“I looked at the bass, Billie looked at me, and I picked it up. I thought, ‘Did I just become a bass player?’” Green Day’s Mike Dirnt looks back on his early bass days – as Epiphone launches signature version of his cult classic Grabber G-3

Introducing the Mike Dirnt Epiphone Grabber G-3 Bass - YouTube

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Epiphone has partnered with Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt for a signature version of his cult classic Grabber G-3 bass.

For the launch, Dirnt looked back on his early bass days and recalled the exact moment he pivoted from six strings to four, and set out on the low-end path that's defined his entire career.

"I was introduced to bass via playing guitar," he reflects in an interview with Epiphone. "First, my mom had an old pawn shop bass. All it had was a flatwound E and A on it, and I would screw around on that thing.

"But our friend Sean – we were at band practice, he was our old bass player – had a dentist appointment, and he took off. I kind of looked at the bass, Billie [Joe Armstrong] looked at me. I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm gonna pick it up. Let's play.'

"The second I picked it up, I was like, 'Oh, wow, this is fun.' I look over Billie, and Billie's like, 'Oh, boy, we found something here.' And I was like, 'Did I just become a bass player?'"

The Mike Dirnt Grabber G-3, which comes in Natural and Silverburst finishes, arrives after the double-cut bass was reprised by Gibson in September 2024.

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As one of the Grabber’s foremost players, Dirnt was an obvious choice for a signature version. The 34” build gets a maple body and three-piece maple neck, and either a maple or ebony fingerboard. Both iterations come with 20 medium jumbo frets and abalone dot inlays.

Tonally, a trio of Gibson G-3 pickups is on hand. Wired in a quirky “buck-and-a-half” configuration, they’re joined by a three-way pickup switch for engaging the neck, middle, or all three humbuckers simultaneously. There are also Master Volume and Tone controls.

Hardware choices include open-gear tuners with “historic” clover buttons on the V-style headstock, a bone nut, and a Leo Quan Badass II bridge. It’s a string-through-body system, which further adds to the G-3’s hearty sustain.

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The Epiphone Mike Dirnt G-3 is available for $1,299/£1,199. The Natural finish is available exclusively on the Epiphone website.

Head to Gibson for more.

Speaking with Bass Player earlier this year, Dirnt got forensic about tone and detailed the making of their massive rock opera, American Idiot.