The Gibson RD Standard Bass Guitar
 The RD standard bass was launched with the active RD artist in 1977, and sold just over 900 instruments to 1979 when production ceased. The standard was the passive model and featured two newly designed Gibson series 3 humbuckers. The body was solid maple, with a three-piece laminated set maple neck. Fingerboards were either maple (for the Natural models) or Ebony (for the Black models).
The RD standard first appeared in the 1978 catalogue, along with the RD artist bass, and a range of RD guitars. The standard featured a volume control for each pickup, a master tone control and black speed knobs. The pickups were described as 'explosive' in the 1978 catalog. Being all-maple gave the RD guitars a distinctly brighter sound than many of the older Mahogany Gibson basses, and their very original styling was a major contrast to the very much fifties and sixties bias of the EB series basses.
| Extra long scale strings suitable for the RD artist bass |
Sound ClipsThese sound clips are recorded directly into a mobilepre preamp. Recorded with round wound strings, and played with a pick. Each clip is around 350KB in size. My favourite setting is the fourth, with the tone turned down on both pickups. These recordings are done with low gain, but this bass really growls when you turn the gain up a couple notches.
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