Part 2 - Gibson Basses
 | Justin with Gibson RD Artist bass
"It's got flatwounds that are ancient...great, 'cardboard' sort of tone" |
GibsonBass What was your first Gibson bass or Gibson bass experience?
 JMJ A very weird one. I saw an RD Artist at a shop in LA years ago and was blown away by how it looked. Then I picked it up and felt immediately disheartened, because it weighed as much as an SVT cabinet. But the tone was very attractive, and I've used it on various records to good effect...Beck stuff, Ima Robot, and a nice prominent feature on Marianne Faithful's single Sex With Strangers ' from a few years back. It's got flatwounds that are ancient...great, "cardboard" sort of tone.
GibsonBass What Gibson basses do you own now and can you tell us what you like or dislike about them?
JMJ I found another RD artist that looked the same as my other one, and I bought it so I could do one with roundwounds. Turns out it is a sequential serial number after my original one. It's rad, but also heavy beyond compare. Those are great basses, just kind of noisy. The compressor and treble boost are useless to me, but the basic tone is cool, particularly with flats. I've got two mid '70's Rippers; one maple, one black. Love those. Also three Thunderbirds that are from around 1999-2000 eras. One is pelham blue, another natural burst, another natural. They have been worked over pretty severely, with bone nuts, Badass bridges, and chrome new old stock pickups I got from Japan. They sound and play incredible. Oh - and I've got an Epiphone Newport - kind of like an EB-0. Nice.
 | Ebony Ripper and late 90s natural Thunderbird.
The thunderbird has "been worked over pretty severely, with bone nut, Badass bridge, and chrome new old stock pickups" |
GibsonBass Do you find yourself having a favorite Gibson bass?
JMJ My favorite is the natural T-Bird, which is by now quite beat up, but I feel very close to it, and seem to have the ability to play things on it that I can't do on other basses.
GibsonBass Do you do your own work on your basses?
JMJ I can do setups, but not much else. I have a guy who can really do fine things for me and put back together broken stuff, things like that.
GibsonBass What recordings have you used Gibson basses on?
JMJ Ima Robot, Beck, Marianne Faithful, Garbage, Macy Gray, Ken Andrews, and quite a few more. They are in constant use. When I do a session, I have my cartage company bring a couple of Gibsons along always.
GibsonBass Do you ever use Gibson basses in the live setting and with what bands?
JMJ Yeah, with Beck I use my '74 maple Ripper live, my natural T-Bird, and my RD Artist with flatwounds. With Ima Robot, I almost exclusively used the T-Bird; I think most all footage or photos from my time in the band feature me with that bass. [See youtube clips]
GibsonBass What varitone (or other) settings do you use with your Rippers? How would you describe it's tone?
JMJ Ripping. Lots of midrange "note", and a warm, round bottom. Position one on chicken head, treble knob rolled down to 7.
GibsonBass Do you find a big tone difference between the Ebony & Maple Rippers? Which is your favourite?
JMJ Not at all, surprisingly. The natural one is best, it plays better and is a little less beat.
GibsonBass One other Gibson bass that you own is a 1980s model, the headless 20:20. Tell us about that.
JMJ My 20/20 is living in the garage. Plays good. It has a very punchy sound, good for live, it's not my bag in the studio, because the DI sound has that "active" tone that I dislike, but it sounds pretty rad going through an SVT and two 8x10's. It looks pretty retarded, i'm quite fond of it in that Roland G-77/Steinberger way, both of which I also own and have played live. The problem is, when my tech and I do bass changes, the preamp has a 4-5 second delay before it starts functioning after you plug in a 1/4". Strange.
GibsonBass Do you raise eyebrows by bringing a Gibson Bass to a studio gig in a Fender world and have you run into Gibson bass prejudice?
JMJ No, not really. In LA, the people I work with are very open-minded. It's an easy-going scene, and people love hearing different tones too.
GibsonBass Have you tried any of Gibsons newer basses? Any Gibson basses you have your eye on acquiring?
JMJ Just the T-birds I mentioned. I like super deep sounds, so an EB2 is probably in my future as is an EB-0, if I can find some for reasonable prices someday. I also like the Cassidy.
Youtube Video Clips
Justin with Ima Robot - click the images to view clips |
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Two videos by the Ima Robot in which Justin uses a 1999 Thunderbird. Left - Alive. Right - Dynomite |
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