GIBSON GRABBER

[Nubus]

A friend of mine recently scored this bass in trade for a crap ESP 6 string. I checked them out on ebay and they dont sell for too much. Is there a reason these aren't so expensive? It's a cool bass... gimmicky but cool. The neck was great on the one I played. Did others not hold up as well?

[dagosto]

They do look pretty cool. They get really high marks on review sites too. I've seen them sell for as low as $150 or as high as $750. This is probably a case where people don't know what they have and if they do they aren't selling.

[Whoopysnorp]

Wasn't this the type of bass that Jerry Casale from Devo cut down to a teardrop body shape and played during Devo's early days?

[GearJunkie]

they also weigh about 3 tons.

[warmowski]

Whoopysnorp is correct, that is Gerald V.'s sawed-off bass.

There's also a variant called the G3 with three fixed pickups instead of the slideable single pickup.

Pierre from Pegboy plays one, Rose from The Poster Children plays one, Gene Simmons played one, and they sound enormous. Like a Thunderbird with a little less in the low mids.

I have noticed that these go for cheap and they are totally worth it: they're kind of like the Peavey T-40 in that they have ridiculously heavy bodies and the tone benefits a lot from that. You WILL hurt your shoulder if you stand with it for long periods of time.

They are cetainly not popular: take advantage of this!

-r

[Whoopysnorp]

Oh man, the Peavey T-40. I don't own one, but I do have custody of my dad's for the moment. I don't really mind the weight, but I eventually decided the tone was just not right for me. Those dual humbuckers are just too much. I think you kind of need single coils on a bass. Also, I find it difficult to play the T-40 without slapping the strings against the pickups and getting a lot of click sounds.

On the other hand, that is one solid and well-made instrument. It's not very forgiving to play, but the construction is top-notch. If some criminal was ever invading my apartment, the first thing I'd go for would be the T-40 because I bet you could totally wallop a guy with it.

[dagosto]

I saw the video for Green Day's "Basket Case" for the first time in years over the weekend. I was suprised to see none other than a Gibson Grabber over the sholder of Mike Dirnt.

[smopo24]

Originally Posted by Whoopysnorp

Oh man, the Peavey T-40. I don't own one, but I do have custody of my dad's for the moment. I don't really mind the weight, but I eventually decided the tone was just not right for me. Those dual humbuckers are just too much. I think you kind of need single coils on a bass. Also, I find it difficult to play the T-40 without slapping the strings against the pickups and getting a lot of click sounds.

On the other hand, that is one solid and well-made instrument. It's not very forgiving to play, but the construction is top-notch. If some criminal was ever invading my apartment, the first thing I'd go for would be the T-40 because I bet you could totally wallop a guy with it.

can't you just swap out the dual humbuckers for a single housed in a humbucker casing? i know they make those style pickups for guitars, but what about basses?

[Whoopysnorp]

Originally Posted by smopo24

can't you just swap out the dual humbuckers for a single housed in a humbucker casing? i know they make those style pickups for guitars, but what about basses?

I've never seen one like that for bass. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen a humbucker-sized single coil for guitars. I've seen P-90s like that, but not singles. That's probably because all you really have to do is just tap the coils in a humbucker to make it single. Actually, according to what I've read the T-40's pickups theoretically become single coils when the volume is below 7 due to some kind of fancy wiring trick, but I never found much use out of it. Anyway, I prefer a bass with a thinner neck and a lighter body (like the J-bass knockoff that I bought).

[smopo24]

http://harmonicdesign.net/allpages/gibsons.html

check those out, harmonic design z-90 pickups:

Our Z-90 is the Original humbucker-size single coil pickup, and will drop right into your stock humbucker routing and mounting rings, with no modifications to the guitar.


oh, and from what i hear, they are as good (if not better) than vintage tom holmes pickups...and cheaper too!