Uwe's RD and me........

[TBird1958]

Hey All,

Here's thoughts about Uwe's new RD, that he's let enjoy for the past month - As always, Thank You, Uwe!

I've the chance to have this new Gibson RD Krist Novoselic for about a month now, playing it at band rehearsals and solo, here's a short review and pics. First, it is - no kidding, a big bass! If you're the slightest timid about strapping on an instrument of size and weight this bass is not for you - just move on. Speaking of straps, I used one of my conventional straps adjusted for a T Bird and found the bass sat very nicely on my shoulder and balanced perfect - no kidding here, perfect. The large all Maple body and slightly reduced size of the headstock vs. the original no doubt help. Inevitably, the question of weight arises, Maple is not known to be a light wood, this bass IS heavy, unfortunately for the review - I went to put it on my digital bathroom scale and found it needed a battery, take my word for it here, it's well over 10lbs., but I didn't find it objectionable thru the course of a 2 1/2 hour rehearsal tho. QC on my example is quite good, a very pleasant surprise, all assembly and parts are very well fitted and finished, and the paintwork was in fact exceptional, black gloss can be very difficult to apply neatly, this bass was flawless, really nice work. Gibson has a reputation, not undeserved for questionable QC, I know I've personally seen some less than stellar work from them, but I'll give high praise to this bass, it's nice. The bass uses Gibson's well known 3 point bridge and has the option of body-thru stringing as well, set-up on this one was average to good, certainly comfy enough to play but I'd tweak it a bit to suit my own fussiness. Unlike the original mid '70s bass this variation uses a pair of Seymour Duncan pickups (STK-J2N and STK-J2B) which are a modified design with better hum cancellation and are similar to what Krist used in his original modified RD. I found the neck to easy playing even with my small hands, the profile is rounded, a bit thicker than a T-Bird, and the fret ends were nicely dressed - of note is the  volute on  neck at the nut, I was really prepared to not like this, none of my other basses have one, it's likely purpose is the provide strength as the headstock angles back from the neck. As I played the bass I found it to be a complete non-issue, actually comforatble. Overall the bass has an extremely solid, well made feel to it, I'd bet you could toss it as Krist did his original and likely suffer greatly if it struck you - all with relativly little damage to itself!

At rehearsal with the band I kept both pickups all the way up and worked the tone knob just a little, I'm primarily a pick player and found it easy to get a nice tone with minimal EQing, I found it to be overall rather Fenderesque but darker, likely as a result of the set neck construction. The J bass pickups are certainly the reason for this -  incidentally the misalignment of the pole pieces and the strings had no discernable consequence, no volume differences between strings, etc, note decay is what you'd expect from this design pickup, sharp attack with a quick fall off. It passed thru a rather spirited rehearsal with flying colors, I'd gig with his bass! Later I spent some time with it in my upstairs music room enjoying playing the bass while practicing band music, I try to keep up on my fingerstyle here too. Seated with one leg crossed the bass again balances well with no issues. Dialing out the neck pup and working the bridge only I found the tone a bit thin, varying hand position changed this a little, but realistically you'll likely always want a bit of the pup in the mix to get some bass responce. Soloing the neck pup proved to be a more useful exercise, fingerstyle playing and variation of hand placement give much better result tonally. Overall I like what this bass accomplishes, it's certainly versitile enough.

At some point aesthetics will enter the conversation,  RD's are likely a love it or leave sort of bass for most folks, personally I find them a bit brutish, but likeable compared to a  T Bird, the lower bout reminds me of the jaw on a Coho Salmon.  For those that worry about what their bass looks like at a variety of different gigs this bass may not work, for the rest of us, maybe bass that cops a Fender that doesn't look like one. 



Some pics.....
You know it's here 'cause there's a Subaru near 





Neck volute



Playing hand position variations


As Perry Como said " The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle"...Very nice paint finish!

[Grog]

Another great review! Thats one hell of a volute.......... Maple necks aren't as vulnerable as mahogany necks to snap off, it almost looks like a "Do Claw"....

[uwe]

One day, Bass Player will poach you from work, Mark! They need a little diversity in their editorial board too, you'd cover lots of bas(s)es!

Thanks for the review. Much as I thought. A maple bass is a maple bass is a maple bass. And I love me my volutes. Don't know what sense they make on a maple neck (you hardly ever see them on maho), but they look cool. Warwick does them too.

[ilan]

J pickups on a Gibson... and misaligned too... They should have at least hidden them under different looking covers, IMHO.

[nofi]

the alignment issue seems to be a big bone of contention over at tb...

[TBird1958]

the alignment issue seems to be a big bone of contention over at tb...

There's a pretty high "moron factor" over there..........I need to dumb it down with some pics 

[Dave W]

As long as Gibson insists on using pickups designed for Fender bridge spacing and matching them with a bridge that uses narrower string spacing, there's going to be misalignment. In pickups like these where the polepieces are magnets, this usually won't affect the sound, but it doesn't look right.

Gibson cares about bassists.  

[TBird1958]

True Dave, but.......

This version of the bass is a sig model, Novoselic's was modified in just this fashion, with that in mind, it's completely faithful - love it or hate it.

[uwe]

I didn't know that. If that's the case than anybody buying the bass for the Novoselic signature factor wouldn't have it any other way.

[TBird1958]

Here you go......

[ilan]

And then we go and trash modified EB0's with P pickups and Badass on eBay... There's a fine line between butchered and signature.

[Dave W]

True Dave, but.......

This version of the bass is a sig model, Novoselic's was modified in just this fashion, with that in mind, it's completely faithful - love it or hate it.

I didn't know that. If that's the case than anybody buying the bass for the Novoselic signature factor wouldn't have it any other way.

And then we go and trash modified EB0's with P pickups and Badass on eBay... There's a fine line between butchered and signature.

Right, it's faithful to the original, just like all Gibson basses. Oh wait...

Gibson flat-out refuses to make accurate reissues of their historic bass models, it's strictly a lucky accident that they could do it here. And once again, they have put out a sig model of someone a generation past his prime. Not to mention that he was bassist in a band not known for bass, and he's more famous for conking himself on the head than for his bass playing.

It's all because Gibson cares about bassists. 

Ilan is right, add a signature and suddenly butchery is a marketing tool.

At least Fender's stupid pawn shop series is priced accordingly.

[TBird1958]

Yeah but that's problem Dave. They're Fenders 

[Dave W]

Yeah but that's problem Dave. They're Fenders 

Yet you don't have a problem with Fender style pickups in a Gibson. 

[Barklessdog]

Ilan is right, add a signature and suddenly butchery is a marketing tool.

So true, The Wife, The Tractor, Watt's basses, all seen as butchered if anyone other than someone famous did them.