My Loaner Bass

[edwardofhuncote]

Just because it's weird, wacky, and you probably never saw one, and may never see another... may even wish you hadn't seen this one!

1987 Gibson Q-80. Rare as... well, it ain't rare in a good way. These things were basically some spare parts they had laying around that got made into some pretty neat basses in a short run, sprayed black, red, or white, and badged "Custom Shop Edition". It has a mahogany Victory-shaped body, they kinda' gave 'em a haircut and a shave, bolted on a maple Explorer neck with a good ol' Hockey Stick 'stock, and stuck in some leftover Grabber type pickups in... wait-for-it... PAIRS! Has a simple passive V-V-T harness. This thing has some snarl about it. Add blacked-out Schaller tuners and roller bridge and all black hardware. I gotta' say - it ain't bad at all. You can't believe how many times I think about showing up for an HGB gig with this thing, all greased up and wearing some faux leopardskin britches and a blonde wig. I would be the King in Franklin County. Or possibly, the Queen.


Seriously, this has sorta' become my loaner bass. I just got it back from my buddy Stewart. His boy wanted to try bass guitar, so I sent it down last Spring. It came back with a new set of strings, and a new cable too, and a nice note from a newly inspired young bass player.


No Alembic content here... just some Nashville lumber. I think it's going to one of my coworkers next. Pictures for fun.

[jazzyvee]

I have to say I don't think I have seen many gibson basses over here in the UK other than maybe the odd firebird which is probably an epiphone version.

[David Houck]

What's that on the inside of the upper horn?

[edwardofhuncote]

What's that on the inside of the upper horn?

That's the spot where Gibson apparently thought the Victory basses should have a strap button. I liked it better in the usual spot out on the end of the horn, but to preserve the originality, I left a black washer in its place and ran a short screw in the unused hole. 

And you know me... I even saved the original oblong strap buttons. They are in the case pocket, stuck to a piece of foam. 

[lembic76450]

I wonder if they did that to avoid the weakness of the end grain. 

[edwardofhuncote]

I wonder if they did that to avoid the weakness of the end grain. 

I dunno'. I do know C.F. Martin & Co. placed their strap buttons in this location on the short-lived EB-18 & EB-28... that was '79-'81, about the same timeframe as the Victory basses. (from whence these parts allegedly came) I wondered if it was just in vogue for a while to locate strap buttons under the upper horn. Personally, I just liked it better with the strap button out on the end... in the boring, more obvious spot. 

[pauldo]

I had a Victory Artist back in the day... it was my “Alembic on a teenagers budget bass” (working at a carpet store with Tom T.).

Double octave neck and active electronics!!!!  wooooo!😎


Pretty sure my strap button was at the end of the upper horn.

Paul (who can’t remember what he had for breakfast)

[gearhed289]

I'm a Gibson fan, thanks for posting.  One of my favorite "rock and roll" basses is my '94 Les Paul with Thunderbird TB+ pickups (The big, black plastic covered ones). I also assembled a FenderBird in 2007 with chrome, guitar-sized TB+ pickups. They're noisy, but have a great, cutting tone.

My “Alembic on a teenagers budget bass” as Pauldo put it, was (is) an aluminum neck Kramer. It had the strap pin under the horn as well. I changed it to the tip eventually. It actually helped the balance a tiny bit. (I also moved the rear one "up" a little bit).

[hankster]

That’s a seriously unusual thing, that bass.  I’m not quite sure what else to say.

[edwardofhuncote]

It's the definition of an odd-duck for sure, but it really does sound good, and sets up/plays great. The aesthetic is... well... dated.

Gibson gets a bad rap in a lot of bass circles, but they make a genuine effort every so often at trying to increase the size of their slice of the pie. Fender owns the big bake shop, we all know that, and you just have to want something else. My other Gibson is a Thunder Series Bass V, a five-string sort of a studio Thunderbird they made at the same time in the 80's advertising they were getting "Back To Bassics". It's an all-mahogany bass, with a set-neck design though. Like the Q-80, Q-90, 20/20 and the companion guitar models, they were discontinued after a short run.

I was talking to our buddy Joey the other night (used to work at Gibson back in the early 90's and I almost did too) tells me they had piles of these unfinished bodies and necks around there. I read one time all that stuff was destroyed in the big Nashville flood. (2010)

[jazzyvee]

This would be my Loaner bass. It's a hand built Vietnamese made bass. I changed the electronics to two sets of John East filter based ones and it has a low pass filters with "CVQ" and high pass filter with gain for each pickup, master volume and pan.  It's my only bolt on neck bass it's 35" scale and has an ebony fretboard. The switch is not connected. It's the bass I have taken to a open mic/jam nights and let others play it without worrying. Really nice sounding bass with a kind of alembic like tonality but not anywhere near the real thing.

[hankster]

I’m not a Gibson-basher at all. I have a ‘69 Les Paul that I love a lot, although it is waaay too heavy to play standing up. And one of my favourite production basses was the Ripper. I’ve just never seen one quite like yours!

[mario_farufyno]

I remember one Gibson bass in the 80s as having an angled neck pickup... probably a loaner as yours, but at the time I was crazy to get one.

[mario_farufyno]

double post, sorry

[edwardofhuncote]

I remember one Gibson bass in the 80s as having an angled neck pickup...

I think you may be remembering the Victory and Victory Artist. They had an angled soapbar. Grabber had a pickup like mine, but mounted on a sliding mechanism. And there was a G-3 with three pickups. Or something...


Never, ever say never with Gibson though. 


*Yep - that's a Victory bass. Purty too!