The Last Bass Outpost

They don't like salt.  But I always loved the tune Nashville Cats.  And Pow.  And his harp on the Doors record.  I'd pay to see the guy.

Be well.  God Bless.

I like that 400 bass a lot. 

The Vagina hasn't grown on me yet.  That was too easy.

I have been so erratic in visiting and posting here over the past few years, due to personal issues more often than not involving death, so I will verbiate a tad on this thing. The Vagina.

Gibson basses over the past decade or so - maybe way back since the SGZ which I still dig oh so much - have been an underwhelming affair at best.  This is clearly a company being run by a brain trust ( of one? ) who just don't get anything.  Sure, they understand the value of the brand, and the history, and the occasional innovation.  They decided that their basses were failures ages back, and the marketplace did as well.  They were always different though, and at a time when any bass was unique and innovative, they did alright.  I think most of us agree there, and even the venerable Tbird was oddly unique in being a bizzare version of a Fender bass to the extent that it isn't anything like one unless you compare it to an EB-3.  As time went on they just were confused. 

But more and more this is a sad and rudderless ship of a company that regurgitates whatever trend or idea someone else has been taking their market share away with, and typically several years after the fact.  And a run of not exactly reissue basses.  The Vagina is undeniably a mindless reaction to everything they do not understand about basses.  Are the pups MM Stinkrays?  No, not exactly.  But clearly they are trading on that design.  And they are doing so because those got to be a go-to option to the Alembic-oid soap bars that custom bass designers used, and that Gibson aped a few years back with their black stuff.  Both well after they had become a "thing."  Kind of like the body shape, construction, electronics, and hardware.  This is a deconstruction of Alembic, MM, Fender, Tobias, maybe a touch of Villette Citron, all with a later Tbird headstock?  I don't give them that even, as to me they resurrected that idea because people here cooked up the Bach Bird.

I think this thing is not that good looking at all, but that is subjective.  What I think the collective bass world will or might see is an Alembic or boutique bass visually.  It probably is well built, and plays nice.  Just like a lot of basses - even Alembics, or the stuff being cranked out of China.  And that is a major yawn.  It's the Firebird X.

Well, it's a radical departure from what they've been peddling the last few years. I have enjoyed their kind-of retro recycling of EB-0 jr and EB-2 bodies with Thunderbird pups shoved in old EB covers, and their Lets Make A Bach Bird frenzy. 

The new EB left me cold though. It just screamed that they're bankrupt of ideas with basses, so they started shoving MM pups into that...thing.  Which was eh at best, but, jeez, who didn't do something like that 10 years ago? Ok - Gibson. Now this, whatever, with MM pups and lotsa baby knobs. Sure, it will look great in a copy of Guitar World from 1991. Maybe they can buy Mark King a six pack to endorse it, and he snap and pop a viral YouTube vid for it. And if I were starting a band that just didn't get ANYTHING, I'd play one and have the guitar be a Firebird X. So, if One were looking for a precedent there you go, and a great example of mental disconnect from the meaning of Roman numerals AND letters.

I am responsible for Monkey bass, and the Evertilt. So, I propose the V bass be known as the Vagina bass. I think that it probably feels good and it's fun to play with, but I don't want to spend a lot of time looking too close at it. And if you leave strings hanging on it too long they'll smell funky.

And I think you can expect to pay less for a used one.

Hello, V(agina) bass.

It seems both interesting and confusing.  But in the right project beast, this could be a hoot.

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_Electronics/Components_and_Parts/Capacitors_and_Resistors/G-HUB.html?lac_guid=4ec379ca-91e6-e411-b94e-bc305bee17b9&utm_campaign=EPA_M5065_C_20150420&utm_medium=email&utm_source=EPA#details

We used to call them "Berklee Hybrids." That was all the rage in the late 70's - yank a Jazz neck and bolt it to a P bass body.  The Jazz-bo kids thought the Jazz bass body and pups were shit.  The thin neck on the superior P body and pup was the way to go. In Boston every music shop had one of those show up every month.  The P necks and Jazz bodies got junked.

Here's something rarer than hens teeth:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/131477019062?_mwBanner=1