Shaggy

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1990-American-Showster-AS-57-Bel-Air-Special-Edition-Bass-/162046087968?hash=item25bab31320:g:NnAAAOSwJSJXGSxx Quite liking this, but it'd be better with a pair of Thunderbird-type chrome humbuckers

[quote name='fleabag' timestamp='1474487302' post='3138392'] Columbus jazz copies were pretty awful, build wise, but they played well enough . I owned one and made the mistake of stripping the finish to reveal wood. I say the word wood quite loosely It kind of resembled balsa mixed with papier mache [/quote] Also the pickups were only just about barely magnetic, and had the approximate output strength of a gnat's fart I put an old Gibson mudbucker on mine, and it made it into a half-decent bass

[quote name='Funky Dunky' timestamp='1473807408' post='3133356'] Lollars sound superb but are really expensive - I think you can only import them, and shipping alone is $41, not including import/customs taxes. If memory serves the pickup itself is about £90. A good pickup but pretty pricey once you add shipping from the States and import duty etc. Lindy Fralins are highly recommended, but I don't see what all the fuss is about - although to be fair I'm judging them entirely on home-made YouTube demos. I personally really like the Bareknuckle 58 Split P and the Nordstrand NP4, but you're talking £90-£100 for them. Short of replacing your '62 with another '62, you're really looking at something from the DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan ranges for round about the same money. [/quote] This I've used most of the boutique "vintage" split-coil P pickups, and favourite is definitely Lollar, but all those mentioned above are good. I got a a used Lollar on US evilBay for not too much

[quote name='Norris' timestamp='1473878533' post='3133844'] My first SG copy was - action could be measured in metres! I'm not sure if it was an Avon or possibly a Columbus. Awful and probably put me off G-style basses until I got my Thunderbird. Kind of coming back to the OP, Gibson (in my mind) never really "got" the bass. Guitars are great (if you can stand the weight) but basses not quite so. IMHO [/quote] My very first bass was a genuine Gibson, of sorts - a mid-60's Kalamazoo KB-1, all of 25 quid in 1977. Pretty decent by the standard of cheapo basses of the time, despite the fact that Gibson sourced a toilet seat manufacturer to make the MDF body (pre-empting the Bongo, maybe? ) Second was a Columbus Jazz bass copy, of which firewood would be too kind a description. There were indeed some real dogs around back then. As BigRedX says; during the 60's / '70's Gibson basses were hugely popular, but seem to have got left behind in the '80's and been deeply unfashionable ever since. Shame, as in the early days at least Gibson were genuinely innovative, came up with some radical styling designs that are now iconic (and nicked by other high-end manufacturers such as Alembic, PRS etc), had a reputation for using very high quality tonewoods and proper old-school luthiery manufacturing techniques (rather than purely fast output cheap-as-possible machining), and designed and made some of the best pickups around. They wrote the book on manufacturing semi-acoustic guitars and basses, and came up with the humbucker. Some weak points; though personally I've never had an issue with the 3-point bridge that arouses such antipathy - to my mind the only major failing is the weak neck / headstock area on the earlier mahogany-necked basses. But maybe it's a good thing in a way, as vintage examples are still affordable to players, rather than the market being dominated by collectors (as Fender)

[quote name='ped' timestamp='1473582264' post='3131281'] Yes it's a bit of a beast. I'm not sure but I think it's vigier's own or possibly kahler. Very adjustable though and string through body. I could probably clean it up a little with some metal polish but I'm not 100% sure what it's made of. [/quote] Does look like a Kahler That's a beautiful looking bass - a bit of Guild and Rickenbacker styling in that body shape, much prettier than a Status IMO Good score ! Is this the one you had all the shipping hassle with?

I'm sure there's been a few threads on this topic, and bottom line is if you don't get it - you don't get it (as for any brand with a distinctive identity) Most people associate a "Gibson sound" with the typically warm, rather thuddy sound that their mahogany bodied, usually short-scale basses fitted with humbuckers made during the 1960's tended to produce. Since then they've used a range of other tonewoods, pickups, and circuitry - the Grabbers, Rippers and Explorers can sound very "Fendery" and the RD Arists can do about any tone there is. IMHO from the early '60's to the early '80's Gibson pushed the boundaries of bass design in terms of styling and ideas far more than (for instance) Fender and Rickenbacker ever tried to. I'd agree that they've been rather uninspiring since then though I own far too many basses, but Gibsons have always been the core ('58 EB-2, '65 Thunderbird IV, '69 EB-2D, '78 RD Artist, '81 RD Artist CMT) - for me it's because I like the warm, harmonic-rich tone of the earlier basses, I'm a big fan of semi- acoustics, and the playing ergonomics of the reverse-bodied basses suit me. As said above, they look good too.

That Super-400 is just beautiful Good luck with the project, the photography & production look fab

Impressed! always liked the styling of the original Ka too - new one is a bit fugly..... I used to get my Mesa 1516 cab plus head, bass etc in the back of a Rover 25 no problem; limiting factors for getting big cabs into small hatchbacks, apart from the obvious width of rear hatch; seem to be mainly (1) how flat you can get the rear seats and (2) height of the sill of the rear hatch relative to the boot floor

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1472129014' post='3118734'] You were in a band with Boo? Was it The Great Divide by any chance? Boo's a great guy & one of the best songwriters this country has ever produced IMO. Great voice too. [/quote] Before Great Divide / Bible days - just a school band we formed at 16 until 18 called "Nifty Wood" (not very punk, I know) Very raw - only the lead guitarist had decent gear - but two really fantastic singer / songwriters in the band, we split when 2 of us went on to Uni Boo was just plain Mark until we heard his Mum call him "Boo", and it inevitably stuck! I kept a cartoon he did of me (pic below) as it always makes me laugh Back to the OP - semantics are generally irellevant anyway. Most of us here are probably pretty good at the English language, but wouldn't call ourselves Linguists - we just do what comes naturally......

[quote name='Painy' timestamp='1471763519' post='3115562'] Well all of you apart from the drummer obviously . [/quote] Lol - he still isn't! Singer / rhythm guitarist was though; a guy called Boo Hewerdine

Probably like a few others on here I started on bass in the early days of punk, in a school band. On violin (which I was fairly good at, but after seeing the Starnglers in '77 ditched for the next 10 years) I was just making a noise that meant very little to me. On bass, bashing away on an open string with my equally clueless band mates on those first few gigs, we were creating something that moved me inexpressibly - we were musicians

Never knew MM played with them; I'll have to re-listen Slightly off-topic, but the Herbie Hancock keyboard break on "Hunter and the hunted" (New Gold Dream) blows me away every time, it's so beautifully understated

Sound advice above, but mine would always be to put together your own bitsa. My last 4 or so main gigging basses have been self-build P's, and latest one (5th post from bottom of page: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/109268-white-bass-porn-thread/page__st__360 ) blows away any other boutique P bass at any price level I've tried, and probably cost me around £300 all in; body, neck, and tuners sourced used here on BC. You (1) get exactly the spec you want, (2) end up with something that means more to you because you made it, and (3) it's dead easy and fun.....in fact can become addictive! Good luck anyway, and hope you find (or make) a good 'un! Edit: I'd be very tempted by this: http://basschat.co.uk/topic/288461-seafoam-green-usa-parts-built-p-bass/

Met up with Jules for a second trade (I think the first time was in the days of Bassworld!), trading my old Gibson bass for his old Gibson bass - very obligingly on his part, as the trade was my idea (been after one of his basses for a while......) Great guy, pleasure to talk to, hugely knowledgable about vintage basses and Gibsons in particular - he runs the Fly Guitars site - many thanks mate!