Gibson Musikmesse news

[Barklessdog]

They said they would be back sometime, they just went off  to do their own things for a while.

It's too bad that they could not keep the ego's in check.

Now we just have to suffice with Queens Of The Stone Age.

[Darrol]

SOP for Gibson. But I think SOAD has been in suspended animation for a while now.

Over a year now.

[Blazer]

They just took some rest after that touring they did for years on end. Can you guys blame them? And swamp ash lighter than mahogany? COME ON, ever tried one of those big honkin' Peavey T-40 basses, Or the seventies Fenders or those old Ibanez Roadster basses? They all have in common that they were made from swamp ash and they all weigh a ton.

Anyway, I was in Frankfurt today and here are some of the pictures I took...

[Dave W]

...And swamp ash lighter than mahogany? COME ON, ever tried one of those big honkin' Peavey T-40 basses, Or the seventies Fenders or those old Ibanez Roadster basses? They all have in common that they were made from swamp ash and they all weigh a ton.

Those old Peaveys and Fenders were made with white (northern) ash. Not the same as swamp ash, which isn't a real species anyway. It's just a music marketing term that can cover more than one species. And a fairly recent one at that -- never saw the term used before the early 90s.

But swamp ash can be heavier than mahogany. It's just that you're much more likely to find a lightweight example of swamp ash than white ash.

Thanks for the pictures.

[doombass]

I have a swamp ash body 2001 Fender P. It's very light.

[uwe]

I think they started using the term swamp ash to get away from the "weighs a ton"-image ash had gained in the seventies. That said, a really heavy ash body has its qualities too, it gives a very clear and dense low fundamental. I've never played a light swamp ash bass to say whether they sound different, but I would expect them to sound blurrier and more middish due to less density (= less weight) of the wood. On a bass made for SOAD music, I would expect Gibson to go for heavy ash, because the real low fundamentals aren't really the strongest department in a TBird's sonic range (just play a Ripper or Victory in comparison and you'll know what I mean).

Yes, Chris and his battalion of Holländers fell into my office yesterday night (after our dinner at an Italian restaurant and copious red wine), pillaging and plundering ... no, they were well behaved and suitably in awe though Chris did wonder aloud whether some of the hardware stemmed from the bike my grandfather had stolen from his ...

Anyway, I had four talented Dutch bass players in my room taking turns at playing my basses (and would you believe they actually liked how the 20/20 sounded), slapping (yes!), chording, jazzy fretless playing  what have you, quite an experience. There was a moment when everything was in danger of going pear shaped when Willem (he said it was inadvertently, let's give him the benefit of doubt  ) started to play -    - Mark King's/Level 42's Lessons in Love on one of my Gibbies but after some benign admonishment ("Feuer frei!") he stopped and saw the errors of his ways ... Ardent finger players all of them, they made a conscious effort to hide as many of my picks (generally stuck underneath the strings just below the headstock on my basses) as they could - probably to incentivize my (crappy to non-existent) finger playing a bit!

It was great fun and Chris didn't take his hat off once - I still don't know what's lurking underneath there ...

Uwe

[Barklessdog]

Swamp ash is different only in that it is harvest from logs that have been underwater -\\

Ash (Fraxinus americana):
We have two very different types of Ash: Northern Hard Ash and Swamp Ash (Southern Soft Ash).

Northern Hard Ash is very hard, heavy and dense. A Strat® body will normally weigh 5 lbs. and up. Its density contributes to a bright tone and a long sustain which makes it very popular. Its color is creamy, but it also tends to have heartwood featuring pink to brown tints. The grain pores are open and it takes a lot of finish to fill them up.

Swamp Ash is a prized wood for many reasons. It is a fairly light weight wood which makes it easily distinguishable from Hard Ash. A Strat® body will normally weigh under 5 lbs. Many of the 50's Fenders were made of Swamp Ash. The grain is open and the color is creamy. This wood is a very nice choice for clear finishes. Swamp Ash is our second most popular wood. It is a very musical wood offering a very nice balance of brightness and warmth with a lot of "pop".

[Chris P.]

I'm just back from a couple of days of Messe. Saw some nice things, but of course not at the Gibson stand... But I saw some nice new Kays, new Hagstroms, a cheap new Hofner Club Bass, new Ekos, the beautiful Gretsch Billy Bo Jupiter Thunderbird Bass.

And yes: This time we invaded this German office with a nice little collection of mahogany, magnets and wire. It was great to see Uwes collection at last! Im just back after a six hour drive, so I´ll come back to it later! But it was great the Italian waiter kept up opening new bottles of red wine, Uwe´s collection is more than nice, Uwe was a great host to us all so thanks again!!

[Dave W]

Swamp ash is different only in that it is harvest from logs that have been underwater -\\

Ash (Fraxinus americana):
We have two very different types of Ash: Northern Hard Ash and Swamp Ash (Southern Soft Ash).

Northern Hard Ash is very hard, heavy and dense. A Strat® body will normally weigh 5 lbs. and up. Its density contributes to a bright tone and a long sustain which makes it very popular. Its color is creamy, but it also tends to have heartwood featuring pink to brown tints. The grain pores are open and it takes a lot of finish to fill them up.

Swamp Ash is a prized wood for many reasons. It is a fairly light weight wood which makes it easily distinguishable from Hard Ash. A Strat® body will normally weigh under 5 lbs. Many of the 50's Fenders were made of Swamp Ash. The grain is open and the color is creamy. This wood is a very nice choice for clear finishes. Swamp Ash is our second most popular wood. It is a very musical wood offering a very nice balance of brightness and warmth with a lot of "pop".

This is just Warmoth marketing BS. Fender never claimed in the 50s that any bodies were made from "swamp ash". Warmoth is just selling some softer species as "swamp ash". And there's not enough marketable wood from underwater logs to make me believe that explanation applies to what's being sold as "swamp ash."

[uwe]

Well I'm back from Musik Messe, my son - feverish with a cold but rock'n'roll demands sacrifices from all of us - got an autograph and a gentle smile off Herr Saul Hudson and I did see the Shavo- and the Nikkibird. They are both similar in that they just have a vol and a tone control plus a two way toggle which is probably a kill rather than a pup switch. The Nikki looks more valuable overall, no filler in the maho which gives a rustic but not cheap feel, the flamed maple looks great. The Shavo might have a slightly thicker neck at the headstock and the larger headstock (actually: more massive and wider) is an acquired taste, it looks like someone with a saw did his first attempt at the TBird headstock if you ask me. And I hazard to guess that the true reason for the larger headstock is not so much sound enhancement (headless bass makers would frown at the thought), but of more banal nature: They had to make room for the large vintage open tuners the Shavo comes with. But before you vintage purists get carried away: They are black not chrome!   And all you neck heaviness pansies can now stop massaging your shoulder: It's heavy ash they've used on the Shavo. Both it and the Nikkibird with the maple wings are heavier than a reg TBird would be.

No other apparent differences if you ignore cosmetics like mirror guards and flashy red XX inlays on the dark fretboard of the Nikkibird. Of course the electronics might be different, but I doubt it, pup position is the same as on regular TBirds and it's also the regular dark grey/black soapies you'll find lurking there.  

[Dave W]

Anyway, back to Musikmesse...I'm really glad Uwe, Chris and company had a chance to visit. Wish I could have been there. I would even have brought some extra picks.   

[Chris P.]

Oh, what the hell. I´ll sleep later!

I went to the Messe with my colleagues from the Dutch musicians magazine Musicmaker and the Dutch bass magazine De Bassist. By coincidence our office is like 25 yards from Basvarkens office. I work from home in my spare time, so I don´t speak Rob that often.
When I told Uwe I´d visit his hometown he invited us to join him at a dinner and visit his office. Of course my three bass playing colleagues and I agreed in it!

After the Messe we took a cab to this large office building where I met Uwe for the first time in real life. I hided a small camera in my hat (that's why I didn't took it off...) and I filmed all the chrome parts. The evidence now is to the Dutch warfare office and they'll compare it wth this big list of MIA bicycles.
First we went to this great Italian restaurant near the office, where the waiter kept on opening more bottles of Sicilian wine. The food was great too, BTW. After like four bottles for the five of us (and we already had some free beers at the Messe; we are Dutch guys so we like free stuff), we were confident enough to see Ze Kollektion.

Walking into the office we spotted this corner with the more metal-ish basses like V's. Explorers and RDs. Inside the office all the EBs. Birds, et cetera were standing in rows just asking to be used.

Uwe has this big, skyline overlooking, downtown office, but we were so busy with the basses, we noticed the view only after two hours or so.

We are all different players. Maarten used to be a guitar player, marten is classical trained and a jazz player, Uwe's a pick player, Willem can do everything and I am a bad finger player so we all had our different favourites. I liked the one pupped white bird and the blue non-reversed. It just fitted me like I had played it all my life. Willem liked the old stuff like the Kalamazoos, Maarten went outside with the EB6 for an hour of... I dunno? masturbating? Marten liked the doublecuts.

Uwe told us a lot about all the basses, the history, previous owners, technical stuff and we were standing in line with basses, fighting over who could use the little amp. After like three hours everybody had tried almost everything and it was just nice.

Well, that's it for now. Loes is coming in and she wants Messe stories. More to come later.

BTW: We did mention the war.

[Dave W]

BTW: We did mention the war.

Thanks for the reports, gentlemen. Both on the show and your visit.

Re the Sixx Bird: I'm not really a fan of pore filler but since Gibson has a long history of using it, it's surprising not to find it on a signature bass. Maybe he wanted it that way. Better than the badly glopped-on paint on the Blackbird.

[Barklessdog]

The Shavo might have a slightly thicker neck at the headstock and the larger headstock (actually: more massive and wider) is an acquired taste, it looks like someone with a saw did his first attempt at the TBird headstock if you ask me. And I hazard to guess that the true reason for the larger headstock is not so much sound enhancement (headless bass makers would frown at the thought), but of more banal nature: They had to make room for the large vintage open tuners the Shavo comes with.

I read an interview with him sometime ago, that he has to keep a rack of birds because he keeps breaking the headstocks off jumping around the stage. Maybe that is the reason for the beefier head stock?

[Barklessdog]

Re the Sixx Bird: I'm not really a fan of pore filler but since Gibson has a long history of using it, it's surprising not to find it on a signature bass. Maybe he wanted it that way. Better than the badly glopped-on paint on the Blackbird.

They do that to get a more open & airy tone from the bass, vs pore filler, clogging all that tone, like a Chicago deep dish pizza in your arteries.