'74-75 Wine red Grabber, trade for P bass ?

[godofthunder]

I have a line on a '74-'75 Grabber in wine red, the guy might take a MIA P for it. I have a very nice unplayed '08 MIA P white with rosewood, tort guard nice flame on the back of the neck. Think it's a good trade ? http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=569437

[uwe]

Only if the Vintage feel of the Grabber means an awful lot to you. To me, a Grabber always feels a bit cheap in comparison to a good P Bass and - I can't believe that I am writing this! - a P Bass has soundwise both more authority and focus. The Grabber is a middish affair and those mids tend to be all over. Sounds great ona fretless, but on a fretted bass ... The Grabber II is a much better proposition me thinks.

Here I am advocating that F-brand over Gibson ... [ : - < ]

[godofthunder]

The feel of Grabber doesn't mean a whole lot to me, I don't really use the one I have, same could be said for the P basses I have. The only P bass that gets any use is the fretless, 2 songs a night. I like the Kiss connection and I like vintage so that's my interest in this bass. I do have a nice 1980 Grabber in black that cost me all of 450.00. I like the wine red finish, a bit rare and in looking in my bass room I have far to many Fender type basses ! I think value wise they are about equal, the Grabber is Vintage USA while the P is just that a new P not particularly uncommon. Didn't Gene have a wine colored one early on ?

[uwe]

Yes he did and he liked it better over his Rippers because it was raunchier. Which it is, but it also lacks the Ripper's depth and calm authority.

[godofthunder]

Now I really want it !

[uwe]

What have I done ...

"Dear Leo F., whereever you are now (hopefully somewhere where the cloud-resident Commander-in-Chief has suitable own bolt-on experience too!), I wash my hands in innocence, it is not like I did not earnestly try!!!"

[Dave W]

As far as current value goes, they're about equal. You won't get hurt financially by doing the trade.

[Hornisse]

Get it!

[barend]

I like that bass. Never played on a Grabber, but I have played on Rippers and G3's so I guess it feels the same.
I like Gene's Grabber sound and the soundclips of the bass sound really good. So go for it!

[uwe]

It feels exactly like a G-3, but has less bass and presence, with a strong emphasis on the midrange.

[barend]

I play my G3 always with the pickup switch in position 1 (bridge and middle pickup). That sound also has a lot of midrange and less bass, almost like a fusion type jazz bass bridge pickup sound. So I guess I will like the Grabber sound also.

[Hornisse]

On my old G-3 I did a very easy modification.  I reversed the treble and middle pickups.  The up position was the bass and treble pickup, middle position all 3, and down position still the middle and treble pickups. 

[uwe]

Huh? Then the two positions were the same then, what was that good for?

I know some people changed either the middle/treble or the middle/bass to a treble/bass combo on their G-3s for a more Jazz bassy sound.

And I caution anyone to believe that a G-3 wired in any position sounds anything like a Grabber. If a G-3 is a Jazz with more ooomp, than a Grabber is a real dirty P minus the latter's clear presence.

[uwe]

Oooops, correction liebe Hornisse, I misread your post. Now of course it makes sense and is the mod I mentioned (and have on one of my two G-3s, courtesy of the pre-owner).

[Hornisse]

Not a problem Uwe.  It did give a sort of "jazzbassish" tone to it.  But back when I played the G-3 my dad was stationed in Panama and I used the original Monel Gibson bass Flatwounds on her.  Great strings but they were very old and it wasn't until moving back to the States when I put on some GHS Boomers (which I like more now than I did then) that the bass really came alive.