The Gibson RD Artist bass is well renowned as a professional standard instrument; an excellent playing and recording bass, having an exceptionally wide tonal range. It has no passive mode; and sometimes the electronics can be a little noisy, especially when the treble is set at extreme levels. Sound clips below demonstrate some of the tones possible from this bass, with and without amplifiers, and the in-built electronic effects developed in conjunction with Moog: expansion, compression and bright mode.
This sheet describes the RD Artist bass description of controls, circa 1978, and applies to the first version of the RD Artist (or RD77).
Tonal overview
The following three clips are the ones used on the RD Artist overview page - see there for more details. Recorded directly into a mobilepre preamp. Recorded with flat wound strings. Pickup volumes on 10.
Range of tonesdemonstrates the RD bass at its most mellow and then again at its most brash
Compression
natural sound of the neck pickup, without, and then with compression
Expansion
natural sound of the bridge pickup, without, and then with expansion
Bright mode
natural sound of both pickups, without, and then with bright mode
Pure RD Artist; DI bass (no amplifier)
These sound clips are of this 1978 RD Artist recorded directly into a mobilepre preamp. Recorded with flat wound strings. Pickup volumes on 10.
funky treblebass -5 treble 5, bridge pickup only, bright mode
super bass
bass 5 treble -5, both pickups, compression/expansion mode
midrange
bass 5 treble 5, both pickups, straight active mode
bright midrange
bass 0 treble 0, bridge pickup only, straight active mode
mudbucker bass
bass 5 treble -5, neck pickup only, straight active mode
even brighter midrange
bass 5 treble 5, bridge pickup only, straight active mode
Gibson RD bass guitars for sale
1980 Gibson RD Artist Bass Sunburst
Antioch, Tennessee, 370**, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
$3999
