Paul S Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 (edited) I know it has been done a thousand times before but I thought I'd walk you through my latest bout of turd polishing! I was GASing for an SG type bass and also had never tried a short scale, so an Epiphone EB-0 seemed the obvious solution. And, as GAS goes, pretty light on the wallet. A decent one appeared on eBay - unwanted present, good condition etc (yeah, ok) in black, my favoured colour. BIN £95. So I BINd it. Arrived - surprise! - in original packaging with all the bumpf, too. Plastic still on the rear cover and in excellent nick. Maybe the description was true? It ticked many of my boxes straight out of the box - it was lightweight, slim neck, black (did I mention that already?) decent enough finish. A bit neck heavy but nothing major. I even like the mother-of-toiletseat 'inlays' on the head! Used at rehearsal the sound was not so good - pretty much as I expected, thin, weak and muddy and the tone pot might as well have not been there for all the use it was. But comfy and worth doing up - given my liking for fiddling with cheap basses. So - pimping these is a well trodden path, so I searched the forum to read up on the best bits to use. I got a DiMarzio DP120 Model One pickup from Thomann for 78Euro. A Wilkinson Supertone Bridge from Basschatter Mike110 for £65 (bargain!) and a new wiring kit from Ki0gon for £23. Did the transplant the other day and encountered a couple of minor issues. The shafts of the new pots were larger than those of the Epi, so I had to drill them out a bit. My fault entirely, I should add. It ended up being very straightforward. The pickup has various wiring options depending upon whether you want it the two coils of the humbucker in series/parallel with an option to split the coils in/out of phase. Whatever that means. I wanted it simply wired as the humbucker with coils in series, so soldered the two wires together as directed in the instructions. So far so good. Scratch plate pickup cutout wasn't quite big enough for the DiMarzio cover so I decided to ditch it completely - I had managed to make a mark on it anyway. Bridge was simple - bolt straight on and set up. Plug in - wow. I could hardly believe the improvement. I haven't rehearsed/gigged it yet but played loud when Mrs S was out. Really nice. Huge tone, huge output, huge sustain. Overall it cost me around £250 and, for the money, it sounds and plays brilliantly. Timing is good, too - a short while after I bought it I started talking with some guys about getting a bluesy-rock type band together playing late 60s/early 70s stuff - Creedence Clearwater, Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Traffic, John Mayall, Free, Cream, early Stones. This may be a one trick pony but it is the perfect trick for this project, if it works out! [attachment=125786:DSCN1950 (758x1024).jpg] [attachment=125788:DSCN1958 (753x1024).jpg] [attachment=125787:DSCN1952 (752x1024).jpg] Edited December 24, 2012 by Paul S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffbyrne Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 .....you just need to do the defretting now..... G. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassPimp66 Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 What about black strings??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 Defret - never tried that..... Black strings. Yes, that would look nice. Rotosound flat nylons for that real 60s thud! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommorichards Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 what have you done with the old pickup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 I've put in in an old brown paper envelope inside a shoebox, waiting for the day I put it back to 'stock' and get shot of it. Would you have a use for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommorichards Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 (edited) i may do. I recently played a fret king ventura bass, and now wat to get an EB0 pickup for a neck position. Plus, i used to have an EB0 eppi, and loved the sound i got. Edited December 25, 2012 by tommorichards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaners Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Nice job, i just got an Epi EB-3 short scale in arctic white. Started on the mods. Converted to string through. Turned the bridge pickup round to move the poles up from the bridge and fitted Picato Flat tape wounds (can use standard scale thanks to the string through mod) Might convert to a tune o matic bridge. when i saw the bass i thought i would swap out the pickups too but to be honest it sounds great (I have changed the pots n caps too). very happy with this bass. will post some pics soon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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