Gibson RD Standard Bass

I own a Gibson RD Standard U.S.made on July 26, 1977. It was the 75th in production. The body has a basic houglass shape, kind of a cross between a thunderbird and another bass. It has 20 jumbo frets on a maple neck and two volume and one tone knob. It is a long scale and weighs a ton! The pickups are the thin jazz style. They are passive. The neck is set (no bolts, glued)and as far as I can tell, the body is maple with a natural finish although it has darkened over the years. Bridge is string through body and it has non-locking gibson tuners. Basically, a very no-frills bass.

The sound is'nt bad although the pickups don't have enough "umph" for my liking. I play through a Mesa/Boogie 400+ so, amplification is not a problem. I've tried it with and without compression as well as an Electro-Harmonix bass balls peddle. It has a warm, full sound and jazzy highs. I've played it live a few times only to be dissapointed by the next guy playing having to turn down the amp. It has no push but the sound ain't bad at all. Mostly, I play older rock and some country. On my own, I play just about anything. I believe this bass may be more suited to the jazz type players out there.

As for set-up, I've done some intonation work and it turned out o.k. I'm only a few months older than this beast so, as for factory settings I haven't a clue. Would'nt be fair to rate it but, given the age and how it does play, it's not too bad.

At twenty-six year of age and all still original and working, this bass is definetly rode worthy! I did'nt find it so impressive live but, the pickups can be replaced or adjusted. I'd say, the biggest problem would be the weight. It outways my buddy's 72 p-bass by a good five pounds. So, prepar to bring a chiropractor along for the tour, if you are'nt just playing local week-end gigs. I doubt very much if this bass would wear-out very quick.

Any warranty or such is long extinct on this puppy. However, the gibson website was very helpfull in dating the bass. It had no mention of it other than that however.

I've been playing for twelve years and most of it was in bands and on the road. I've got a lot of miles on me for a young guy. But, nightly bar room dates since fourteen do that to ya. I've played mostlry through a Fender P-bass and a Yamaha BBN5 which I very much regret selling last year. I also have a Samick fretless, bought just to see how they were. My amp is a Mesa/Boogie 400+ that I will someday be burried in. As for the Gibson RD, I like it. I like that it's kind of a classic. I also like the sound and tones. However, I am not overly impressed with it. The price was right and I went for it. For 150 bucks, ya can't really go wrong! Kind of one of those pawn shop type deals where you buy something you like and hold on to it. Hey, it was a Gibson. I'd never played one of their basses before and I'll more than likely be holding onto this one for a while.

bought it in 1978 at a going out of buisness sale for 260 dollars. it is solid maple and sounds great.if you play this bass for long it will wear your shoulder out because it is heavy !!!!! records very well,stays in tune very well,and can take alot of heavy playing no problem.2 pickups.also have an old eb o gibson bass that will blow an amp in a heartbeat if you ever had one you know ,very powerful. rd standard is a very cool bass if you have a chance snag one.

Pretty much the same as the RD described above. Except my RD is ALL maple - body and neck - nice natural finish, maple fretboard too. It's a 1977. Otherwise tuners, pups, and pots are all the same as the RD described above. I got mine luckily with the original hard shell case, though I had to replace the broken handle on it.

The RD is really quiet. I'm not an authority on bass tone, but it sounds great. It cuts through the live mix with my band nicely. I have not recorded with it yet, but I have a feeling it'll sit in the mix very well. I gig through a solid state SVT 350. I'm a guitarist who's only been at bass for two years and I often find it hard to describe bass tones. But this is a good one, that's all I can say. It's bright and linear - how's that?

The bass is set up well. I really havn't had to tweak anything since I bought it. Given it's age I'd say it's in GREAT shape. The action is good overall, but the neck is LONG and the shape of the bass requires me to really pay attention to where my fingers are. Unlike my #1 - a Fender P which is a breeze to play, the RD requires a little more effort. But it does look really cool, not alot of people out playing these. Stays in tune fairly well too.

It's a '77 and it doesn't look like it's aged much. It weighs a ton. Unless the neck goes south on me I'd say this bass will be around for a long time to come. I did install Dunlop straploks otherwise it's hitting the floor. I wouldn't gig without a backup, it's too heavy. But it is reliable for sure.

Don't need 'em. I actually have the original owners manual, not that I need it but it's cool for historical value.

I've been playing guitar for going on 20 years and bass for going on 3 in a busy band. I mainly bought the RD for it's historical value. It's very cool. It's nowhere near as fast or comfortable as my Fender P but I'll hang on to it.

The RD Standard was the passive-electronics version of the RD Artist, and there aren't quite as many electronics options present. Like most Gibsons, this is a 20 fret bass, with an ebony fretboard and mother-of-pearl dot inlays. The body shape is almost like a mirror-image Thunderbird.
As far as hardware is concerned, this bass has 2 passive humbucking J-style pickups in a neck/bridge position. Each pickup has its own volume pot, and there is one tone pot shared between the two. On the inside of the back cavity, etched into the grounding foil, was a schematic diagram showing the pickup/pot connections and values. Headstock features Les-Paul style 2-per-side elephant-ear tuners. Because the neck and body are both painted black (not even listed under the possible colors for the instrument in Gibson's dating catalogue). Frets are Jumbo, and when I bought mine, were still in great shape after several years. Only downside I can see to this instrument is that the body furrows require special extra-long scale strings to be used. However, the strings still fit fine in the bridge without using the furrows.
Mine was a 78, and I bought used at a Cash Converters, cheap as borscht, and as such there was some work to do on it. The previous owner had replaced the strap buttons with large-diameter screws and washers (cheap home-made strap-lok mechanism is my guess), and it had few chips on the bottom on the protruding side. Also, I didn't get a case with it, and I'm still having problems finding one- I can't even find a gig bag that fits it. Nonetheless, it was a steal, as about 90% of the hardware was in perfect shape.

I play a lot of different styles of music- everything from rock to blues to jazz/fusion, all about equally. I've run it through a number of amps- from my little Crate practice amp, to my massive Peavey TKO, and either way I can get an incredibly varied tone out of the bass. Each pickup pulls its own weight, and after a proper pickup balancing I can get everything from a basey Blues tone, to a Jaco-esque tone playing near the bridge. On stage, it's silent, and in the studio it's equally quiet. My only gripe was the poor job of grounding that I found when I first bought the instrument- a couple minutes with a soldering iron, and cavity grounding compound, and everything was fine. It took some work, but the sound was definitely worth it. It sounds a lot like a Thunderbird '78.

When I picked this up, The action looked like it had never been adjusted. I played it, and noticed it was really high, but thanks to the 3-screw bridge (the same one used on the new Thunderbirds), I was able to lower it substantially. Once lowered, it played like a champ.
The fretwork wasn't hideous, but like a lot of other basses from Gibson at this period, the frets could have been filed a little better on the sides- I haven't cut myself ever, but it may be possible...
The nut was perfectly cut, making the lower ranges even easier to play once the bridge had been lowered. The controls were all in place as they should have been, save for one pickup screw that was missing. When I took it apart to clean it, I just replaced the screw and spring. No problem.
The finish is the black/black finish found on quite a few of the earlier RD's. The Gibson logo on the headstock has a crack on the "G", but that's really no big complaint. The inlay was in good shape too. Aside from some arm wear that wore through the finish on the body, and a couple small chips taken off from dropping, everything was perfect, most importantly the neck.

Well, this thing turns 22 this year, and it's still alive and kicking. It's built like a tank, the neck/body joint is still solid (glue joint), although there is some sign of either droppage, or re-setting on mine. The strap-buttons were solid after I replaced them and filled the holes appropriately. My other main bass is a '78 Jazz, and it really is superior to the RD in terms of action and speed, but I still use the RD as my workhorse in most situations. It looks cool, it's dependable, the neck hasn't shown any sign of unwanted bowing or warping, so it's definitely low-maintainence. I play it in the studio as much as on stage, and about as equally as the '78 Jazz, so that should say a lot.

I've only had this instrument for about a year, but I've already fallen in love with it. I had considered selling it before, but once I gave it some minor rebuilding, I just couldn't bring myself to let it go. At the price is was a tremendous value, in fact, I wasn't even looking for a bass when I went into the pawn shop- but I left with the bass nonetheless.
The tone of this instrument is a lot like a cross between a Thunderbird and a Jazz bass. The low tones get rumbly, the bridge tones are just sweet- truly original. The weight of this instrument is probably the worst thing about it- I built a 5-string fretless a couple years back using a maple neck and Oak body, and the RD is a good 5 pounds heavier than that, so be advised this is no Alder special here. I wish the pots weren't quite as worn out as they were when I bought it, because it took quite a bit of work to clean them out suitably. A fun instrument that looks cool, has a great tone, and is built like a swiss watch. You can't beat it for the price.