Gibson announces Epiphone Grabber reissue

[uwe]

I'm not really impressed by the look. And Grabbers - unlike Rippers - always looked boring in a natural fin. It doesn't really look much different than the first Epi Grabbers of yore.

One other thing: Nearly all Gibson Grabbers (except the very early ones) had a scarfed joint between neck and headstock. Whether you see that as an advantage or a drawback, take your pick, but it allowed a greater neck/headstock angle and nut - ouch! - pressure.

The absence of a sliding pup is self-defeating IMHO, takes away all the fun. Who cares if it made sense or changed the sound much. It's what made a Grabber a Grabber and not a half-assed Precision by Gibson.

[gearHed289]

Headstock shape  and tuner layout is much better than the last Gibson. But overall, not much of interest there for me.

[Basvarken]

Never knew the Grabber pups (also thrown on the 80ies Explorer and the Q-80) were single coil, you live and learn. Never an even decent pup. And RD Standard pups that looked like single coils were stacked humbuckers - strange!

I knew the sliding Grabber pickup is single coil.
But always thought the Explorer and Q-80 had humbuckers

[uwe]

Headstock shape  and tuner layout is much better than the last Gibson. But overall, not much of interest there for me.

Appearances, appearances! Both the Grabber II and the Ripper II were better basses than their originals, with a better, more variable sound. That Grabber II was searing hot and THERE you did hear the sliding pup affect the sound. The best one of the Reissues was however the G3 Tribute.

[ajkula66]

And RD Standard pups that looked like single coils were stacked humbuckers - strange!

I owned an RD Standard for more than a decade in the previous millennium and was utterly clueless about this fact as well...

[uwe]

Welcome to the club, I didn't know that initially either!

https://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/parts/pickup/RDstandardhumbucker.php

They just sounded great. An RD Standard turned up sounds better than an RD Artist with its active hi-fi pups. Of course, they were trying to emulate Alembic at the time and deliver a capability statement. The Standard was only a budget afterthought.

[godofthunder]

  While the bass overall looks good they pulled a "Gibson "  and  blew it on the details. Totally missing the point without a sliding pickup, geeze it's a cheap plastic pickup bolted to plastic sliding plate how hard could it have been? Insult to injury is it's a MM style brick, Totally fng pointless

[uwe]

I don't care about contours, the size of tuners, headstock shape, etc, the central aspect of the Grabber was the sliding pup, otherwise the bass was meat & potatos. Just like for a Rev TBird (or Ric) the neck-thru design is key for me. And a neck-thru P-Bass with a singel coil pup and mahogany body and neck can look as much as the real thing as it wants and depict the Fender logo 100% perfect, it wouldn't be a P-Bass for me. A replica need not copy everything slavishly, but it should capture the essence of the original.

What is worth writing home about this new Epi attempt at a Grabber that wasn't there with their (failed) 90ies attempt everybody - even here - seems to have forgotten about?

[godofthunder]

 So during our little break I got to test drive one of these before they were released. In short it's a perfectly fine $500 bass but it in no way justifies the absurd $999 map, the MM style brick is a absolute wtf moment and has zero historical basis to associate it with Epiphone/Gibson product. The lack of a sliding pickup makes this bass pointless, instead of calling it the Grabber they should have called it the Disappointment.
  Gibson pioneered the one piece maple neck with a scarf joint at the headstock a feature that was introduced on the 70's Grabber and later adopted industry wide yet on this release they abandon it for a three piece neck, totally baffling.
  I can't be the only one who was hoping to use one of these as a parts donor for Grabbers in need of new necks I don't know at present if the new necks will fit but I doubt it as there is a small fret board extension at the bass of the neck.
  Epiphone rarley misses the mark but this Grabber is a disappointment.
 

[4stringer77]

Perhaps the Mike Dirnt sig G3 will be more on the mark for what the traditionalists are hoping for.
Another disappointment was the return of the Victory guitar but no bass. Too bad Epi didn't throw us a bone and put out an Epi Victory.

[Basvarken]

Yeah they really missed a great opportunity here.
They should never have called it Grabber.