The Last Bass Outpost

I usually browse Reverb sales just to see what's offered...

I guess the first thing that came to mind was on my frequent trips to the USA, your businesses do love to advertise things early.  I'm not being asinine here, you do see plenty of advertisements such as 'Come on down to Buckler County Ford, by the Valley Mall Shopping Center on Highway 21 and see the new 2019 SUVs and F-350s', when it's still late Spring/early Summer of 2018.  This applies to guitars as much as vehicles.

Without verification of the serial number, it could be classified as a mid-2017 model, but yes, I concur there's some weirdness.

(I just dropped the image of the reverse into Photoshop...the serial number is blotched out, but at 400% the year of manufacture gets scratchy.  It could read as 2016 or 2018.)

Nice collection Veebass. Do you have a favorite from that group? ...and shame on planetgaffnet for not having at least one Gibson! 

I gave my apologies and left the party last year.  I think I've owned a dozen Gibsons over the years, a lot of Thunderbirds a couple were fabulous, the rest didn't quite live up to expectation, but then I fell in love with Mike Lull stuff.  Go me.

But, um, Henry, people aren't buying them - at least enough to keep you afloat in your current business configuration.

I genuinely love to know some sales returns for Gibson, not stuff still hanging off hooks in guitar stores, stuff that's sold through to the enduser.   There was a video posted up featuring three guys talking about Gibson, one guy was saying that past the $1,000 price point you lose the musician and that that custom shop stuff was priced to appeal to accountants and dentists. 

My local place (Andertons, Guildford, UK) lists around 200 different Gibsons on their website of which 138 carry a price tag of £1.5K or more (multiply this by 1.3 for $$).  They carry six Les Paul guitars with a £5.6K ticket price.  Who is buying this stuff?

Irrespective of Thomann's pricing, it still astounds me that mass (cough) production instruments sell new for so much.  Give it a year, these very same models will be available used for half this or less.

I've raised this dozens of times before, but I can't fathom why Gibson bother doing these limited runs (it doesn't ramp up any excitement really) or just offer it as a catalogue item.  A mate of mine owns one of the Japanese-market IVs in Sapphire Blue.

There seems to be this Thunderbird fever going on at the moment; over on Basschat (UK) there were maybe three or four people who from a legacy perspective championed the II/IV models (me and Neephid amongst them) and all you got back was comments about neck dive (whatever that is).  Now it seems everyone and their dog wants one or plays one.  Gibson are in a lot of trouble...perhaps they need to pick up some of the slack and make basses that people actually want in colours that people actually want too.

I doubt I'll be bidding on it as my company let me go yesterday.  Fools.

Anyhow, the site is Gardiner Houlgate; https://guitar-auctions.co.uk - they're a regular auction house, none of this eBay tomfoolery.  If you check online, I think they still stream the auction live every time and they rip through the lots. 

US listeners/watchers, remember that $134 will buy you £100GBP.  Gasp in horror/excitement as you see US-made instruments for sale over there for $500 sell for double/triple that over here.  It's no wonder bands would buy up instruments when they toured the US and sell them for profit when they got back here.

I know this is kind of a non-Gibson thing (but I only contribute to the Gibson area in this hallowed forum), but I'm blowing my own trumpet as I'm featured in the May 2018 edition of Bass Player in The Real World section.  I very nearly spat out my coffee when I turned the page and saw my name there.

I did the shizz for them over six months ago, so I've kind of rebuilt my gear a bit since submission and I've left the Johnsons, but hey, any exposure is good exposure, huh?  It's nice that Stuart Hill (ex-Dischord band, Shudder To Think) shot me a message earlier saying he was 'very flattered' to see his name up on my Heroes and Inspirations list.

P