Rare LP standard transition model

[Barklessdog]

You do not see these a lot- it's a one of the first years of the carved top standard with Bart pups, three point bridge & Ice Cream cup headstock and in black!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Gibson-LBP-3-Les-Paul-Electric-Bass-Guitar-USA-RARE_W0QQitemZ110272519529QQihZ001QQcategoryZ64402QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[drbassman]

I saw that too.  I'm thinking about it!

[gweimer]

Maybe all of us who latched onto that just closed T-Bird auction should just jump over to this one while we're still salivating.   

[drbassman]

Maybe all of us who latched onto that just closed T-Bird auction should just jump over to this one while we're still salivating.   

That would work!  GAS is a terrible thing!!!!   

[Blazer]

I like those better than the ones with the angular headstock and the switch on the top half.

[uwe]

It has EMGs. They never came with those to my knowledge. Phil Jones, who conceived the series, was an ardent Bartolini disciple at the time though the Standards came out with TB Plus chrome guitar size humbuckers (as opposed to the Bart pups of the Deluxe sibling series) and the Bart TCT active circuit. Someone must have chucked the TB Plus pups out on this one and replaced them with (active?) EMGs, probably also sacrificing the TCT electronics in the process.

It's a rare early (=pre-Warwick bridge) LP Standard alright, just with non-original pups.

Uwe

[Dave W]

Here's the only regular line guitar humbucker size EMG for bass. Note that it's recommended for under 2" string spread and its internals are P-style. Not for me.

Even though this is a lightweight for a Standard, the 3-point and EMGs would keep me from bidding high on this.

[drbassman]

My thought was to buy it and convert the pups, I hate EMGs.

[doombass]

I saw it also and I suppose it will go too high and also finding the correct TB Plus's is'nt easy (I can do without the TCT). I like that ebony version.

[Basvarken]

Well... if you really want to put those pickups in:

I have my Pearl Export Bass for sale. It's basicly an Epiphone Genesis. It comes from the same Matsumoko factory. Built in the late seventies I think.
You'd have to cannibalise it...

[gweimer]

Ummm...how much?

[Basvarken]

you have email

[uwe]

Cannibalizing the Pearl/Epi would be a crime. That is a fine bass with an idiosyncratic look in its own right. And while the pups would fit sizewise, they are not TB Plus pups, same volume, but less clarity/definition. That said, they fit the bass' maple construction well - mine is strung with D'Addario Chromes and it certainly rocks. Phat bass frequencies and raucuous mids (not much treble definition though).

Uwe 

[Basvarken]

I didn't know that Uwe. I always thought they are TB Plus pickups, and the difference in sound is because of the 50 mm thick maple body...

[uwe]

That's ok, Rob, historically, we've always taught you a lesson or two. Neighbors helping neighbors. 

The Genesis basses stem from the late seventies - that was way more than a decade before TB Plus chrome guitar size pups saw the light (on the LP Standard and the EB-650 in 1992). Even the origin of that type of pup, the plastic soap bar version (unjustly so unpopular here), only came out in 1987 with the Gibson IV and V and, later that year, the reissued modern TBird (the short run 1986 TBirds for Japan still featured Bicentennial pups). To be fair: I've seen the TB Plus soapies also on an allegedly prototype Victory of the mideighties - should have snagged that up while it was on Ebay  - so they might have been around a little earlier than the IV and V, but certainly not as early as the late seventies.

Who was it again from the fold here that put TB Plus guitar size chromies (when they were still retailed) on a maple bass and said they sounded unpleasantly harsh, but liked the sound after they had been transferred to a mahogany bass? Certainly, on the all maple EB-650 I find the sound of them a little too harsh too, it seems like they need warm mahogany to sound just right. In contrast, there is nothing harsh to the all maple Genesis with those pups it uses.

Uwe