neepheid

Pickups wired out of phase perhaps? Swap the hot/ground of the bridge pickup and see if it helps.

They're not exactly high output to start with but if you want to check everything then I'd replace the battery snap if it's still using the original - I had to do this on my '79 model to cure weirdness. Also your '78 will have the double three way switches below the bridge and they sometimes get a bit messed up so they need a clean/checking the contacts. The '79 onwards model had two mini switches instead of one of the three way switches. See this page for some pics and info: https://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/RDartist_techinfo.php (thanks to Jules for collating all this). Can't help you with local info, but hopefully that's a start. Good luck.

Devoted fans? Fans?

I didn't start playing, let alone writing songs until I was 33, so I guess it must all be crap then. All hail the sad, delusional old fool, can't even call himself a has been because he never was, playing a ridiculous game of catch up he'll never win. Sometimes I do wonder how utterly awesome I would have been if I started playing on my teens. Mere competence is the best my dessicated brain can achieve, lest I forget my PIN number.

Can't make a /fornightly/ rehearsal? Next!

I've played in four bands (still in two) with the same drummer since 2008. Find a good 'un, retain at any cost. You can't have my drummer. The fact that we're hundreds of miles apart does not make me feel like I don't need to say it

If everyone is competent and does their own practice/learning properly inbetween rehearsals then once a month could work - but it does rely upon everyone doing their bit. I'm in two bands who do rehearse almost every week, it's partitioned into one covers band and one originals band so it takes up different spaces in my brain. Dunno if I could cope with being in more than two bands at a time - I would feel like I was spread a bit too thin.

Because it used to be mine? I'm hurt

I think it used to be mine also. If it is that one then I'm the reason it's got a battery box in it so you're welcome/I'm sorry

I know, I would have loved a batwing on the new one too, but I don't know if the longer top horn would have cancelled out the batwing and the full size tuners. I mocked it up for amusement's sake: Looks awesome, but I got a deal on mine that took the price below the point where I cared about the headstock any more, and I do appreciate how well balanced the new one is for being such a retro design. Wider neck is a plus for me, I don't get on too well with skinny necks.

Ooft, nice batwing, sir!

Bummer, I was sure that was the answer

That's a great shout.

Maybe a stupid suggestion but to cover off all eventualities have you got the output from the tuner pedal plugged into the Bypass socket instead of the Output one? That one doesn't get muted when you engage the pedal. Edit: never mind, already been mentioned. I should learn to read the whole thread before wading in...

If you can't even stand right now, a 0lb bass isn't going to help. Sit down.

D'addario nickel roundwounds? Good strings, no brainer choice for me. I can't seem to get my preferred Hartke strings any more, D'addario nickels are the closest I've found to what I like. Never had any trouble with them. Buy with confidence.

I can't imagine there's a simple way around this which works 100% of the time for 100% of people if the same pot is used for both purposes. In active mode, the sweep of the pot is -5, 0, +5 and in passive mode it's 0-10, active 0 becomes 5 and when you switch back, passive 10 becomes active +5. Has been the way ever since active basses with passive option became a thing. The Gibson Victory Artist had exactly the same thing and it even nailed its colours to the mast with special speed knobs with 5-0-5 numbering were used, making it clear that this was an active bass first and the passive mode was a freebie/nice to have/afterthought. Other early active/passive basses solved/sidestepped this issue by having no passive tone control at all (such as a Guild B-402) making it very much a get out of jail free card in the event of battery failure, or having passive, cut only EQ (such as the G&L L-2000). A separate and distinct passive tone pot is the only true way around this, but extra pot/knob = extra expense and brings aesthetic and usability issues of its own. None of these please everyone, in the end you just have to work with what you've got.

In the height of my Gibson pomp I was regularly playing a 12lb+ Victory Artist and RD Artist. A wide, cushioned strap can take you a long way

Two pay days later and I finally did the tuner swap I was bleating on about. I managed to snag some second hand Hipshot licensed Ultralites for a decent price. I don't think they'll make much difference TBH. The stock tuners are pretty light to start with (not because they were designed to be light, they just are light) - the Ultralites are a whopping 9g lighter each. So I shaved 36g off the weight of the headstock - go me! I didn't think the bass was particularly neck heavy to start with and as you can imagine, 36g didn't make much difference to this bassist. If anything it made me think that if you went with something like Gotoh GB707s - they might actually be heavier than the stock tuners, so keep that in mind. I just checked - slightly heavier, but we're talking 1-2g per tuner so we're in negligible difference territory here. If you want to lose the most weight with a 1:1 physical swap then Gotoh GB350 Res-o-lite tuners will save you a further 10g per tuner. I decided against them because I'm wary of the plastic buttons. Full price Hipshot USA Ultralites (not the licensed ones) are 8g lighter than the licensed ones, so at 42g per tuner only slightly heavier than the Gotoh GB350 and no plastic button. But pricey - starting to get into silly territory vs. the original cost of the bass. What I can say is what a difference in feel and operation the Ultralites are vs. the stock tuners - no play, you turn them and they just go where you want them to in either direction. The whole reason I wanted to change them in the first place - very happy and confident that I'll be able to tune quickly between E/Eb/D during a set. I'm too tight to get a detuner - also, a tuner that costs a third of what the bass cost in the first place? No thanks

Also, you're missing the choke in your wiring. Those Sprague orange drops look too new. Someone's been in here I think. So not sure what one of the positions on your rotary is doing now.

Gibson serial numbers before the mid 70s are a nightmare to pin down. By the characteristics of this bass, I can say with some degree of certainty that it predates 1972 (neck pickup is right up at the neck heel), it probably predates 1969 (no slotted headstock). Beyond that, I can't really say for sure. Tuners are replacements - an EB-3 this old would likely have had Kluson tuners, not Schaller. If you remove one of them, the presence of little routed out channels in addition to the screw holes confirms. The truss rod cover isn't original. One thing that's bugging me is how high the crown inlay is on the headstock. That's a really early thing - like 1963 or so after which they made it more central with respect to the tuners. But one thing we all know Gibson are not renowned for is consistency... What have we learned? I'm pretty sure you have a 60s bass. Also would like to give credit to Jules' site Fly Guitars which hosts a wealth of knowlege about Gibson basses. That is where much of this info has come from.

Oh don't get me started on the joys of punters. One gig we had someone bug us to play some Neil Young. So we played Rockin' in the Free World - and she went to the loo. Then complained later that she didn't get her Neil Young. D'oh!

As mentioned a few times before, so glad to reacquire my Epiphone Les Paul bass.

It depends upon the punters' expectations (and by extension the venue and the expectations that certain venues put on certain types of bands). In my experience, we don't do original material with the covers band - it's a risk to pick obscure covers, never mind play stuff that the punters have definitely never heard before! That's why I end up playing the occasional pap song which I dislike - because the punters like it. If the covers band ever did spit out original songs, I'd put forward that it be spun off into another project. On the other hand, the originals band will play the occasional cover in a standard 45 min set on a multi-band bill - it helps to hook in uncommitted listeners and as long as we put our own stamp on it I'm fine with that (you know, like playing Take Me Out with no guitars. That was fun - the nah nah nahnahnah nah nah riff works really well when the horns do it). When the originals band was playing gigs out in the country by itself last year and expected to fill a couple of hours like a covers band would we upped the cover content to about 33% - we appreciate that 2+ hours of completely unfamiliar material is heavy going for all but the most open-minded of gig goers so we adjust accordingly. Seemed to work quite well.

The Les Paul was wearing TI Flats in that photograph but they're all on rounds these days. The LP started off as a regular, passive, VVTT instrument thus: I replaced the pickups (guitar sized humbuckers with chrome covers) with EMG-HB pickups (fit directly into the pickup rings of the LP). That was better, but I still thought I could improve it further so I crammed an EMG-BQC 3 band EQ into the control cavity. Because I needed concentric knobs for the BQC, I used some black John East knobs. To finish off the modding, I found out that the routing for a pickup selector was there, they just didn't bother adding one to the basses at the time. So I added one to it to finish off the proper Les Paul look, and because I like a switch. I got the bass back in 2009, I sold it locally years later but regretted it so I tracked it down and bought it back from the guy I sold it to. Whilst it was away from me it had Shaller straplocks added. It's the bass I did my first proper gigs with: Pictured here during a gig at the Lemon Tree in April 2009 with my first originals band Panda Eyes in a partially modded state (its got the EMG pickups but not the EQ - the knobs got changed from to barrel ones with abalone tops because the EMG pots are solid shaft so the original amber knobs wouldn't fit (press fit) and I was feeling fancy). And I think that's all the shaggy dog story to tell about this bass