NBD: Epiphone EA-260

[Killer Kadoogan]

I had a desire to own a vintage Gibson EB2 style bass (but without the price tag!) and managed to acquire this Epiphone EA-260:




Now don't get me wrong, it's no EB2. It's from the early '70's when production of Epiphone branded instruments were moved to Japan (essentially the same bass was sold with different brand names such as Vox, Commodore etc). It was fairly low budget at the time, and there were build quality issues with many, with the neck being set too low to get a good action at the higher end of the fretboard. You have to add a shim in the pocket, a relatively simple fix that many owners of these have done. The seller has done this fix and the action at that end of the neck is not bad now. Little high perhaps, but acceptable.

Whilst I just totally slagged off the model, I have seen many comments saying they can be pretty good once set up decently. Nice deep and woody tones, and loud!

The body on the one I have is, other than one or two minor dings on the bottom of it (which the seller mentioned), really very nice for a 40 year-old hollowbody. The rear is absolutely spotless!

There are however some issues. The most obvious of which is down to the shop that sold it to me. I asked for a new set of flats to be installed (replacing an ageing set of rounds). It arrived like this:




Can you spot the mistake?

They seem to have assumed that being a short scale bass it needed short scale strings, but as the strings extend for a bit past the bridge it puts it into the medium scale range according to the D'Addario string length guide. As you can see the silk wrapping extends to the wrong side of the nut, and the strings taper around the point the wrap starts too. Can't believe they would send it out like that. They are now sending a set of medium scale strings to replace them.

Other issues I will need to get sorted:

- Nut is cracked. The shop maintains they would have replaced it if they had seen it. Being charitable, it could have happened during shipping. It's a 40 year-old piece of plastic after all.

- The electronics need sorting. The wiring was replaced relatively recently according to the seller. The 3-way selector should switch on both pickups in the mid position, but only the neck pickup works (same as the 'up' position). The bridge pickup works in the 'down' position. Will also need to adjust the pickup heights as well as the bridge one positively roars compared to the neck one.

I think that while this model is never going to be a classic, it'll be enough to satisfy that desire for a vintage bass, and be a fun instrument to play on. Just need to get these issues sorted and have it properly set up first.

This leads me to a question. Does anyone know a good place to get this work done, around the High Wycombe (Buckinghamshire) area? I don't have a car so I am limited to the places I can get to. Any help on that would be appreciated.

[HowieBass]

That's a lovely looking instrument! Wouldn't mind adding something like that to my own collection one day. Think it would do any good to try squirting some switch cleaner into the toggle switch? I've an '86 era Westone bass that has 3 toggle switches (pickup selector, active/passive, humbucker/single coil) and all of them are of the sealed unit type... I felt that I was lacking a bit of output volume and treble and assuming that all 3 are in the signal chain it seemed sensible to spray cleaner (using the supplied thin tube) into the things and work the toggles backwards and forwards to get rid of any oxidation on the contacts; I think it's improved the sound (I blew into the switches to clear excess spray out and checked the output when they'd all 'dried out').

[Billy Apple]

Give Julian Mullen a call. He lives in Reading, but drives around picking stuff up and dropping it off. He's done work on my Thunderbird and PBass, is reasonably priced and has my recommendation

PM'd with number

[Killer Kadoogan]

Thanks for the replies guys.

HowieBass: Yeah, it's a nice looking bass. As well as the issues mentioned before, it's missing the mute that would originally have attached to the bridge (a common thing with these), has one mismatched tuner, and the pickguard is missing too. No great problem really. One of the first things I'd have done is take off the pickguard anyway as I think this style of bass/guitar looks better without.

I'd give the switch cleaner thing a try, but considering I need to get someone to do the nut, restring and setup anyway I might just get them to check out the electronics as well so I know for sure it's all good. I'll keep the idea in mind though, so thanks.

Billy Apple: Thanks for that contact info. I have looked up his web site. I know a guitarist who I think has dealt with a couple of more local people, so I have already messages him to see what he has to say about them. Won't be doing anything until the new year anyway, as like most people at this time I'm busy, and I also want to wait for the seller to send through the new medium scale strings so I can get it restrung with those. Thanks for the info though. Always good to get a personal recommendation, and I'll certainly be getting in touch unless I get a recommendation for someone closer.

[Lozz196]

That`s a really nice looking bass, hope you get it set up to your playing specs, I`d reckon you`re going to enjoy this one.

[Killer Kadoogan]

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1387928762' post='2317403']
That`s a really nice looking bass, hope you get it set up to your playing specs, I`d reckon you`re going to enjoy this one.
[/quote]

Thanks! I'm really still a novice at the bass, and just really getting into seriously learning to play. This purchase wasn't really planned. I just love that vintage style, and came across this one when my willpower was low! I'm sure it will be great once the issues I mentioned are sorted.

A Jack Casady is my main bass, and I'm not sure whether I should swap between the two very much, at least initially as I learn, as the Casady is 34" scale and the EA-260 is 30.5". Not sure if it's good to use both or whether swapping between the different scale lengths will act as a barrier and slow down the learning process. That said, I am only learning for my own amusement and that barrier would be tiny compared to that of my inbuilt lack of musical talent!

An unplanned bonus of choosing a Casady is that the hard case I bought with it fits the EA-260 pretty well too, so if I have to take one or the other out with me, it's well protected.

[BetaFunk]

These are really nice basses. Once you've got a few things sorted it will be even better.

I can't believe a music shop would send a bass out strung like that but on saying that all of the semi-acoustic bases i have need medium scale strings as the short scale ones are far too short.

[Killer Kadoogan]

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1387979410' post='2317695']
These are really nice basses. Once you've got a few things sorted it will be even better.

I can't believe a music shop would send a bass out strung like that but on saying that all of the semi-acoustic bases i have need medium scale strings as the short scale ones are far too short.
[/quote]

Thanks. Always nice to hear nice things about the instrument you just bought! Looking forward to when I can get it sorted out.

Amazing how a music shop could do that. They are sending a medium scale set of strings in the new year. According to the D'Addario fitting guide, mediums fit 32-34" basses (measured nut to ball), and the EA-260 is about 33.5" so should be just right.

[Billy Apple]

[quote name='Killer Kadoogan' timestamp='1387997861' post='2317810']
Thanks. Always nice to hear nice things about the instrument you just bought! Looking forward to when I can get it sorted out.

Amazing how a music shop could do that. They are sending a medium scale set of strings in the new year. According to the D'Addario fitting guide, mediums fit 32-34" basses (measured nut to ball), and the EA-260 is about 33.5" so should be just right.
[/quote]

On one hand it's a easy mistake to make. My Coronado is short scale, but takes medium scale strings due to the 2 piece trapeze bridge. But you'd think the shop would see the error with the silk over the nut. Now that is proper dumb. At least they are sending the right length.