Quite breaking news - Gibson Bass Line Up 2016

[Dave W]

Presume like most, clear the old stock off the shelves first...

Just a thought... did anyone ever conclusively figure out why the bass was called the "V" anyway...? after all, it's just gone "V" J day +70...

They have a lot of stock to clear. Supposedly they are considering shipping Grovers to dealers to replace the GForce, but that's not definite.

No idea why they would call it the V-bass. Not a Flying V, no relation to the Basses IV and V from the late 80s.

[neepheid]

No idea why they would call it the V-bass. Not a Flying V, no relation to the Basses IV and V from the late 80s.

I suspect it's because they're bonkers.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I don't believe that it is a mistake for Gibson to bring out brave capability statements like the Firebird X once in a while, as with a prototype or study car some things will inevitably rub off into practice/the regular line, the mistake is to give up the traditional stuff in favor of it.

I agree entirely. I've never taken issue with Gibson on anything but quality relative to pricing, and that included my feelings on the Firebird X.  You'll note Line 6's similar instruments of the same time period that cost much less have also gone the way of the dodo; Henry wasn't alone in thinking samplers that work so well for keyboards were going to work equally well for stringed instruments. Fender may be able to sell ten different versions of a Jazz Bass with mostly miniscule tonal variations while Gibson can have a concurrent EB-0 bass and a T-bird that sound and play worlds apart yet neither sells in droves. Life isn't fair and the best man doesn't generally win (or G&L would own FMIC).

There's a 20/20 I will enjoy trying out one day. I LOVE my closeout EB, and not simply for the deal. The price that MF closed it out moved it from being a passing dream to an attainable dream for me. I was inundated with Gibson basses at the music store in sales and service where I worked in 2002, most of which I had never even heard of prior. I literally strung up an RD before I ever played one: setup and string job on a closet classic that was stored without strings. The neck was fine. I even got the guy to give me an extra day with it to make sure there was nothing wrong with the neck under tension. I've also talked Hobbits with Jim Creeggan. Uwe, this forum gave a name to the forbidden love I never knew existed before: Gibson basses. My one serious regret is never bringing home the blue Money bass that sold at closeout after I left Willis Music for TV full time in 2003. ...and one day I WILL find a Thunderbird I both like and can afford! Until that day, my Epi Les Paul Standard has an identity crisis with Lindy Fralin's Thunderbird pickup recreations making its mystery wood growl and snarl, though the extra frets of the Epi will always lack that singing upper register of a through-body neck.

If they offered a bass with automatic tuners as an extra option, I'd buy one just to see what it is like in practice.

The key words there are bass and option, two items mutually exclusive to Gibson's latest folly. Rather than test the innovation with its most (dare I use the word and risk the wrath of Henry...) liberal, (or at least progressive ) customer base, Gibson tried to force-feed change straight down the throat of its most regressive buyers: Les Paul guitar players. I understand why. Changing the tooling for a limited production-line model would drive up even further the already excessive prices for non-Memphis Gibson basses and potentially kill all bass sales outright.  I imagine the auto-tuning zero fretted LP's were initially pitched as a single model and then ego took over. Maybe Fox news reported that Obama was sniffing around Gibson's electronics factories and impounding brass alloy as a strategic material.

As it is, they're having to dispose of EB pickups and bridges in Thunderbirds, and the EB bass was decidedly LESS quantum of a leap than auto tuners and zero frets. Still, I think it's safe to define Gibson's 2015 marketing plan as hubris and 2016's as regrouping. ...and bassists like you and me would be curious and possibly taken with those features, whose costs already showed up in bass prices. I'm angrier about the Lo-Z Les Paul "reissue's" faux pickups than I am that Gibson would rather be cautious than further expand a misstep.

[doombass]

Up to 40% off on lots of 2015 guitars and the Thunderbird (it is now almost down to the same rock bottom low price of the previous model) in Sweden. While we're at it a songtitle from Swedish band The Hives might be proper:

[planetgaffnet]

The 2015 Thunderbird I tried, tonal irregularities of the EB pickups aside, was a trash instrument with uneven, misshapen body wings of varying thickness, flaking finish and terrible neckdive, even for a T-Bird, and the retail price for that: $2600. With almost any other manufacturer, that price point is for a premium instrument.

I tried a 2015 Thunderbird in Larry Hartke's lounge area in Sam Ash, New York two months ago (I'm a Hartke endorsee, so from that perspective I was on home turf so to speak).  [It] was pretty nasty and to be honest, I couldn't work out or determine what those little switches were actually doing.  With everything full on (my usual fallback position), I was flipping those switches and nothing.

[Basvarken]

single coil mode vs humbucking mode

[planetgaffnet]

Couldn't hear any difference.

[Dave W]

Up to 40% off on lots of 2015 guitars and the Thunderbird (it is now almost down to the same rock bottom low price of the previous model) in Sweden. ...

Prices here are down only 15%, although Gibson's website prices haven't changed yet. I'm guessing the distributors there can set their own prices.

[neepheid]

Couldn't hear any difference.

Cloth ears

[uwe]

The difference is very audible, but there might have been a wiring issue.

You know on which bass those pups sound best? On the G-3 Tribute on which they first came out - as three singlecoils that could be humbucked together. They are not bad on the (now deleted) EBs (-13s) or on the TB either, but on the G-3 Trubute their sound was startling.

[TBird1958]

That G-3 re issue was the SEX. I really liked that bass, killer tone outta that! 

[slinkp]

I'm confused. The G-3 tribute had single coils, how are they related to these humbuckers?
Are you saying they're the exact same coils and magnets?

[Dave W]

I'm confused. The G-3 tribute had single coils, how are they related to these humbuckers?
Are you saying they're the exact same coils and magnets?

He seems to be assuming that. Could be.

AFAIK the 2015 T-Bird pickups are the same Jim DeCola-designed pickups that were in the 2012-2014 EB Bass. The polepieces are alnico V rods. The G3 RI pickups were said to have alnico V magnets but I don't know if the rods ae magnets or if they're steel rods with a magnet below like most Gibson pickups.

[uwe]

The G3 Tribute pups were also done by Jim DeCola, they made a big fuss about them at the time. Yes, they are single coils, but there is always two (or even 3) of them running together (as was the case on the original G3 with the then Bill Lawrence single coils).

Don't ask a lawyer about magnets unless they stick to the fridge, but as the designs came out at practically the same time, look the same and the humbucker version can be switched single coil, I always assumed it to be the single coils doubled - little economic sense in doing an alternative version for a ltd run bass as the G3 Tribute was intended to be from day one.

That said, I can't rule out that the humbuckers were actually designed first and then conveniently "split" for the G3 Tribute, both the now deleted EB and the G3 Tribute were introduced in the fall of 2012 (by which time Jim DeCola had joined Gibson as new master luthier and general pick up guru), and though the G3 hit the shops earlier, I assume that a lot more design preparation had gone into the wholly new EB(-13) - except for the pups, the G3 Tribute was a rerun of the Grabber II -, so the humbucker version might have been the original design. As Gibson really didn't have a single coil bass pup for a G3 reissue, they had to come up with something if they did not want to use Seymour Duncans Fenderish pups again for which they had received a lot of flak on the RD Novoselic Signature (the non-alignment of the pole pieces on that bass to Gibson three-point string spacing is not a pretty sight, let me tell you, though it doesn't affect sound).

Maybe they should have given the G3 Tribute a little more time to gain a reputation and turn it into a regular model after all. Patience with basses isn't great in Nashville.

[Granny Gremlin]

It would end up looking/sounding/feeling like a P bass, and they already did that long ago. It is an Epiphone Accu-bass, and with a little searching you can get one delivered to your door for less than $100. I bought one a month ago and love it.

The accu-bass (nice lawsuit avoiding pun there Gib/Epi), is a literal P copy, but if you want Gibson's take on a P (vs an Epi copy), check out a Victory Standard.  Everything you like about a P, with a bit of TBird growl thrown in  if you want it (along with the headstock shape). ... and pointier, but tastefully so; not too dated (the similarly shaped IV and V look so 80s with the arrow headstock and no pickguard).  I like to call it the P's biker cousin. Rather affordable too.  Amazing neck (wide but shallow - surprisingly comfortable)