart arse lol
Ironic that Gibson has been claiming that some of the woods they've been using are from Germany.
They are! (After being shipped there from illegally cut trees in Africa)
Now this wood is going back to Germany....