HALP ME! EB-3 vs Precision vs Dimarzrio Model One??

[Max Normal]

Can someone help me?

I have a vintage Jap P-Bass (80's one, better sounding than the USA version IM(humble)HO that I play through an SVT3pro full stack, 1x15, 4x10, no effects. I really like the sound, power, warmth and punch of the whole rig.

Many, many years ago (probably 15 or 20) I had a weird shaped mahogany Guild bass with a set neck and a severe neck dive problem, but it played and sounded great. I was having one of my Great Clear Outs to enable me to buy a new amp so I let it go for a song. I have always been a Bruce/Frazer fan (first bassline I ever learned was "Ride On Pony" by Free) and I always wanted an EB-3 in the old days.

Now I have just mortgaged everything I own to buy the SVT stack and a PA as I have to sing as well, and could not afford a Gibson (without murdering the missus first), but I have seen this 1960's reissue Epiphone EB-3 in both long and short scales. On the gear porn section here, some dude has posted pics of his Epiphone EB-3 and it looks gorgeous. So I decided i want one (long-scale, I have to detune), and I hear great things about them on the forums apart from the mudbucker, so I found a place in the US and got a new Dimarzio Model one for £35.00 that had been sitting on his shelf since 1995.

Since then, I have looked and listened on youtube at some soundclips and to me they don't sound like a Gibson at all, all weak and honky and rattly in fact. So, do you think the Dimarzio will rescue it and make a giggable sounding guitar, or are they really just beginners instruments and i should forget about it?

and while we are on the subject, if this is the case, should I cut a hole in my scratchplate and fit the "Model One" pickup to the neck position of the P-bass Billy Sheehan Style (but with only one rig of course!).

I know, I know, I should go to a music shop and try one out, but there are none around here that has the 1960's reissue and I was going to order it online. Anyone got any experience of these as a useful gigging instrument, or the Dimarzio Model One fitted to an EB-3 or a P-bass for that matter?

PS for the record, I am currently playing stuff like Sabbath, Dio, Deep Purple, Led Zep, Whitesnake, Free, Motorhead in my band, so that's the kind of sound I'm after. Why don't I just use the Fender if it sounds so good? Because I have to detune, one bass needs to be concert pitch and one needs heavy strings and a truss to detune 1 semitone properly withour flapping. I want them both setup for their respective tuning, not switch between the two.

Edited September 3, 2010 by Max Normal

[arthurhenry]

I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the model one was based on the EB3 pickup, so probably sounds similar. I'm a big fan of 70s Tele basses with the Fender Humbucker at the end of the neck. Not low end overload as some think, no real highs, but nice growling mids.