Is a Gibson Les Paul bass a good deal for £500?

[Dogame]

A friend of mine says he's broke so he needs some money. He offers me a 1990's Gibson Les Paul bass for £500. The thing works fine but aesthetically repainted and with different pots. Is this one a good deal? Some pics...








Thanks.

[JTUK]

If you want it, it is.... but my feelings is that there would be better value elsewhere.

I never thought Gibson made a decent bass anyway, and very mch a one trick pony and not a very good trick at that, IMV.
I think their value is in style and not substance, and I am not sure about the style of this one, tbh.

If it is your thing, then fine, but I wouldn't buy it to make a buck as I wouldn't be sure of how many others would want it.

I think a decent Squire would eat it alive for less money, but YMMV

Sorry, if that sounds a bit brutal, but just my 2p...

[Lozz196]

[quote name='JTUK' post='897422' date='Jul 17 2010, 05:15 PM']If you want it, it is.... but my feelings is that there would be better value elsewhere.

I never thought Gibson made a decent bass anyway, and very mch a one trick pony and not a very good trick at that, IMV.
I think their value is in style and not substance, and I am not sure about the style of this one, tbh.

If it is your thing, then fine, but I wouldn't buy it to make a buck as I wouldn't be sure of how many others would want it.

I think a decent Squire would eat it alive for less money, but YMMV

Sorry, if that sounds a bit brutal, but just my 2p...[/quote]
I used to have a Gibson Les Paul bass - bit of a different look to the one above though. Was a very rich sounding bass, definately not for slap/noodling, but if rock music is yr thing, they are a very good instrument.

Bit of a niche market, so resale not the easiest of things, but playability was good, and when I had mine, it was abt the only time I ever got non-musicians enquiring abt my bass. So if u want something that is a bit different to the regular, plays well, and has a very deep tone, this could be the one for you.

I bought mine 2nd hand in 2006 & paid £675 for it (inc Gibbo hard-case) so the price isn`t bad at all - especially considering how much they are new, at present.

[Cat Burrito]

Sounds like a fair deal as opposed to a great deal but if it feels & plays well then I would go for it.

[Jamesemt]

I reckon that's pretty cheap - beware there's lots of Gibson bashing on here...

[RichardH]

There's a [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1993-USA-Gibson-Les-Paul-Fretless-Bass-Gibson-case-/170513101135?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item27b35f714f"]fretless one going on eBay[/url] at the mo - looks slightly better nick, but maybe the fretlessness will keep the price down a bit, so that could be a guide to a possible "real world" price.

Edited July 18, 2010 by RichardH

[munkonthehill]

i think the real question that should be asked is why did the guy repaint the bass in that god awful colour!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jamesemt]

[quote name='munkonthehill' post='897803' date='Jul 18 2010, 09:27 AM']i think the real question that should be asked is why did the guy repaint the bass in that god awful colour!!!!!!!!!!!![/quote]

Agreed - I always fancied a 'money' bass in blue

[EBS_freak]

Lots of lovely neck diving...!

[neepheid]

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='897907' date='Jul 18 2010, 11:38 AM']Lots of lovely neck diving...![/quote]

With a nice fat grippy strap, my Les Paul Standard bass does not neck dive. Yes, I was surprised too.

[evilLordJuju]

For a refin, this is an OK price. Not great really, but not that steep either. These are not as desirable as the Standard which is typically £800 - £1000

As a Gibson it will generally retain it's value (although from this point of view a refin isn't a great selling point) - and you should be able to get your money back if you flip it on ebay

Bottom line - try it and let that be the deciding factor

[bubinga5]

sorry bro i disagree with the 'Squire eating a Les Paul alive'...ive played both and the Les Paul is a power house..the early ones were an awsome bass, but heavy...they are a bit of a one trick pony yes, but it really depends on how you play it...i can get some funky sxxt out of one..

i could be wrong but this should have bartolini pickups...and as i said check the weight, they were heavy back then..

you all prob seen this before but like i said its the way you play it

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4151Xvhje4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4151Xvhje4[/url]

[JTUK]

[quote name='bubinga5' post='898817' date='Jul 19 2010, 12:17 PM']sorry bro i disagree with the 'Squire eating a Les Paul alive'...ive played both and the Les Paul is a power house..the early ones were an awsome bass, but heavy...they are a bit of a one trick pony yes, but it really depends on how you play it...i can get some funky sxxt out of one..

i could be wrong but this should have bartolini pickups...and as i said check the weight, they were heavy back then..

you all prob seen this before but like i said its the way you play it

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4151Xvhje4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4151Xvhje4[/url][/quote]

arggggg..... youtube, again..


personally, I wouldn't have either, but I know which one I could have a chance of playing.

Never ever played a decent Gibson bass.... sorry. Thunderbirds, Grabbers...don't talk to me about EB's...!!!!
admittedly, not tried the top end Les Pauls but for their sort of money, there would be way too much competition to get my attention..

You like what you like, because you like it, I guess YMMV...bla bla..

[evilLordJuju]

[quote name='JTUK' post='898909' date='Jul 19 2010, 01:27 PM']never played a decent Gibson bass.... sorry. Thunderbirds, Grabbers...don't talk to me about EB's...!!!![/quote]

Decent? Over 50 years they have been well-built by skillful builders out of high quality materials. Theres been good periods and bad periods, but even in the bad periods there have been great instruments (especially from the Kalamazoo plant)

Now, i'll agree they have very different characteristics to a lot of basses - they are usually set-neck and mahogany - which gives a dark warm tone - often with highly-wound humbuckers - too fat for the clank-loving slappers amongst you... but there are exceptions, even to that.

Gibson have made a [u]lot[/u] of bass models - a lot more than Fender - and they cover just about every scale, wood type, pickup configuration and construction. You simply can not make generalisations about Gibson basses, because Gibson have almost certainly made one that defies your preconceptions.

[JTUK]

But I have never played a decent one... IMHO.
and I think I have had my hands on a few...so couldn't have been that unlucky..

For a start, I am not a fan of humbickers generally... I'd take less winds and thicker gauge over masses of winds as that just boosts
the output over the characater of the pup, which is astupid idea, IME.
I don't like mahogany for the weight and it isn't that pretty a wood natural either..there are far better woods to make a feature of anyway.
Necks has been too planky, action poor and the sound too basic and one diemnsional
I am not a fan of cheaper neck through efforts .....

And of course, I would want my basses to have more variation anyway...so if a bass does the one trick and even then doesn't do it for me...I doubt I am going to get on with it...which happens to be case with the Gibsons, I have tried.
That would allow me to say they haven't made a decent bass as far as I am concerned.

If others like them, then fine...some must do, else they wouldn't make them

But chances are..if I passed a rack of them, I'd pick them up and put them down within 2 minutes..and would be surprised if I didn't.
But, then I could do this with a few Fenders and others for sure.

FWIW, the most disappointing bass I can recall playing was a NY Sadowsky 4 string. I expected so much and got back so little..... I do recall the sound was interesting but it looked and played poorly for the money. It wasn't cheap.

But there you go...

[Sarah5string]

I wouldn't pay £500 for that..

[Dogame]

Hi everyone, thanks for the answers. Actually not only repainted but also non-original tuners (but equal replacements to the original ones). I do recall that neck diving is there BUT sound, to me, is amazing. The Bartolini pre and pickups (as bubinga9 said) are pretty versatile, more than your average Gibson (I've tried a few) and they allow you single coil-alike sound, although the main thing is that you get the typical Gibson tone from Jack Bruce, Gene Simmons and Lemmy during his Hakwind era, so that's a favorable point to me. The guy (a friend of mine) also told me that he can buy it back maybe next year, but who wants to resell if you're supposed to buy because you're gonna use it?
Personally, the cons for me are the refinishing thing, the fact that I should probably sell my "Fender Precision 74 by parts" (I have 3 basses already) and neck diving plus not knowing if I could bring out good sounds with a basic amp (Ashdown MAG, but I was thinking about buying an Ashdown ABM 115 soon...). Music that I play is mainly rock-bluesy 70s stuff, so I guess that is pretty adequate for that one, which is a big pro, though.