The Triumph’s look is modern, classy, and even a little intimidating. While it represented a new direction for Gibson from an electronics standpoint, the Triumph retained the traditional 30w" short-scale neck of the earlier EB series. The relatively deep and round neck feels less “plunky” than most short-scale necks, perhaps because the neck is glued in (or “set”) rather than bolted on. It weighs a lot more than any previous Gibson bass, which might have been one reason why it took Gibson so long to try the “Les Paul as a bass” concept.

The complicated electronics take some getting used to, but the innovative passive design offers an astonishing array of tones. There is a master volume knob and 3-way pickup switch, but from there it gets a little wacky. The treble knob is a high-frequency rolloff not unlike a regular tone control. A bass knob allows you to actually remove low-frequencies from your signal, which isn’t always a bad thing given the bass-heavy sound available with the control maxxed. The impedance switch dramatically changes the output level. The phase in/out switch, which works only when both pickups are on, gives an interesting Jazz-like flavor. The 3-way tone switch goes from a quite thin tone, to a full-range setting in the middle, to a honkin’ deep bass reminiscent of that good ol’ fashioned mud from earlier Gibsons.

I was able to speak with Les Paul himself about this bass. “With a balanced low-impedance output, you could use long cables without all the problems inherent in unbalanced high-impedance lines,” says Les. “Gibson was keen on having the low-impedance transformer close to the amp, so we made a special cable with a transformer on the other end, which you had to have in order to use it. But if you forgot your cable, you were out of luck—so we added the switch to go from low to high impedance. I tried to talk them out of staying with the short scale, but they didn’t want to change to a longer scale like on the Fender.” Was it designed to compete directly with the Fender Precision? “Leo Fender was a dear friend and deserves a pat on the back for coming up with a great design. One [switch] position on the Les Paul Bass was meant to sound just like the Precision, and all the other settings were extra choices for the player. The Triumph sounded so good it was scary; it was the finest bass I knew how to come up with, but the kids of that time were not ready for so many options. If I could have done something different, I would have made a bass with one great sound. Simpler is better—like a water faucet.” Many thanks to Les for taking the time to comment for this article.

In hindsight, it is a little hard to imagine thousands of Fender players switching over to this short-scale science project, but you have to admire Gibson’s attempt to shake things up. The Triumph was discontinued toward the end of the ’70s, although the classic body shape has been resurrected a few times in recent years. Even though the Triumph didn’t catch on, it was an interesting precursor to the active basses and sophisticated preamps that came along later. It’s fun to play, and if you’re looking for a lot of tonal variety in a short-scale bass, it can deliver the goods—as long as your back is strong, or if you play sitting down!