mcnach

Really??? I only noticed it 3-4 months ago! I suppose when you make mistakes as rarely as I do, ahem, one doesn't often need that function... yes, that's my coat, why?

I was going to reply "doh! the edit option has long gone!" but as you are someone who generally makes sense (thank you for teh £5 by the way ) I checked more carefully... and I "doh!" myself instead. When did it move to the three dots on the top right??? It seems I'm less observant than I thought

Most songs are not designed to show case bass technique and ability, so I guess those bassists probably can play other styles and more technical stuff too.

Got any other reply?

Nah, remember "I'm with you"? Raindance Maggie was the first single. Ugh. Fortunately the album had a couple of decent songs that were a lot better.

* bending the contacts in the socket. This not being able to edit posts even right after posting is a little silly... edit: well, doh! so I can still edit!

Putting in a good quality socket will be even better! If you're ok soldering, then that would be my plan: bend the contacts for now, order a replacement socket and install in the future, to ensure no more issues for years and years.

I'd just fix it myself and avoid the hassle of returning etc, if you like the bass apart from that issue. You can probably fix it by bending the contacts in teh jack the socket a little, so that they press tightly against the jack. On a Bass VI it'll take you two minutes.

Even when setting the quality to 'high' or 'very high'? I can hear some artifacts on standard but once you go for higher quality stream or download I find it perfectly adequate for most situations. There's a big difference between "not lossless" and "sucks"

I don't know how their algorithm is tweaked, but it's worked really really well for me and discovered many cool little known bands that way (Spotify). It was a bit stinky poo initially as my tastes are a bit... eclectic, but once I had been using it for a while it seems to work. It's one of my favourite things about Spotify. I'm intrigued by Tidal but apart from the share given to artists being a bit higher (still nothing to call home about unless you have millions of streams) I'm not sure it offeres anything worth my switching over.

They're definitely a bit of an acquired taste, I suppose. I could not imagine having one of those as my only bass.

At that price I'd have two, please!

Still waiting for the Artec pickup. Meanwhile I decided to get crazy and also get a replacement bridge (wider spacing) and light tuners to hopefully make it balance a little better. In black. Definitely not my best investment in terms of £££ but you only live once and I'm really liking the short scale vibe. I've loved the SG design since I first started interested in guitars. My brother's first guitar was an SG, so I didn't have to buy one 😛 and for many years I kept wanting an EB-0/3. Sometimes it doesn't have to make financial sense! Capacitors and new pots arrived, as did a set of D'Addario black nylon tapewounds. New bridge is here. Tuners arrive tomorrow. Of course, this weekend I'm too busy to do anything about it, typical

I don't think it'll be Imperial for Japanese instruments, so it's likely a 4mm key if the 5mm is too big.

Yeah, I saw on TalkBass that quite a few people had teh same issue. It seems to be a bit of a lottery. Hopefully they'd have fixed that by now. The good news is that it seems pretty easy to repair. It's a shame there aren't many other options, and the ones that are there are crazy expensive. I tried the bass, stock, at volume... and that pickup has to go. Playing relatively quietly at home it was not amazing but I could make it work. However as soon as the volume goes up... there's something strange with the bottom end, it just sounds anemic. Artec pickup will take a couple of weeks to arrive, 'though. I hope it is better than the stock one.

Not quite the same but... I once, erm, I mean I know someone who once forgot his drummer's snare. This was only realised when setting up in Inverness, and we drove from Edinburgh. Oh how I laughed. Fortunately the sound guy knew someone drinking downstairs at the bar who was a drummer. He kindly offered us his snare... only trouble is he stayed about 15 miles away and you can't go too fast on those little roads. We managed with plenty of time to spare, but it was a bit more stressful than I like. Drummer never left anything with me again

Artec mudbucker ordered.

This bass will probably only be used in a dub/reggae setting, in that style I think it could work well?

The Epiphone pickup does have the sidewinder design, like a mudbucker, but that's where the similarity ends and you're right, they won't work as intended initially. A little experimentation with capacitors is cheap and easy. I'm curious as to how this tone control design works on this. If I find I don't like it, a usual "Precision" style wiring will do, I just need to replace the original cap (68nF) for a higher value, and use 250K pots rather than the 500K that seem to be installed here.

Not talking about 'fancy' switching, varitone etc, but this, for example (60s wiring). It's still very simple but not your usual volume-tone passive wiring as on a Precision, for example. I'm not sure what that does to the sound but it's trivial to wire it and see. More info about EB-0 wiring over the years: https://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/EB0_circuit.php

Oh, and I do like bolt-on necks. It's my preference, although never a deal breaker.

Well, too late, got an EB0 already (yeah, that was fast) Those Embassy models are interesting but they're more Thunderbird-esque, aren't they? Not going for versatility. I just want a deep thumping pickup right by the neck. The EB-0 is not bad, but these Epiphones seem to have lost a lot of the mud in an attempt to make them more 'normal'... losing their main point in the process. The plan was to try and return if it didn't meet my goals close enough... but I'm really liking it. The short scale really suits this design (unlike the long scale EB-3 I had tried before, this one doesn't drop its neck to the ground the minute you take your hands off it). Nah, I'm keeping it and will play around with it. The wiring is quite different from what the various incarnations of EB-0 have had, so I'm going to experiment with that a bit since I can get a bunch of capacitors and a couple of pots for peanuts, and see what effect the different configurations have on the sound. If I am lucky and one of them gets me close to what I'm after, then job done. If not, at least I'll get a sense for what the different wiring configurations do (they're quite unusual) and will find a pickup somewhere. At the moment the Artec at just over £30 looks like a winner.

The problem with working from home is that when the delivery van calls, it's hard to not open the box straight away. Just a quick picture, since 'no pic no bass' I'm very impressed with the build quality and finish, I have to admit. I can't fault it, which is rare! The strings were loosened, and when I tuned it up it ended up being set with low action, zero buzz, very smooth to play. The first thing I did was check the balance/dive. Very nice sitting down, and with just a slight neck-pull when on a strap. It's also quite light, so the strap/weights trick will probably work very well. Prime candidate for a set of light tuners if I end up using this bass live, but the neck-dive is very minimal: I'm not in a hurry to do anything about it, which I'm happy about. The thin neck and narrow string spacing is a little alien, and just as I remembered it. The strings seem pretty light too, probaby a 95-40 set (didn't get my digital caliper out), which adds to the 'alien' feeling. If I keep this bass it'll get a set of flat or tapewounds, and fatter too. If I keep this bass? No, I am keeping it! But it needs a bit of work to bring it to where I want it to be. Yes, it's not all fantastic: it just doesn't have that deep sound I am after. I guess Epiphone have gone for more versatile electronics than trying to get that thump these basses are famous for. Which is funny because I remember playing those EB-3 and I thought they had it! It's been years so I may not remember very well, or perhaps there was some heavy outboard EQ going on. It's a decent sound, but I'd describe it as a "EB-0 wants to sound like every other bass instead of doing its own thing". Quite bright in sound. With the tone rolled down all the way it's still far from where I'd want it to be. I opened it up and it's got a standard modern 1 vol 1 tone type of wiring, with a 68nF capacitor. I will experiment with some higher value capacitors (I think I have some 100nF caps already in my drawer). No idea what the pot values are, the value is not stamped so I'll have to measure them myself. I may be able to get closer to the sound I'm after if I use 250 K pots and experimenting with other capacitors... Very cheap, caps cost pennies and pots not a lot more. But it looks like I'll be looking at a new pickup too if I want to get that sound. Fortunately the Artec replacements seem to be decent and cheap. But first I'll try to see what I can do with the original. I's a shame the DiMarzio DP120 (Model One) doesn't go for the 'mudbucker' sound either, as it looks really good... but I just can see I'd end up replacing all hardware in black next time I have too much time on my hands Anyway! Better get back to work...