Gibson V Bass

I bought a used 1897 Gibson V bass. (Not a flying V) It's a 5 string all mahogany body and neck. Ebony fretboard with offset dot markers, a triangular headstock .(much like a flying V) that is painted black with a 'mother-of-pearl' Gibson logo and a 'V' denoting the 5 strings. It has black (Gotoh-styled) Gibson tuners and a black Shaller-styled 5 string bridge. It's body is double cutaway, rounded 'strat' style body. 2 passive soapbar pickups - 2 volume knobs and one tone knob. The brownish-red mahogany body has a tung-oil finish. The serial number indicates it was made in September of 1987 at Gibson's Nashville plant.

The sound is similar to a Thunderbird, but with the low B string it gives it a little more to the charateristic Gibson growl. Clean tones are warm and round; distortion tones can get pleasingly crunchy. Great for rock or jazz. Fans of active pickups might not be satisfied with the passive output.

The neck is still straight and the action can be set pretty low without fret buzz. The neck is not much wider than a traditional 4-string...comfortable to play! The pickups have spring adjustable screws for height ajustment...but the maximum height is the only setting that was really useable. Since I bought the bass used...the oil finish had dried out considerably - but an application of oil brought out a lot of the bass' original color. It's relatively light in weight for a Gibson bass!

The bass has survived a good amount of playing judging from some wear to the body. The tuners still are relatively tight and don't go out of tune easily. The finish is being restored by my application of oil, but it would have been obviously better if it hadn't been allowed to dry out in the first place. Someone had installed Schaller strap-lock buttons that I am continuing to use.

Since I bought it used on eBay, there is no real support for the bass. The person who sold it to me was helpful in decoding the serial number that provided the date and origin of the guitar.

I've been playing bass for 12 years and this is my first Gibson and my first 5 string. I really like the string spacing and the action. I wish I had asked for better pictures of the bass; It's my first oil-finish bass - I would get another one for the tone, but would make sure it had been regularly oiled and not allowed to dry out. This bass serves many purposes...the tone of a Thunderbird (without the huge price!!!) and the expanded range of a 5 string. I've seen other Gibson V's on eBay...but all were finished a white/cream color with a Fender like lacquer. If I lost this bass I would seek out another one.

I remember seeing this hanging on the rack at FOCUS guitars (a long defunct guitar store out in Long Island, NY). The dark blue stain like paint, rosewood neck, oversized "V" headstock, and the black pick guard and pickups gave it an evil look. It was the Gibson V formula brought directly to the bass, and I thought it was cool.

A few years later I found out an old bass player friend of mine had bought that very bass not long after I saw it in the store. He bought it as a backup bass originally. However, he couldn't leave well enough alone, and ruined it by literally throwing out the old pickguard and electronics and putting on a mirror pickguard with a pair of cream bass humbucking Dimarzio pickups. For $100 bucks I bought it anyway, no case.

This one was made late in 1981 at Kalamazoo. It has 2 volumes and 1 tone, and a 3 way switch - the original layout of the pots, switch and jack might have been inline, but I changed it to 2 above/2 below. It originally had 2 Gibson pickups, which may have been small humbuckers - or big single coils.

Luckily, I found an old vintage Gibson V case, very beat up, but it was cheap. Probably for a guitar but the bass fit. Most anyone would probably believe it was the original case. Note to anyone buying a new guitar: ALWAYS PURCHASE AN ORIGINAL CASE WITH YOUR GUITAR!!!

The whole pickguard and electronics assembly has been changed. I couldn't deal with the mirror pickguard, and didn't have any of the original parts (bogus!), so eventually I cut out my own black pickguard. I fitted it with 2 Carvin M22SD humbuckers (yes, guitar pickups!) and Dimarzio pots, and a black 3 way switch.

The sound is, well, noisy and aggressive. It doesn't have as much punch because of the guitar like setup, but more than makes up for it with the rough sound, which is what I wanted. See my band's website and you'll get the idea: http://www.deadfoot.com

The action on this beast really sucked. The neck was warped, not unplayable but not much fun past the first 5 frets or so.

So I did a few things to mitigate the problem. First thing is I made some truss rod adjustments to reel it in a bit. Next I cleaned up the frets and neck with some steel wool and some Old English furniture polish. I replacement the crappy stock plastic nut with a black graphite one, raising it a bit higher than stock. Last thing I did was replace the 2 middle saddles in the bridge with lower units to make the string heights more equal - the original setup had the 2 middle strings a bit higher, which reminded me of the roundish way a violin's strings are mounted. I can't for the life of me figure out why Gibson set it up that way. After I was all done with the mods, it wasn't perfect, but way better than the way I got it.

Last bit is that the finish was great originally until I dropped it a few times. The paint chipped off in big chunks off the "V" prongs. I cheesed on some similar looking automobile paint, so it's hard to spot at first glance.

This bass was made for live playing, and for beating the crap out of.

Nothing to comment on here.

I guess if you are like me and love V's, you would love this guitar. Especially if you're into thrash or hardcore, and could live with a bit of neck warpage. If you could find one in original condition with a straight neck, even better.