New Gibson Basses. Quite breakinf news.

[uwe]

The EB-6/750ies weren't really new shapes, but once more basses in a guitarish look.

And the Silly Purple Clown Basses never left prototype stage and ended up as the loveless Q-80ies which were Victories at heart.

And do not ache my heart with the Continental V!!!! Out of sheer desperation, I am now looking for a 2009 Ltd Ed Tobias Growler.

[uwe]

Straight from the Nashville horse's mouth:

- The non-revs will definitely come out.

- Followed by the miraculous "2012 bass" (sounds like an innumerate Rush tribute band!*), about which even my source kept tightlipped.

- But before all that - within the next two months - The Fearsome Threesome of the Fat-Bottomed Girls will be completed and the G-3 (II) will make a return - with new design single coil pups.

At this rate a reissue Victory can't be long, after all they are running out of models to rerelease.


*Of course that can't be: If you cover Rush you have to count out so many odd meters you can't afford to be innumerate!


PS: And the Gibson 2009 Ltd Ed Tobias Growler 5-string with set neck and chrome hardware never ever made it into production I just heard: The Nashville flood destroyed all the electronics destined for that bass so they scrapped the project altogether after they had cleaned up again which doesn't speak for too many orders I guess.  

[Basvarken]

A G3 reissue with new single coils?
I bet those will be jazz pickups again just like the RD reissue...

[neepheid]

A G3 reissue with new single coils?
I bet those will be jazz pickups again just like the RD reissue...

Oh, nothing would surprise me.  I would much rather the "reissues" were more authentic.  I feel no desire to own any of these recent models.  But I'll wait until I see it before passing judgement.

[TBird1958]

I give them way more credit than Fender, at least they are doing something with their bass heritage.
 

[uwe]

Speaking of which: They will also rerelease the EB2 - now rechristened Midnight Bass. No joke.

Which makes sense to me. Let's face it: There is no sizeable market out there for reissued old Gibson hollowbody basses, but probably a couple of hundred diehards that would buy one. Those are catered for with a (most likely limited) release of a reissue which after interest dies down is unceremoniously shelved while the TBirds and SG Standard basses remain in the meat and potatoes line.

[patman]

The G3 was the best sounding bass they ever made...a re-issue of that would be awesome.

[dadagoboi]

I give them way more credit than Fender, at least they are doing something with their bass heritage.
 

Fender pretty much makes exact replicas of their iconic instruments as well as modern versions of them.  This is unlike Gibson's weak attempts at reissues.  They don't even use the original EBO and EB-3 names, instead they defer to guitard names that were NEVER used when the basses were new.

Maybe it's easier for Fender because they didn't use leftover guitar bodies to make basses but designed model specific ones.  IIRC except for the original EB, Gibson didn't design a strictly bass body until the 70s.

[dadagoboi]

Speaking of which: They will also rerelease the EB2 - now rechristened Midnight Bass. No joke.

Which makes sense to me. Let's face it: There is no sizeable market out there for reissued old Gibson hollowbody basses, but probably a couple of hundred diehards that would buy one. Those are catered for with a (most likely limited) release of a reissue which after interest dies down is unceremoniously shelved while the TBirds and SG Standard basses remain in the meat and potatoes line.

Doubt it, "Diehards" will have an original, plenty out there and they like the sound...dilettantes on the other hand will jump just like they do for 'New Beetle', New Mini and anything else that gives them that warm and fuzzy nostalgia feeling without actually delivering the essence that made the original unique.

[Dave W]

We know the reissues won't be faithful to the originals, that's pretty much a given considering what they've done in the past few years.

The big question is what the all new bass will be like. Let's hope it's not another regurgitated Tobias design that's been out of fashion since the mid 90s. Hopefully something that keeps a bit of Gibson heritage.

[TBird1958]

Fender pretty much makes exact replicas of their iconic instruments as well as modern versions of them.  This is unlike Gibson's weak attempts at reissues.  They don't even use the original EBO and EB-3 names, instead they defer to guitard names that were NEVER used when the basses were new.

Maybe it's easier for Fender because they didn't use leftover guitar bodies to make basses but designed model specific ones.  IIRC except for the original EB, Gibson didn't design a strictly bass body until the 70s.

Ehhh..........Jaguar. Or that beautiful lefty version they just released. Guitar body, or even worse a leftover lefty guitar body. Yay for FMIC!

[dadagoboi]

Ehhh..........Jaguar. Or that beautiful lefty version they just released. Guitar body, or even worse a leftover lefty guitar body. Yay for FMIC!

Jaguar bass wasn't released until this century.  Jazzmaster was strictly a guitar introduced in 1958; Jaguar, a variation on it, in '62  Fender actually did a prototype Jazzmaster bass but didn't release it, did something else called a 'Jazz Bass'.  Gibson looked at the Jaguar/Jazzmaster, flipped it around and it became the Reverse Firebird/Thunderbird.

[dadagoboi]

Whoops, forgot about Mustang, Bronco and Musicmaster.

[Chris P.]

Exciting! Glad my source was right!

[uwe]

I don't want a modern day reissue of an early sixties bass to be an exact replica - that is so archaic it's laughable. I want it to have an intonateable bridge that doesn't tip forward, I want it to have tuners that don't break my arm when I turn them and I don't want an original mudbucker. I have enough old EB-2s, thank you. I want something sensibly refined and bettered just like I would expect the reissue of a Jag E Type to have an airbag these days, to hell whether that is faithful or not, it just makes sense and saves lives. I come from an engineering country - it's ok to modernize and develop things, we build our economy on it, not on the sale of Kuckucksuhren from the Black Forest that look and work just like two hundred years ago. They are just for American and Asian tourists. Vorsprung durch Technik, liebe Amerikaner!

Nobody I knew ever referred to an EB-0 or -3 as an "EB" unless he was an anointed know-it-all and even then people would have asked him what he meant. Everyone - including me - referred to them as "those SG shape Gibson basses". The term EB is utterly meaning- and descriptionless by itself, it can refer to a "Beatles bass" (EB or EB-1), to an LP Junior (early EB-0), to various SG shaped basses (EB-0, EB-3, EB-4, EB-6 second version, EB-Z, the original name of the SG-Z), but not even all of them (the SB-family, SG-Z, SG RI and SG Standard), to a smaller hollowbody (EB-2, EB-6 first version) or to larger hollowbodies from the nineties (EB-650, EB-750).  EB is a bland abbreviation of electric bass and while SG stands for solid guitar the shape of "an SG" has left a firm imprint in everyone's mind. And if people really need a description you can always say "the guitar the guy in the schoolboy uniform from AC/DC plays!". Try asking someone to tell you the shape of "an EB".

For the record: I don't have an issue with the reissue policy of Fender, they do niche models for the most curious tastes and that is ok in my book. As if Kurt Kobain had ever given a shit whether his Jagmaster (or whatever) was original or not. I detect some vintage elitism on these sacred pages! Get over it, they are tools from another age, nothing less and nothing more. And in fifty years from now people will be holding their breath when they see a current Warwick ("from the age when wood was still allowed for guitar building").