70's and QC & LP Sigs

[rockinrayduke]

Chris, that's a sharp looking bass! Makes me want to start using my JC at the gigs again.

[Chris P.]

Thanks!


But it's Rob/Basvarken's bass! I used to have a normal JCS but I sold it to finance my SGRI. I'll buy one back once, if possible a sunburst.

[copacetic]

The sunbursts are the 'rarest' of the JCS, I believe they only were issued the first 2 years of production. Jack had a transparant darker red one made up but no matter of convincing has he ever (maybe the finish required too much time) let it get into production.
I see you have a '76 Thunderbird and getting back to one of my original questions on QC in the '70's: how is the overall quality of your '76 T'boid? The reason i origially brought all this up was it seemed to me when they reissued that bass someone had to be paying attention to details. The LP Sig the same especially because that is not a solid block of wood running through the middle. The EB's were obviously turning/fading out by then and they were just an afterthought from what i can tell.

[Chris P.]

Well, I have to say that my Thunderbird is 'heavy relic' . It had a piece of wood nailed (!) to the body as dinger rest and holes where drilled for extra switches. I got it just with holes and I restored it as good as possible.  But it's a very well made bass without any problems. The neck's the best I have. I once did like two gigs and two rehearsals without tuning! Just checking the tuning once in a while.

[uwe]

"The LP Sig the same especially because that is not a solid block of wood running through the middle. The EB's were obviously turning/fading out by then and they were just an afterthought from what i can tell."

That is why the LP Sig is so resonant and a one-of-a-kind semihollow. No ruining sustain block to speak of. In fact, the LP Sig (and the Epi JC following it too, though my Epi fails to even remotely capture the resonance of the Gibson original as its top sounds dead), have a "T-block" in the body, with the "bar" of the T being located at the neck (and thus giving stability) while the "trunk" of the block passes through the body to the back. However, the "trunk" with its scarcely 1/2" height is much lower than the "bar". All it does is probably stiffen the back while the top is allowed to resonate freely. Both EB 2s, EB-650s and EB-750s have huge solid sustain blocks in comparison which are not made of balsa either (which would have preserved some of the resonance), but rockhard maple. In effect, it turns them into solidbodies with just a touch of hollowbody. Played unplugged, an LP Sig sounds louder and more acoustic than any of them even though the EB-650/750 have much larger and thicker bodies. (Except that they are filled to the rim with dead maple.)   

I know they did this to combat feedback in the past, but in this day and age of small bass amps that are incredibly present, in-ear-momitoring, micro-equing etc, feedback protection isn't much of an issue anymore and can be combatted by other means. And I always thought that the word "sustain block" was an euphemism. Sure it adds some sustain on the high notes of a, say, ES, but on EBs stability and feedback-averseness were the key issues to implant it, not sustain enhancement.

[copacetic]

Gibson timing.When the LP Sig came along it was the semi acoustic there was and still will give any a run for the money. Thats why when I heard about the 650 and 750 coming out in the '90's I was so excited even by the pictures. Then when I finally got my hands on them...uh oh! It seemed they tried to defy all expectations and go against the acoustic bass boom burgeoning then. I'll have to say here that Martin did get finally it right even though we are talking a different bass. I would say the LPS was the culmination of what the drawbacks (as semi acoustics go) of the EB -2,next the actually much more acoustic sounding but still wooden block(not sure if maple)but had the great Hagstrom pickups:Guild Starfire, the reactionary Fender Coronado. By this time Gibson had a lot to go on and I quess Les Paul himself came up with the idea of this bass)  In usual Gibson fashion the bass followed the quitar. Gibson is so brilliantly methodical. Mid 70's funk,punk & disco time! They mostly sat on the shelf. I got one and loved it/them still do.But they did sit in their cases for some 20 years. Actually thats why most of the LPS you see are in pretty good condition and I can't even say i have ever seen one modded.Then the JCS which is a modders dream!