The RD artist first appeared in the 1978 catalogue, along with the RD standard, and a range of RD guitars. The artists models were the first Gibsons to use active electronics and were powered by a 9 volt battery. The electronics were designed by Moog (another Norlin company at the time) and had built in expansion and compression circuitry. The artist bass used newly designed mark V active humbucking pickups. Exact specifications can be seen by expanding the images to either side of this text. The Gibson Product development director at the time was Bruce Bolen. in this 1978 he explains the vision behind the RD artist.

The RD artist has got a huge range of sounds - second only to its ability to drain batteries.