At last, 2015 V-Bass photos

clankenstein · May 08, 2015, 04:24:14 PM

I only want one if the note stops when you bend strings.

ilan · May 09, 2015, 10:47:19 AM

It's comparable to an Alembic Europa with a flame maple top option. I don't see less attention to detail in the Gibson bass, if anything, I see more.

You're looking at a $8,800 price tag [custom quote]. That makes the V 2015 a very good deal.

the mojo hobo · May 09, 2015, 01:12:45 PM

The market for basses costing $4000 and up is limited. If Gibson would build a V bass with ordinary mahogany or swamp ash. offer it in a few different finishes and passive electronics, and sell it for last years Thunderbird prices, it would be a success.

Dave W · May 09, 2015, 06:03:48 PM

I doubt if they expect to sell many.

Highlander · May 10, 2015, 01:08:47 AM

Are talking 20/20 sales...?

Dave W · May 10, 2015, 01:49:32 PM

Quote from: Highlander on May 10, 2015, 01:08:47 AM
Are talking 20/20 sales...?

If that.

uwe · May 11, 2015, 12:20:36 PM

As I said: a capability statement (car makers do that all the time). If the electronics are good, they might crop up in another bass

eb2 · May 11, 2015, 05:27:38 PM

Well, it's a radical departure from what they've been peddling the last few years. I have enjoyed their kind-of retro recycling of EB-0 jr and EB-2 bodies with Thunderbird pups shoved in old EB covers, and their Lets Make A Bach Bird frenzy.

The new EB left me cold though. It just screamed that they're bankrupt of ideas with basses, so they started shoving MM pups into that...thing. Which was eh at best, but, jeez, who didn't do something like that 10 years ago? Ok - Gibson. Now this, whatever, with MM pups and lotsa baby knobs. Sure, it will look great in a copy of Guitar World from 1991. Maybe they can buy Mark King a six pack to endorse it, and he snap and pop a viral YouTube vid for it. And if I were starting a band that just didn't get ANYTHING, I'd play one and have the guitar be a Firebird X. So, if One were looking for a precedent there you go, and a great example of mental disconnect from the meaning of Roman numerals AND letters.

I am responsible for Monkey bass, and the Evertilt. So, I propose the V bass be known as the Vagina bass. I think that it probably feels good and it's fun to play with, but I don't want to spend a lot of time looking too close at it. And if you leave strings hanging on it too long they'll smell funky.

And I think you can expect to pay less for a used one.

Hello, V(agina) bass.

Dave W · May 11, 2015, 07:30:25 PM

Quote from: eb2 on May 11, 2015, 05:27:38 PM
Well, it's a radical departure from what they've been peddling the last few years. I have enjoyed their kind-of retro recycling of EB-0 jr and EB-2 bodies with Thunderbird pups shoved in old EB covers, and their Lets Make A Bach Bird frenzy.

The new EB left me cold though. It just screamed that they're bankrupt of ideas with basses, so they started shoving MM pups into that...thing. Which was eh at best, but, jeez, who didn't do something like that 10 years ago? Ok - Gibson. Now this, whatever, with MM pups and lotsa baby knobs. Sure, it will look great in a copy of Guitar World from 1991. Maybe they can buy Mark King a six pack to endorse it, and he snap and pop a viral YouTube vid for it. And if I were starting a band that just didn't get ANYTHING, I'd play one and have the guitar be a Firebird X. So, if One were looking for a precedent there you go, and a great example of mental disconnect from the meaning of Roman numerals AND letters.

I am responsible for Monkey bass, and the Evertilt. So, I propose the V bass be known as the Vagina bass. I think that it probably feels good and it's fun to play with, but I don't want to spend a lot of time looking too close at it. And if you leave strings hanging on it too long they'll smell funky.

And I think you can expect to pay less for a used one.

Hello, V(agina) bass.

Uwe will be so pleased!

Basvarken · May 11, 2015, 11:23:23 PM

The pickups in the EB and the TBird 2015 are not MM pickups. At all.
Dimensions, shape, radiuses are different. And they're wired differently too.

Highlander · May 12, 2015, 12:17:20 AM

Coarse, I know, but a vagina has a use, even if it's sewn up...?

If we are looking for a name for this beastie, how about going back to the (UK) Punk era for an opinion...

... We're so pretty, oh so pretty, we're Vacant, and we don't care...

The beast is pretty to look at, but Gibson appear vacant of fresh ideas, and they do not appear to care about their market...?

Chris P. · May 12, 2015, 04:21:32 AM

I played the Löwenherz and the electronics are actually quite simple and nice to use. (although I don't like the bass and the looks). It has a seperate active and passive tone control and a switch for all six coils, which works quite nice.

the mojo hobo · May 12, 2015, 06:21:49 AM

The EB is a good bass, it just looks funny. If Gibson had made the EB in the new V body shape with the Thunderbird headstock and the few limited finish options, they would probably still be making them.

eb2 · May 12, 2015, 10:02:02 AM

Vacant, void, Valembic, it's still Vaginal to me.

Quote from: Basvarken on May 11, 2015, 11:23:23 PM
The pickups in the EB and the TBird 2015 are not MM pickups. At all.
Dimensions, shape, radiuses are different. And they're wired differently too.

Yes, and the Yamaha BB pups are not P-bass pups as well. Nothing at all alike.

?

eb2 · May 12, 2015, 10:48:21 AM

I have been so erratic in visiting and posting here over the past few years, due to personal issues more often than not involving death, so I will verbiate a tad on this thing. The Vagina.

Gibson basses over the past decade or so - maybe way back since the SGZ which I still dig oh so much - have been an underwhelming affair at best. This is clearly a company being run by a brain trust ( of one? ) who just don't get anything. Sure, they understand the value of the brand, and the history, and the occasional innovation. They decided that their basses were failures ages back, and the marketplace did as well. They were always different though, and at a time when any bass was unique and innovative, they did alright. I think most of us agree there, and even the venerable Tbird was oddly unique in being a bizzare version of a Fender bass to the extent that it isn't anything like one unless you compare it to an EB-3. As time went on they just were confused.

But more and more this is a sad and rudderless ship of a company that regurgitates whatever trend or idea someone else has been taking their market share away with, and typically several years after the fact. And a run of not exactly reissue basses. The Vagina is undeniably a mindless reaction to everything they do not understand about basses. Are the pups MM Stinkrays? No, not exactly. But clearly they are trading on that design. And they are doing so because those got to be a go-to option to the Alembic-oid soap bars that custom bass designers used, and that Gibson aped a few years back with their black stuff. Both well after they had become a "thing." Kind of like the body shape, construction, electronics, and hardware. This is a deconstruction of Alembic, MM, Fender, Tobias, maybe a touch of Villette Citron, all with a later Tbird headstock? I don't give them that even, as to me they resurrected that idea because people here cooked up the Bach Bird.

I think this thing is not that good looking at all, but that is subjective. What I think the collective bass world will or might see is an Alembic or boutique bass visually. It probably is well built, and plays nice. Just like a lot of basses - even Alembics, or the stuff being cranked out of China. And that is a major yawn. It's the Firebird X.