I bought one of these and I think people are abit too fixated on the gimmick. That sliding pickup was never designed with longevity in mind, the felt lining keeping it in place would degrade so you’d have to duct tape it in place. What’s important is they’ve done their best to match the tone which they’ve done a pretty good job at. Yeah it’s about $200 overpriced but this is the same company that charge essentially $4000 more for a guitar because it’s made out of mahogany and has a nitro finish. I’m surprised it even got a reissue in the first place considering all the other Nolan era gibson’s they are never going to reissue.
I've never been much of a Gibson/Epiphone fan, but I do really like the looks of this bass. It seems to be well made and it sounds great. But I can't get over the name. When something is named for *one specific feature,* you just can't leave that feature out.
@ cool. I didn’t start playing bass until about 2005. Now I am not even sure how many basses I have. I got a bunch of Geetars too even though I don’t play guitar. Remember ( or did you watch ) Tennessee Tuxedo? When he used to go see mister’s whoope and when he was looking for his 3D chalkboard he would open up that closet door and all kinds of crap would pour out? I have a storage unit with guitars and basses in it almost like that. I only keep 3 at my place
You can get a Sterling by Music Man HH bass, and get even more options, for less money. I'm sure that'll do everything this Grabber shaped bass can do plus much more.
And the StingRay headstock is beautiful to me. I've owned a StingRay HS and a Washburn Stu Hamm with a neck placed MM. I much prefer the MM pickup near the bridge. With the Grabber sliding gimmick, and a $350-400 price tag, it could have been a good beginner bass to figure out what tone you prefer.
I'm really over the whole $1000+ epiphone thing. I guess I get it for some of the really fancy premium spec signature models, but the value just isn't there to justify it for the majority of their current offerings.
@@crouchingdonny inflation certainly is a bitch, but I also wouldn't have paid $650 for a chinese one pickup bolt on neck bass in 2005. Feature wise, this would have realistically sat in their range with the bolt on Thunderbirds and EB-0s somewhere around $400 and that would have been about right.
But, you get a "Premium Gig Bag" 😂 In 2000, $1000 would get you a Made in Korea Ibanez SR Premium with an 11-piece maple-walnut neck thru body with a quilted maple top, 3 band EQ, 2 soapbars, hi quality gold hardware, with abalone inlays on the waxy rosewood fretboard, all in a form fit ABS case. Now you get this Made in China turd, there is no form fit case even made, and a good quality aftermarket case is $250.
£1000 for something that’s CNC’d from a factory in China and completed with obviously cheap parts is ridiculous. This isn’t anything special, not worth it remotely.
@@tjm516 They knew they could charge that much because people have been asking for this bass for years. I agree, it’s not worth the retail price. If you don’t care about buying a brand new bass, there are already several used ones on Reverb for much less money.
when The Infamists opened for Dinosaur Jr at the longhorn ballroom in 2023, I got to hang with Lou Barlow. I got to hold that bass. We shot the shit because I was playing a gibson midtown. truly iconic.
I did the advertising for The Grabber when Gibson introduced it. Good job, I got to play pretty much all Gibson's guitars back then. Bought one @ factory price too...
I think people are wrong about the pickup, not only does the mm sound incredible, but the tone versatility having it split coil is alot more useful than one that slides a little bit
Idk guys, the complaints about the pickup not being slidable feel knit-picky to me. I own one of these Epi reissues and it's solid. They removed what could be a mechanical pain-point as well as future-proofing the body without the giant center route. Most people also leave that pickup in the middle position, like they did on the reissue.
i wil say, from what I’ve heard online the sliding of the original grabber was really limited and didn’t affect the tone a ton due to the range, there’s basses that had significantly more pickup sliding range, making the gimmick a lot more practical
I have a 78’ grabber and it does change the dynamics of the tone based on where you put. It’s not a drastic difference, but it can get deeper sounding in the neck and brighter towards the bridge and if you sit it right in the middle is the best of both worlds! It just would have been a good feature for a $1k bass to include that, or have it as an option
It was still a specific feature, and the fact they called this a GRABBER reissue and didn't include it is ridiculous. That'd be like a reissue of the Delorean being released but without gull-wing doors. They may not be practical or necessary, but it's a trademark concept from the original design that fans expects to be there.
Rick Danko of "The Band" played a grabber. The original had a tremendous sound/tone. edit: The bass sounds nice, however this doesn't sound quite like the original - "mudbucker" sound is missing 🙂
Great review, thanks for being honest and fair! I have the same feelings about this thing. Both regarding the missing sliding mechanism and the price. But guess what: I'm about to build my own bass with sliding pickups. However, it won't look anything like a Grabber. More like something between a Jazz, a Jaguar, a Lakland and a StingRay 5. And yeah, 5 strings and 35" scale length.
Awesome demo as always, Patrick 😎🤘🏻🎸 this is a nice sounding bass. Even though it’s a shame that this bass doesn’t have the sliding pickup feature, but it still provides some great tones. The single coil/humbucker switch kinda reminds me of the Jackson spectra bass in some ways. I personally liked how it sounds in humbucker mode. It also sounds killer with distortion. Overall, I think this is a nice sounding bass.
THAT WAS the gripper bass and not GRABBER you mentioned all those bass players playing. By the way i got a steal of a deal and bought a 75 Gibson Grabber about 18 years ago from a pawn shop . love it. kinda heavy and awkward though. The pawn shop had a Gripper too and i was going to buy it but i procrastinated for about 5 months and the day i went in to buy it someone came in 2 days before me and bought it. Epiphone came out with a Gripper i think around 2007 or so and i also procrastinated on buying that one and they stop making it after a year or so.
It isn’t the fixed position of the pickup or the coil splitting (which is beefier than I8m used to from Gibson and Epiphone) that boots this bass for me. It’s the 20-fret limit of the fingerboard.
I don't really mind about the sliding pickup. I like single pickup in the sweetspot basses. It is a rare offering to get a real humbucker in the middle. (I know, I know, a P bass pickup is a humbucker, but I'm talking about a true dual coil humbucker, not a split coil). I'm probably one of those who like this bass, regardless of the ''grabber'' miss.
It’s great that they got rid of the 3-point bridge and kept the original body shape/dimensions and flying V headstock. Honestly the bass doesn’t sound that bad despite not being able to move the pickup. But I think they could’ve priced this bass at 849 or 899, and still got away with using CTS pots and a 3 way switch for series/parallel/single. It’s not BAD, but Epiphone could’ve done a little extra to justify that price range.
I had the epiphone ripper with the P/J pickups. It was a fun piece of gear. This seems vloser to that than a grabber because of the solitary pickup position.
I can kind of understand not including the sliding pickup from a cost/manufacturing standpoint, but I think this pickup would have been suited better with a 3 way toggle for north coil, south coil, and both coils in humbucking. That way you at least get close to the tone profiles of the OG Grabber. The price tag, however, I can't get over
A grand for an overseas import single pickup bass is crazy work. For that kind of cash you could get a sterling and a good amp or an Ibanez BTB/SR Bass Worlshop line
It’s not a bad bass but holy crap Epiphone loves inflating everything and from a feature set, you can get various passive Sterling Stingray basses for a lot less.
Why is this always the go to argument. It makes we wanna say Blizzcon esque shit. Don’t you already have a bass? And who is recommending this as a first or even second instrument?
Ns pulse is a bidget line for the price of that gibsona and dingwall you can get a spector euro or a used american spector. If you name bass tones you like or players you like i can help you choose between a spector euro and the dingwall.
@ you can hear my playing style on my channel, I just use an Ibanez SR505 that I got at GC for $270, I’m a guitar player only using bass to add depth to my song ideas
Gibson should have just put 3 or 4 jazz pickups in the middle and let you switch between them on a rotary switch.... would have been similar in concept to the original grabber, but with less to go wrong.
Hard to justify this over a passive MM unless you really like the aesthetic- I would be more interested if it had an actual Gibson pickup like a Thunderbird pickup or something. I get why the sliding pickup is a weird thing they might not want to reissue, but in that case... reissue the RIpper instead.
I have a 74 Gibson Ripper, all original, bought it 10 years ago for 700 Bucks with a gigbag. I'll never ever sell that thing. Looking forward for the silverburst Mike Dirnt G-3, I might buy that one.
Seems like the general consensus on this is that it sounds and plays nice but the price seems to be too high for everything that was missed to make it a true grabber. Personally im a bigger fan of the G# to start so im waiting for them to release the Mike Dirnt Sig.
I only knew one guy back in the 70s who played one. It was a decent bass for playing jazz but it was no Fender bass. Gibson basses were never up to snuff and I never saw them being used by fellow LA session players back then. It was P and J all the way and mostly P basses.
Yeah like you said Patrick, not a true grabber with out the sliding pickup :) maybe better off calling it a G-1 like they did with the G-3 bass that would have been more acceptable naming IMO
If it was like £300 - £500 I could understand but for £1000 it would need to be fully featured including both the sliding pickup and being 100% genuine to the grabber sound. Hell, £1000 is pretty near full Gibson price levels IMO let alone Epiphone!
If the marketing department has not understood the product at all and the commercial department then calculates strangely. 1k$ for a bass from overseas with a another mistake in the product design (pickguard vs shape). For this price they could have made a G3.
Timi Hansen owed his old stage name to the original Grabber bass he used and it is a disservice to Gibson as well as Hansen to poorly reproduce this for such a high price as an Epiphone
Everyone is obsessed over the sliding pickup, which barely makes a difference. We should instead be mad about how its voiced completely differently to the originals. They just plopped a generic bass humbucker there, while the old ones had new custom designs by Bill Lawrence
Instead of grabbing the pickup now you grab the pickup switch lol I wonder if someone will make an aftermarket pickguard and assembly to do the grabber pickup
With fixed pickguard shape and a price tag around 500$ it would be a nice bass! but it's not for 1 grand... I mean... chinese made... squier sells their classic vibes for 400...
KDH did a good video once on how Fender and Gibson are becoming lifestyle brands. Your local Walmart selling t-shirts is a big part of their revenue. Fender to their credit still has Jackson releasing the beautiful Jackenbacker abomination, and the Charvel basses have maybe the best "vintage" necks ever built, so I can give them a pass. Gibson has nothing.
@funkingitup1805 Fender at least offers Squiers that are very affordable and high quality. The 40th anniversary Tele and Strat are stunning, and $700 up here.
Sounds great, looks awesome, and plays well? I want one pretty badly but I can't justify $1000 for what is supposed to be a budget bass. That was also the original point of the Grabber, it was the more affordable version of the Ripper. If this was actually more budget friendly they would be printing money right now. Man, they really missed the mark.
I stupidly sold my Gibson G-3 years ago when I was broke. I never thought it was a particularly great bass,it just looked cool as fuck.It also weighted a ton.Tne Eppi offering is quite overpriced imo. But if I could have my old Gibby Grabster I'd die a happy guy.That and the vintage Ampeg B 15 Portoflex I also sold being an idiot. Oh, the folly of youth!
It'll be $600 in a year, there's no way this thing is selling well. Anyone who wanted a legit Grabber reissue isn't into this, and no new player is going to buy a $1000 bass as their first instrument. I tried to stay positive about this bass and give it the benefit of the doubt, but the more I hear it the more limited it seems.
This sounds great, but that price is ridiculous. Plus, the pickguard shape isn't right, going all the way to the edge in one spot. It looks terrible on the maple ones.
Hmm. In single coil mode, it sounds a bit like a Jazz. There are plenty of brands producing J style and super J style basses, around this price range. I feel like you're paying for the name, but getting a very solid but unremarkable bass. Love your playing, as ever!
Thanks for the review. I was also a bit disappointed by the lack of grab-ability but I'm not purist and can move past that...until I checked this out on sweetwater and saw the price tag. HUGE pass and nothing Gibson or Epiphone can do or say will justify the $1000 cost for me. It's like Squier trying to charge $1000 for a classic vibe p bass. I don't really think there's anything this instrument can do that a Sterling couldn't so you're essentially paying a premium for the Epiphone branding and body shape.
Good to know I have no interest in purchasing it now I'm better off getting custom built grabbers for a couple of $100s the epiphone grabber looks really cool but it's not worth $1,000.00 maybe at $500 to $600
Gibson has never really cared about bass or understood bass players, and it shows.
Gibson EB-2? Kind of legendary.
It does feel that way.
@@funkingitup1805 Well, fair enough. But that's ONE. 😉
@@funkingitup1805 Legendary how
Gibson doesn’t care about much
The Epiphone "Money Grabber"😆
Don’t give Gibson any ideas now!🤣
"okay I got it... a Grabber but without the grabber"
This bass makes me sad
@@EricMerrow it’s the Diet Coke of Grabber
I bought one of these and I think people are abit too fixated on the gimmick. That sliding pickup was never designed with longevity in mind, the felt lining keeping it in place would degrade so you’d have to duct tape it in place. What’s important is they’ve done their best to match the tone which they’ve done a pretty good job at. Yeah it’s about $200 overpriced but this is the same company that charge essentially $4000 more for a guitar because it’s made out of mahogany and has a nitro finish. I’m surprised it even got a reissue in the first place considering all the other Nolan era gibson’s they are never going to reissue.
Not a Grabber,just a fixter.(pickup is fixed)
@ 😂😂
I've never been much of a Gibson/Epiphone fan, but I do really like the looks of this bass. It seems to be well made and it sounds great. But I can't get over the name. When something is named for *one specific feature,* you just can't leave that feature out.
The first bass I ever had was a 1974 Gibson grabber. I paid $90 for it at guitar center around 1985!
damnnnnnnnn. i was 14 in 85. i picked one up ( a 75 Grabber ) in 2005 0r 6 at a pawn shop for $400
Nice. I was 13 in 85. Had it until I got a 73 rickenbacker 4001 for $300 about a year later!
@ cool. I didn’t start playing bass until about 2005. Now I am not even sure how many basses I have. I got a bunch of Geetars too even though I don’t play guitar. Remember ( or did you watch ) Tennessee Tuxedo? When he used to go see mister’s whoope and when he was looking for his 3D chalkboard he would open up that closet door and all kinds of crap would pour out? I have a storage unit with guitars and basses in it almost like that. I only keep 3 at my place
@ oh yeah and I have that Lemmy backer the one he was playing the last 4 or more years before he died
@@diawilliams5915 "Phineas J. Whoopee, you're a genius!"
Great review, appreciate the extra effort in the intro and the honesty regarding the cons!
You can get a Sterling by Music Man HH bass, and get even more options, for less money. I'm sure that'll do everything this Grabber shaped bass can do plus much more.
And the StingRay headstock is beautiful to me. I've owned a StingRay HS and a Washburn Stu Hamm with a neck placed MM. I much prefer the MM pickup near the bridge. With the Grabber sliding gimmick, and a $350-400 price tag, it could have been a good beginner bass to figure out what tone you prefer.
Yeap, most basses defeat Gibson basses for sure
well, it looks like ass though and is nothing unique.
I don’t think it will ever do exactly what the grabber or ripper did.
If they had routed it out, it would've been even more neck divey...
I'm really over the whole $1000+ epiphone thing. I guess I get it for some of the really fancy premium spec signature models, but the value just isn't there to justify it for the majority of their current offerings.
$1000 today would be ~650 in 2005. Inflation is a bitch.
@@crouchingdonny inflation certainly is a bitch, but I also wouldn't have paid $650 for a chinese one pickup bolt on neck bass in 2005. Feature wise, this would have realistically sat in their range with the bolt on Thunderbirds and EB-0s somewhere around $400 and that would have been about right.
But, you get a "Premium Gig Bag" 😂
In 2000, $1000 would get you a Made in Korea Ibanez SR Premium with an 11-piece maple-walnut neck thru body with a quilted maple top, 3 band EQ, 2 soapbars, hi quality gold hardware, with abalone inlays on the waxy rosewood fretboard, all in a form fit ABS case.
Now you get this Made in China turd, there is no form fit case even made, and a good quality aftermarket case is $250.
£1000 for something that’s CNC’d from a factory in China and completed with obviously cheap parts is ridiculous. This isn’t anything special, not worth it remotely.
@@tjm516 They knew they could charge that much because people have been asking for this bass for years. I agree, it’s not worth the retail price. If you don’t care about buying a brand new bass, there are already several used ones on Reverb for much less money.
I feel like they could have called it the Ripper H or something like that and no one would have blinked an eye.
Still waiting for that Epi G3.
Thanks for the video Patrick! Your arguments is valid as you owned 2 different Grabbers!
So they took away what made this bass unique and come up with yet another instrument that has very little to offer. Got it. Great move
@@Pesso86 what made it unique was the tone not the sliding pickup gimmick 😂
Just wait for the mod community to take over and offer kits on these. Buy a Novak reissue pickup, route out the bass and bam a moveable pickup again
They should have called it the G1 so it's like the G3 being a grabber shaped bass but since it's a 1 stationary pickup be a G1
when The Infamists opened for Dinosaur Jr at the longhorn ballroom in 2023, I got to hang with Lou Barlow. I got to hold that bass. We shot the shit because I was playing a gibson midtown. truly iconic.
If this bass was £400-£500 as opposed to £999 this would sell like hotcakes, what a missed opportunity for Epiphone.
Really good review like the painting of a picture intro, your effort is appreciated. Keep up the honesty and good work man
I prefer the ripper, but I played one of these at a local music shop and it was so awesome. It had so much mojo.
I did the advertising for The Grabber when Gibson introduced it. Good job, I got to play pretty much all Gibson's guitars back then. Bought one @ factory price too...
I think people are wrong about the pickup, not only does the mm sound incredible, but the tone versatility having it split coil is alot more useful than one that slides a little bit
Idk guys, the complaints about the pickup not being slidable feel knit-picky to me. I own one of these Epi reissues and it's solid. They removed what could be a mechanical pain-point as well as future-proofing the body without the giant center route. Most people also leave that pickup in the middle position, like they did on the reissue.
i wil say, from what I’ve heard online the sliding of the original grabber was really limited and didn’t affect the tone a ton due to the range, there’s basses that had significantly more pickup sliding range, making the gimmick a lot more practical
I have a 78’ grabber and it does change the dynamics of the tone based on where you put. It’s not a drastic difference, but it can get deeper sounding in the neck and brighter towards the bridge and if you sit it right in the middle is the best of both worlds!
It just would have been a good feature for a $1k bass to include that, or have it as an option
It was still a specific feature, and the fact they called this a GRABBER reissue and didn't include it is ridiculous. That'd be like a reissue of the Delorean being released but without gull-wing doors. They may not be practical or necessary, but it's a trademark concept from the original design that fans expects to be there.
Rick Danko of "The Band" played a grabber. The original had a tremendous sound/tone.
edit: The bass sounds nice, however this doesn't sound quite like the original - "mudbucker" sound is missing 🙂
Sweet bass and rad sweater 🤘🏽
7:42
what reverb pedal are you using?
Yeah, what pedal is that?
@@jasontovey8635 it sounds amazing
The Grabber was my first bass, got it for Christmas in 1975, and I still have it.
Great review, thanks for being honest and fair! I have the same feelings about this thing. Both regarding the missing sliding mechanism and the price.
But guess what: I'm about to build my own bass with sliding pickups. However, it won't look anything like a Grabber. More like something between a Jazz, a Jaguar, a Lakland and a StingRay 5. And yeah, 5 strings and 35" scale length.
Have you ever checked out the FGN mighty power bass? Easily the best bass I've ever seen. It'd be a dream to see you demo it
Are the inlay dots as hard to make out in person? They are so close to the color of the maple that they just sort of disappear
So it's actually a ripper bass?
That neck/fretboard color is amazing. What is that finish on that maple called?
that riff at 8:06 would sound so good on a fretless bass
Awesome demo as always, Patrick 😎🤘🏻🎸 this is a nice sounding bass. Even though it’s a shame that this bass doesn’t have the sliding pickup feature, but it still provides some great tones. The single coil/humbucker switch kinda reminds me of the Jackson spectra bass in some ways. I personally liked how it sounds in humbucker mode. It also sounds killer with distortion. Overall, I think this is a nice sounding bass.
THAT WAS the gripper bass and not GRABBER you mentioned all those bass players playing. By the way i got a steal of a deal and bought a 75 Gibson Grabber about 18 years ago from a pawn shop . love it. kinda heavy and awkward though. The pawn shop had a Gripper too and i was going to buy it but i procrastinated for about 5 months and the day i went in to buy it someone came in 2 days before me and bought it. Epiphone came out with a Gripper i think around 2007 or so and i also procrastinated on buying that one and they stop making it after a year or so.
It isn’t the fixed position of the pickup or the coil splitting (which is beefier than I8m used to from Gibson and Epiphone) that boots this bass for me. It’s the 20-fret limit of the fingerboard.
I don't really mind about the sliding pickup. I like single pickup in the sweetspot basses. It is a rare offering to get a real humbucker in the middle. (I know, I know, a P bass pickup is a humbucker, but I'm talking about a true dual coil humbucker, not a split coil). I'm probably one of those who like this bass, regardless of the ''grabber'' miss.
It’s great that they got rid of the 3-point bridge and kept the original body shape/dimensions and flying V headstock. Honestly the bass doesn’t sound that bad despite not being able to move the pickup. But I think they could’ve priced this bass at 849 or 899, and still got away with using CTS pots and a 3 way switch for series/parallel/single. It’s not BAD, but Epiphone could’ve done a little extra to justify that price range.
The original Grabber didn't have a 3-point bridge … so they didn't get rid of it on this one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@ i think they had 3 point bridges on the reissues though. Either way its a win because they went historically accurate by not having the 3-point.
I had the epiphone ripper with the P/J pickups. It was a fun piece of gear. This seems vloser to that than a grabber because of the solitary pickup position.
I can kind of understand not including the sliding pickup from a cost/manufacturing standpoint, but I think this pickup would have been suited better with a 3 way toggle for north coil, south coil, and both coils in humbucking. That way you at least get close to the tone profiles of the OG Grabber. The price tag, however, I can't get over
A grand for an overseas import single pickup bass is crazy work. For that kind of cash you could get a sterling and a good amp or an Ibanez BTB/SR Bass Worlshop line
It would make more sense to have a series parallel switch IMO. But that's an easy fix, given it's 4 conductor wire...
Good to see a true, honest review/opinion. Thanks so much.
It’s not a bad bass but holy crap Epiphone loves inflating everything and from a feature set, you can get various passive Sterling Stingray basses for a lot less.
Why is this always the go to argument. It makes we wanna say Blizzcon esque shit. Don’t you already have a bass? And who is recommending this as a first or even second instrument?
@@LucasJRiceok.
What’s next? A precision bass with bad aim? (drum roll)
Gibson Rex Brown? Spector NS Pulse? Or Dingwall? What one would you pick out of the three if you could only have one?
Ns pulse is a bidget line for the price of that gibsona and dingwall you can get a spector euro or a used american spector. If you name bass tones you like or players you like i can help you choose between a spector euro and the dingwall.
If you do want a multiscale spector, spector does make them
Dingwall.
@ you can hear my playing style on my channel, I just use an Ibanez SR505 that I got at GC for $270, I’m a guitar player only using bass to add depth to my song ideas
Dingwall but My Main is a Combustion 5 so i'm biased.
I feel like this is a market tester for further models be it Gibson/Epi
It’s definitely not a tester for Gibson. Maybe Epiphone but I doubt it.
Gibson should have just put 3 or 4 jazz pickups in the middle and let you switch between them on a rotary switch.... would have been similar in concept to the original grabber, but with less to go wrong.
It sounds great 👍 Whether it scratches the grabber itch I am not sure. Sounds more like a g&l
Hard to justify this over a passive MM unless you really like the aesthetic- I would be more interested if it had an actual Gibson pickup like a Thunderbird pickup or something. I get why the sliding pickup is a weird thing they might not want to reissue, but in that case... reissue the RIpper instead.
I'm assuming that humbucker mode is parallel wired and it's a huuge shame that they didn't go with Single/Parallel/Series switch
I have a 74 Gibson Ripper, all original, bought it 10 years ago for 700 Bucks with a gigbag. I'll never ever sell that thing. Looking forward for the silverburst Mike Dirnt G-3, I might buy that one.
Seems like the general consensus on this is that it sounds and plays nice but the price seems to be too high for everything that was missed to make it a true grabber. Personally im a bigger fan of the G# to start so im waiting for them to release the Mike Dirnt Sig.
The visual works for a KISS tribute. Missed the mark with the electronics, but it could be modded.
As stupid as that sounds, it's not the first $1000 bass I've seen recently that needs to be modded out of the box.
Great production on this video! Also, couldn’t agree more on your opinions
I only knew one guy back in the 70s who played one. It was a decent bass for playing jazz but it was no Fender bass. Gibson basses were never up to snuff and I never saw them being used by fellow LA session players back then. It was P and J all the way and mostly P basses.
I really hope they do a G3 version of this bass
Made me miss my Old Chevy Nova !
Yeah like you said Patrick, not a true grabber with out the sliding pickup :) maybe better off calling it a G-1 like they did with the G-3 bass that would have been more acceptable naming IMO
If it was like £300 - £500 I could understand but for £1000 it would need to be fully featured including both the sliding pickup and being 100% genuine to the grabber sound. Hell, £1000 is pretty near full Gibson price levels IMO let alone Epiphone!
If the marketing department has not understood the product at all and the commercial department then calculates strangely. 1k$ for a bass from overseas with a another mistake in the product design (pickguard vs shape). For this price they could have made a G3.
Timi Hansen owed his old stage name to the original Grabber bass he used and it is a disservice to Gibson as well as Hansen to poorly reproduce this for such a high price as an Epiphone
Ya beat me to it! Timi G. Hansen, aka Timi Grabber, straight off the backside of Mercyful Fate's Melissa album cover.
Everyone is obsessed over the sliding pickup, which barely makes a difference. We should instead be mad about how its voiced completely differently to the originals. They just plopped a generic bass humbucker there, while the old ones had new custom designs by Bill Lawrence
Yeah I heard the single coil mode and immediately thought “nope”
This year I get the Cort artisan headless. Great bass for 800 shipped with tax. Grabber without grab is. Not a grabber.
Instead of grabbing the pickup now you grab the pickup switch lol
I wonder if someone will make an aftermarket pickguard and assembly to do the grabber pickup
Never had a Grabber, But I DID have a Ripper a long time ago. Sorry I sold it.😥
With fixed pickguard shape and a price tag around 500$ it would be a nice bass! but it's not for 1 grand... I mean... chinese made... squier sells their classic vibes for 400...
I think this is the best video to explain it all on how most bassist feel on the epiphone grabber reissue. Cheers!
Grabber always reminds me of Ed from Thrice 🔥
Forever and always🤘
i was not expecting that 1k price tag. i'm not trying to be rude but this looks like a bass you combo with a practice amp and shark tuner
Gibson killed the Grabber with this one, don’t think we’ll ever see a true rerelease.
The Kiss Alive! bass
Great sounds, but it's so ugly that I don't want to see it.
I agree. And IDK but looks uncomfortable. Too much big?
Gibson/Epiphone are pricing themselves out of the market. Epi Alex Lifeson Les Paul is $1800 up here. The first ones were $900.
KDH did a good video once on how Fender and Gibson are becoming lifestyle brands. Your local Walmart selling t-shirts is a big part of their revenue. Fender to their credit still has Jackson releasing the beautiful Jackenbacker abomination, and the Charvel basses have maybe the best "vintage" necks ever built, so I can give them a pass. Gibson has nothing.
@funkingitup1805 Fender at least offers Squiers that are very affordable and high quality. The 40th anniversary Tele and Strat are stunning, and $700 up here.
Single coil mode any given day!
the luthier in me wants to get one just to rout a swiming pool and make it into a proper grabber
Bro you really sold a genuine Gibson Grabber lmao.
The regret must be painful.
Sounds great, looks awesome, and plays well? I want one pretty badly but I can't justify $1000 for what is supposed to be a budget bass. That was also the original point of the Grabber, it was the more affordable version of the Ripper. If this was actually more budget friendly they would be printing money right now. Man, they really missed the mark.
The not so grabber model.
I like it, but I don’t $1000 like it. I’d pay $500-600 for it if the pickup was movable because I really want a MM like sound.
It’s definitely a no since it doesn’t have the routing to make the pickup movable.
i love the look... hate the pick up and placement of it.
I stupidly sold my Gibson G-3 years ago when I was broke. I never thought it was a particularly great bass,it just looked cool as fuck.It also weighted a ton.Tne Eppi offering is quite overpriced imo. But if I could have my old Gibby Grabster I'd die a happy guy.That and the vintage Ampeg B 15 Portoflex I also sold being an idiot. Oh, the folly of youth!
Better looking than any FSO on the market.
Welll the bass sounds amazing ...
The lack of the sliding pickup, plus the price tag, kept me from wanting one.
It'll be $600 in a year, there's no way this thing is selling well. Anyone who wanted a legit Grabber reissue isn't into this, and no new player is going to buy a $1000 bass as their first instrument. I tried to stay positive about this bass and give it the benefit of the doubt, but the more I hear it the more limited it seems.
Dirnt has a Ripper I think 😅
Need to put a real grabber guard and Bill Lawrence. I have a 78.
This sounds great, but that price is ridiculous. Plus, the pickguard shape isn't right, going all the way to the edge in one spot. It looks terrible on the maple ones.
Hmm. In single coil mode, it sounds a bit like a Jazz. There are plenty of brands producing J style and super J style basses, around this price range.
I feel like you're paying for the name, but getting a very solid but unremarkable bass.
Love your playing, as ever!
Thats what Gibson does. They release Epiphone models as an affordable Gibson, but the specs are never the same. Never.
Thanks for the review. I was also a bit disappointed by the lack of grab-ability but I'm not purist and can move past that...until I checked this out on sweetwater and saw the price tag. HUGE pass and nothing Gibson or Epiphone can do or say will justify the $1000 cost for me. It's like Squier trying to charge $1000 for a classic vibe p bass. I don't really think there's anything this instrument can do that a Sterling couldn't so you're essentially paying a premium for the Epiphone branding and body shape.
Have you seen they started making Chinese copies of these recently
Grabber by the Growler.
An honest review. 🎉
A thousand bucks for that LOL? Not surprised though as Gibson's terrible SG bass goes for 2 Grand now!!
Gibson is not known for their basses(but they have great guitars)
Really? I worked in a music store years ago. We had a Grabber on the wall...couldn't give that Turd away.
The Ungrabber Bass lol
Good to know I have no interest in purchasing it now I'm better off getting custom built grabbers for a couple of $100s the epiphone grabber looks really cool but it's not worth $1,000.00 maybe at $500 to $600
At least it doesn't have that atrocious 3 point bridge. That's the only reason I don't like Gibson basses, honestly.