2018 Gibson basses. New basses, new topic :)

[Highlander]

Uncommon is my forte, Jake...

[Basvarken]

RD Artist is at Sweetwater now

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BARDH18ANCH

[Highlander]

Still screaming for a Les Paul (guitar) switch position...

[Grog]

RD Artist is at Sweetwater now

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BARDH18ANCH

Are you going to add another page to the back of "The Gibson Bass Book"?

[Basvarken]

First I need to sell the remaining books I have!

[Highlander]

How many copies were printed...? Remainder...? Hopefully low figures for the latter... or maybe Henry will pick up the tab and offer to outlet them from their visitor centre...

[Basvarken]

500 printed.
350 sold.

[66Atlas]

I hate buying new basses but I bit the bullet and pre-ordered one. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations.

[uwe]

RD Artist is at Sweetwater now

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/BARDH18ANCH

Wow, I'm in love. There's a black/ebony one too:



Judging by the electronics, the shelved Continental and the likewise shelved follow up boutiqe EB (drowned in the flood) whatchamacallit (some year number was added to it, I forgot which one) return (or rather: show up for the first time for real) in the guise of the ole chestnut RD!

I'm endeared by the natural one (with a rosewood board too as opposed to a maple one as it used to be), though I generally don't go much for natural in general, but with an RD it's kinda classic. All black just gobbles the shape up too much, don't you think?

[4stringer77]

Black is for the Nirvana fans and like that band also boring and played out,(every time I hear teen spirit I'm pushed a little closer to insanity!) not to mention hard to see on stage. Natural is the better looking bass compositionally in terms of contrast and better functionally for seeing the knobs. Any kind of burst would have been more welcome, especially either the historic three tone or the vintage bursts that had some amount of figuring in their maple tops. The starkness of these new ones kind of takes the artistry out the Artist. Corners had to be cut somewhere to keep prices down I suppose. Sad to see the headstock inlay of the old ones gone as well. Hope they come out with a demo to show off how these pickups sound with the preamp (18 volt or 9volt?)

[uwe]

Is it my feeble eyes or do they look a bit more rounded than the original ones?

I believe I saw my first RD around 1977 or so before I had ever consciously seen my first Thunderbird. It looked like no other bass I had ever seen - almost everyone I knew played Fenders (mostly Js, Jaco's influence was making itself felt), a couple of people had Rics (and generally always complained about them for reasons I never understood) - and I was mightily impressed. So that shape creates a warm and fuzzy feeling with me (though the TBird is no doubt  the more elegant design, "TBird accidentally molten in the sun" still describes the RD pretty aptly).

[Granny Gremlin]

A local store got one of the RD 6 bangers in already last week.  A guy I know from around bought it the next day.  Pickups are EMG, and check out the back of the neck:

[veebass]

Well apparently I am safe from temptation. The Australian importer is rumoured to be cactus and no Gibsons or Epis are coming in from what I hear.

[Dave W]

Gibson actually posted an RD pic on their FB page. Amazing that they even acknowledge having a bass in their warehouse.

[FrankieTbird]

Gibson actually posted an RD pic on their FB page. Amazing that they even acknowledge having a bass in their warehouse.

Holy smokes!  Lotsa negative comments on there.  Even more so than usual for Facebook.