Gibson Q-80 Bass

Gibson Custom Shop in 1986
22 medium frets 4 string
1-piece mahogany
2 volumes for each pick up and one tone
2 gibson humbuckers
bolt-on neck 3-piece maple 34" scale fretboard is ebony
the guitar is all high gloss black including the neck
gibson bridge
original gibson hardshell case with all paper work and warranty

i play rock and blues and it suits me fine for both
fender bassman
the one thing i dont like its heavy

great sound
the action is good

i only play at home and i jam for along time and handles everything fine. my bass is all original never had to change anything and everything seem to be fine after 17 years

never had a problem except i had a lose peg fixed and the neck/truss rod needed to be adjusted a few times

i have been playing about 6 years and this is my first bass.
the only thing i wish is that it wasnt heavy.
i like the sound of it the most .
i have had a les paul bass and a fender jazz master but i sold them looking into somthing else this bass wasnt my best but since its been so good to me its my favorite.

This bass was produced by the Gibson Custom Shop in 1986. The body is 1-piece mahogany, it is the same body shape as the Gibson Victory Bass, equipped with 2 passive Gibson humbucking pickups, further it has one volume for each pickup and one master tone. The bridge is Gibson's version of the Schaller 3D4 bridge, also made by Schaller, and is, like the rest of the hardware, black. The finish is ivory. The bolt-on neck is 3-piece maple (34" scale), the fretboard is ebony, with 22 medium frets and pearl dot inlays. The big headstock has explorer shape, similar to Jackson basses with 4 open back Gibson/Schaller tunersmy bass doesn't even have the high gloss clear laquer on the front, the back of the neck has clear satin finish (I have seen other basses having high gloss finished necks in same color as the body. I bought this bass used without a case, the problem is that because of the big headstock it doesn't fit my other bass cases (Fender, Hamer), maybe a case for the Gibson Victory bass will fit. I don't know if it was a regular production model, it was on the 1986 catalogue, but all basses I've seen were Custom Shop models.

This one also has a growl like the Thunderbird bass. This isn't well suited to slapping techniques, best suited to blues and rock, nice sustain, the neck profile is similar to a P-Bass, nice playability, a little bit heavy though. The pickups are okay (they're the same as found on the 80's Gibson Explorer basses), not noisy, I might have switched to other pickups, but there are no replacements for these, I'd prefer trebly sounds, this has a strong bass response, but it sounds well in a band though (maybe because of the fine ebony board). Overall not much sound variety on this bass, but one wouldn't expect that from a passive bass

I bought this bas used, but the finish seems very durable, the action was okay and playability is nice.

This is a quality built instrument, I am not a typical Gibson player, but I got this bass cheap, and it hasn't let me down. I used it for some gigs (without backup) and band practice, but generally I use it for home practice (as my other basses are a little bit more comfortable for playing).

I didn't need any customer support yet.

This is a solid rock bass. This seemed Gibson's effort to get a foot in the heavy metal market, which was popular then. This bass is built well, a little heavy, has top quality hardware (Schaller), nice tonewoods. But as I said, I got this bass cheap, I wouldn't have considered buying it if it would have been more expensive, as I am looking for a different sound as this bass delivers, would fit well to rock/HM-type players, though when necessary would fit for other stuff too (Jonas Hellborg did use a similar Gibson bass for a short time too)