GAK/Gibson EB 5-string/£399

[ivansc]

Doesnt show the hard case included on the ebay 399 listing but does on gak online 499 listing... Are you guys who bought getting a case as well for 399?

[Woodinblack]

3 minutes ago, ivansc said:

Doesnt show the hard case included on the ebay 399 listing but does on gak online 499 listing... Are you guys who bought getting a case as well for 399?

Thats what it said in the listing. 

"The bass is finished in a Natural Gloss Nitrocellulose lacquer and is supplied with a fitted Gibson hardcase"

Edited December 11, 2017 by Woodinblack

[Painy]

Yup, definitely included for £399! 

[Delberthot]

Snap 

 

Holy toledo Batman, those pickups are incredibly hot - hotter than on my Sterling

[Woodinblack]

What an odd looking cutaway in the case! Oh well, I will see it in person tomorrow, thats when mine is due. Still not really liking the shape much or the finish but it is growing on me a bit. I think it is the pickguard that really makes it look odd.  Wonder what it would look like without so much of that?

[Al Krow]

27 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

What an odd looking cutaway in the case! Oh well, I will see it in person tomorrow, thats when mine is due. Still not really liking the shape much or the finish but it is growing on me a bit. I think it is the pickguard that really makes it look odd.  Wonder what it would look like without so much of that?

Hah! I've obviously not been following this closely enough. Last time I looked on this thread you were describing this as someone else's fugly girlfriend and now you've gone and married the gal!! Lol!!! There is clearly something of a zig zag nature to all us Ibby lovers! 

[Painy]

1 hour ago, Delberthot said:

Snap 

 

Holy toledo Batman, those pickups are incredibly hot - hotter than on my Sterling

Crazy aren't they!

May I recommend the "Leech" passive volume attenuate pedal available for about £26 from eBay .

[yorks5stringer]

Just to clarify, GAK say they have 4 in stock, all with case for £399 on eBay

Edited December 11, 2017 by yorks5stringer

[Woodinblack]

7 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Hah! I've obviously not been following this closely enough. Last time I looked on this thread you were describing this as someone else's fugly girlfriend and now you've gone and married the gal!! Lol!!! There is clearly something of a zig zag nature to all us Ibby lovers! 

Yes, I said in my reply to your last post, I thought it was ugly but I bought it anyway.

I am still not finding it very attractive, but the sounds I have heard of it sound good, some of the ugly things you end up liking due to 'character' and well, £400 for a USA gibson, if I really don't like it I can probably sell it on without making my usual loss.

Also at £400 it will make it the cheapest of my 5 strings, so when I am heading out to gig in a place that I am concerned about I can take this and not worry about the risk to the ibbys or the Maruszychk

[Woodinblack]

54 minutes ago, yorks5stringer said:

Just to clarify, GAK say they have 4 in stock, all with case for £399 on eBay

Strangely they have 4 at £399 and 3 at £499, both with case!

I guess it automatically posts on eBay with whatever prices the site has

Hmm.. hard to post tonight with the site going up and down!

[Al Krow]

 

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Yes, I said in my reply to your last post, I thought it was ugly but I bought it anyway.

I am still not finding it very attractive, but the sounds I have heard of it sound good, some of the ugly things you end up liking due to 'character' and well, £400 for a USA gibson, if I really don't like it I can probably sell it on without making my usual loss.

Also at £400 it will make it the cheapest of my 5 strings, so when I am heading out to gig in a place that I am concerned about I can take this and not worry about the risk to the ibbys or the Maruszychk

Oh I get it now. So I think what you're saying you bought an unattractive (and therefore unlikely to get stolen / and not worried even if it did) £400 screen (= rough pub) protector for your Ibbys?

More seriously - guys hope you all enjoy the early festive treats. I think I'm going to be 'disciplined' and hold out instead for a Yammy 5er in 2018...

@NancyJohnson - Paul you do realise you're probably responsible, with this thread, for at least three of the sales of these Gibsons, you should definitely be on commission!  

[alembic1989]

Great basses. That's unbelievable value for money..a real steal.

[Woodinblack]

Well, it turned up. Its no more attractive in the flesh than it is on the website (but also no worse). The neck is big, a bit baseball bat like, and probably bigger than I like or am used to, but very solid. It has gibsons attention to detail, a couple of bits of wood feel a bit rough, the fret ends could be dressed better, the action is in the air, but it is very solid, you certainly wouldn't feel like you had to treat it carefully. It was the 3rd bass made in Kalamazoo on the 4th June, 2013, so it has been hanging around a bit waiting to be played.

So it will need a little adjustment. But it plays really well, its a little head heavy on the lap, but good on the strap. It has cutaways in the right place to be comfortable. The finish on the rest of the bass is good apart from the bit I mentioned. I have yet to plug it in. The bridge is solid - no idea how you adjust it, I guess I will find out tonight.

It comes in a made in canada Gibson white fluffy case. It was £399. All in all, assuming it plays when I plug it in, I think I am pretty happy with that!

[T-Bay]

18 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Well, it turned up. Its no more attractive in the flesh than it is on the website (but also no worse). The neck is big, a bit baseball bat like, and probably bigger than I like or am used to, but very solid. It has gibsons attention to detail, a couple of bits of wood feel a bit rough, the fret ends could be dressed better, the action is in the air, but it is very solid, you certainly wouldn't feel like you had to treat it carefully. It was the 3rd bass made in Kalamazoo on the 4th June, 2013, so it has been hanging around a bit waiting to be played.

So it will need a little adjustment. But it plays really well, its a little head heavy on the lap, but good on the strap. It has cutaways in the right place to be comfortable. The finish on the rest of the bass is good apart from the bit I mentioned. I have yet to plug it in. The bridge is solid - no idea how you adjust it, I guess I will find out tonight.

It comes in a made in canada Gibson white fluffy case. It was £399. All in all, assuming it plays when I plug it in, I think I am pretty happy with that!

How did you find when it was made? Was that from the serial number?

[Woodinblack]

6 minutes ago, T-Bay said:

How did you find when it was made? Was that from the serial number?

Yep - i missed the bit about kalamazoo closing and the batch number, which means mine is the 3rd instrument made on a tuesday. I guess that is better than a friday guitar!

Serials 1977-2013.
The most sustainable numbering system Gibson was launched in 1977, an eight-digit number. The first and fifth digit representing the year of manufacture. The three intermediate digits, the day of that year. The digits to six to eight gave the serial number.

After opening of the new factory in Nashville, in the sequence numbers were also included the production site. 001 to 499 appeared on the instruments built in Kalamazoo, 500 to 999 built in Nashville.

Even after the closing of the factory in Kalamazoo in 1984, this process was continued until 1989 in Nashville.

In 2005 the system was upgraded to first digit at the end of the batch number was inserted. The sequence numbers were 500 to 699, after which the batch number 1 was increased, and the number returned 500.

[T-Bay]

6 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Yep - i missed the bit about kalamazoo closing and the batch number, which means mine is the 3rd instrument made on a tuesday. I guess that is better than a friday guitar!

Serials 1977-2013.
The most sustainable numbering system Gibson was launched in 1977, an eight-digit number. The first and fifth digit representing the year of manufacture. The three intermediate digits, the day of that year. The digits to six to eight gave the serial number.

After opening of the new factory in Nashville, in the sequence numbers were also included the production site. 001 to 499 appeared on the instruments built in Kalamazoo, 500 to 999 built in Nashville.

Even after the closing of the factory in Kalamazoo in 1984, this process was continued until 1989 in Nashville.

In 2005 the system was upgraded to first digit at the end of the batch number was inserted. The sequence numbers were 500 to 699, after which the batch number 1 was increased, and the number returned 500.

Thanks!

[Cato]

48 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 The bridge is solid - no idea how you adjust it, I guess I will find out tonight.

Ignore the the installation part, the video moves on to set up once he's bolted it to the bass.

It's dead straightforwards and probably fractionally quicker than a conventional bridge in that there's only one height adjustment screw per saddle.

[Woodinblack]

Yeh, seems ok as an adjustment, odd that Gibson give you an owners booklet that doesn't cover it at all

[Delberthot]

Inside the flappy bit in the case is an owners manual and there's also a QC checklist thingy that has the date of manufacture as well.

 

The action on mine seems fine apart from the B which is way up but unfortunately as low as it will go without buzzing. Regardless of it being in a case for the past 4 years I'm changing the strings on mine for the weekend as they don't sound as bright as they should to me.

 

I believe that it is D'addarios that are fitted but I've not had a good look. I've ordered my usual gauge but in 5 string version - EXL165-5 which have a 135 B string so that should do the trick to get it down a notch.

 

I'm taking mine out this weekend but will probably still take the Sterling just in case

[Cato]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Yeh, seems ok as an adjustment, odd that Gibson give you an owners booklet that doesn't cover it at all

When I bought my Babicz new from  Bass Direct it didn't come with any instructions either, just a note telling me to watch that youtube vid.

Edited December 12, 2017 by Cato

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Delberthot said:

Inside the flappy bit in the case is an owners manual and there's also a QC checklist thingy that has the date of manufacture as well.

It has the date of checking - but that is a month later than the date of manufacture. And yes, the owners manual that tells you about the SG and Les Paul!

 

1 hour ago, Delberthot said:

The action on mine seems fine apart from the B which is way up but unfortunately as low as it will go without buzzing. Regardless of it being in a case for the past 4 years I'm changing the strings on mine for the weekend as they don't sound as bright as they should to me.

Yes, my B is way high. I will see if it can go down a bit, that is way too high.

I have two gigs this weekend so I will take it to at least one.

The bridge spacing is probably way to wide for me for it to end up a favourite I suspect, I have never got on with spacing that wide before and I think I probably won't this time.

[Woodinblack]

I just did my action and now the B is much better, as are the rest I have lowered, it has the action I want now, maybe a bit higher on the B but I can live with that. I do like that bridge, very easy to adjust.

This is proving quite a solid bass, and now I have plugged it in and spent quite a lot of the evening playing it, it has quite a dominant sound, very thunderbird I guess, but something more. Certainly looking forward to gigging it at the end of the week.

[binky_bass]

Well I am decidedly unimpressed...

Several frets are not level and the B side of the neck has a light bow when the G side is dead straight so action on the B side cannot be lowered to where it needs to be. With the action as low as I can get it, which is still too high for me, there is spotted buzz all over the higher end of the neck. The frets need crowning properly and feel quite uncomfortable when moving up and down the neck. The build quality is OK, nothing at all special. My main gripe is definitely the fret work and the neck bow. I shall be having words with GAK to see the best resolve for this...

So yeah, not particularly impressed by this 'Gibson' at the moment! Nice case though!  

Edited December 13, 2017 by binky_bass

[Al Krow]

14 or 30 day return period with GAK?

[Woodinblack]

That sounds much worse than mine. Yes, the frets are not done well, but the neck on mine is good. The build quality isn't special, but then I never expected that with gibson. I think it is good for the price, I would certainly not be happy if I had paid £900 for it.