Mike Dirnt Talks New Epiphone Grabber G-3 Bass, Favorite Green Day Basslines, and Locking in with Tré Cool

Green Day’s Mike Dirnt recently teamed up with Epiphone to unveil his signature Epiphone Grabber G-3 bass, allowing fans and aspiring musicians to own an instrument just like his beloved Gibson Grabber G-3 that he played for years.

Get a Mike Dirnt Epiphone Grabber G-3 Bass via Reverb

The Epiphone Mike Dirnt Grabber G-3 bass comes in Silverbust or Natural finish, and features a double-cutaway maple Grabber body; a 34” scale three-piece maple neck with an ebony fretboard (maple on the Natural-finished model) and 20 medium jumbo frets; a classic Grabber “V” headstock equipped with open-gear bass tuners with historic clover buttons and a bone nut; and a high-density Leo Quan Badass II bridge.

Heavy Consequence caught up with Dirnt to discuss the new signature Epiphone bass, along with his beloved Gibson Grabber G-3. The punk legend also looked back on the first bass guitars he ever owned, his musical connection with drummer Tré Cool as the rhythm section in Green Day for 35 years, his personal favorite Green Day basslines, and the band’s upcoming movie, New Year’s Rev, among other topics.

The Epiphone Grabber G-3 bass is available via Reverb or Gibson. Read our interview with Mike Dirnt below.

Before we get into the new signature Epiphone Grabber G-3, what made the Gibson Grabber G-3 your choice of bass for so many years?

I played hundreds of shows with my G-3, and I just loved it. It has a way of cutting through big guitars, and still allows me to get all these little creative pops in and out. It walks nice and woolly, and also has this pop that I always look for.

What led you to first start playing the Gibson Grabber G-3?

It was total serendipity. My bass broke when we were on our first tour when I was 18 years old. I was playing a Peavey Patriot and my strap broke and it hit the ground, and the next day we had a day off. We were in Minneapolis, and I took my bass out of the case and it was being held together by the pick guard. It cut the body in half basically, and I’m like, “What am I gonna do?”And this guy, I believe his name was Scott Cook, he was a bass player, and he goes, “I just got a new bass. I haven’t even plugged it in… if you wanna take a look at it.” I said, “Sure.”