neepheid

No reason to doubt Jules on these matters, here's more info than you ever knew you needed... https://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/parts/bridge/EBstringmute.php

Just to be clear - are you sure you mean "Tribute"? Do you mean "Triumph"?

I would say that you've got next to zero hope of Gibson helping you with anything it made last century. Let me see if I can dig something up.

Great to hear that Schaller are still taking customer care seriously - even when you're not technically speaking their customer.

Volume cutting out doesn't sound good. Is there a fresh battery in there?

What is wrong with the innards you already have? What do you want to achieve by upgrading?

I could play for a million hours and still not feel like I've mastered it. By that time I hope to have got comfortable with other people telling me I'm good

The PH signature is the one which seems more BB than the other two to me (probably because of the reverse P pickup) but I feel that something's got a bit lost with the newest BBs. I had a BB434 a while back but I just didn't gel with it. For want of a better explanation, I just don't think they're as Broad as they used to be - all streamlined and evened out. I know they're trying to modernise them but I think they maybe took a bit too much off. When I'm back to buying gear next year I might seek out a BB, but it'll be old school - BB300/800/1200.

Don't ask me, I'm just a middle aged muso...

Been there, done that. It sucks, but for the sake of sanity it is best to leave it all behind. The fact that the singer emailed me after I quit (in person, band meeting) and called it a "futile and theatrical gesture" says more about the toxicity than I ever could.

Yum, press fit bushings It all depends on which tuners you want - if you want to try to reuse the currently pressed in bushings (not an awful idea if they're pressed in good and tight and haven't lifted under string tension), or rip everything out and get tuners with screw fit bushings. What's bothering you about the bridge? Looks like a BBOT with chunkier saddles, or am I looking at the wrong bass?

According to the tech drawings from each manufacturer the total length of the base plates are as follows: Schaller M4 90 - 29.1mm Hipshot Ultralite - 33.8mm 4.7mm to find above each of your existing tuners, but bear in mind that there is a curve in the top of the Hipshots instead of the straight across tops of the Schallers - that's the maximum excursion and it'll be less at the edges. Over to you and your favourite measuring device... On the plus side, the mounting hole is in a very similar position on both tuners - 11.6mm for the Schaller vs. 11.2mm for the Hipshot (centre of tuner post to centre of mounting hole). I think that's within error and the mounting screw will go in without the need to fill/redrill.

Absolutely - I hope they take your feedback on board. I hope you have as good an experience with them as I did, even if you've lost faith in the product. I stand by what I said - I would never trust a bass tuner with a plastic button. So fair enough if you decide to look elsewhere for this size of bass tuner but I would be wary of the Gotoh Res-o-lite GB350 tuners also - plastic button. If you want to continue to save some weight then I'd go with the Hipshot Ultralites - the USA ones are a little lighter than the "licensed" ones and are reversible but are significantly more expensive. Or try some Gotoh GB707 if you don't like the exposed gear look.

Schaller /are/ a quality brand, they've just maybe put out a duff product - happens to the best of 'em and doesn't mean every product they make is garbage. Also, the only time I ever needed their help with something of theirs, they came through like champs - providing me with 4 of the 1 thing I asked for (a capstan and screw for an M4S - screw had been broken and was stuck inside the capstan), a bunch of plectra and a sticker, all for free - even though I was restoring a beat up second hand instrument and they didn't owe me anything and would have been quite within their rights to charge me for it - or even make me buy a whole M4S tuner - or tell me to get lost and buy a whole set of them somewhere else.

This is why I don't trust ANY tuners with plastic buttons - I don't care how much weight they save!

Agreed, the straps are very poorly designed. I had the more expensive one. I often like to sling my bass over one shoulder for a short trip from the car to the venue/rehearsal room and if I remember correctly, the bass would swing round so that the neck was sticking out to the side due to the weight distribution. Was pretty annoying. Said as much in my review on Thomann. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options out there for semi-hollow players I do think that the OP should keep searching for an Epi JC hard case to keep the EB-2 safe.

We need to be clear which one we're talking about, as there are two: https://www.thomann.de/gb/rockbag_hollowbody_bass_gig_bag.htm or https://www.thomann.de/gb/rockbag_starline_hollowbody_e_bass_bag.htm ?

They don't appear to do a RB50-5 set so you have two choices if you want to keep with Rotosound Rotobass. 1) Accept the slightly thinner strings of the RB45-5 set (45/65/85/105/130) 2) Buy another RB50 set (50/70/90/110) then get a separate single .130 Rotobass string (which is thickest one they do in that string - should probably be a .135 to be "correct") I'd probably just get the RB45-5 set rather than go to the trouble of getting a separate B string. It's going to feel different anyway, it's on a completely different bass. I don't really notice the .05 difference. I usually play D'addario XL 45/65/85/105 but my G&Ls came with D'addario XL 45/60/85/100 and I thought it would bug me but I really didn't notice.

If it's gigbags you want, Warwick Rockbag do some which will fit semi-hollow basses. They refer to them as hollowbody. I used them for Jack Casady basses but my current one came with a gigbag because it's the 20th Anniversary model.

Here's some visual confirmation of an EB-2 inside an Epiphone Jack Casady hard case: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/case-for-a-gibson-eb-2.577338/#post-10250565 As expected because the EB-2 is short scale and the JC is long scale there's a bit of a gap at the head end, but the body looks snug enough and the neck is still supported. There are gigbags which fit such basses, but I would think that a hard case would be more appropriate for a older instrument like this, and I suspect that's how you feel also.

Phat

Only idiots look down their noses at Yamahas Come to think of it, anyone who looks down their nose at anyone's instrument is an idiot IMO.

Yes, I think we're due for one of their irregular nods to the fact that bassists exist...

Remember to budget for an amp...