Epiphone 1960s EB-3

[bea]

Maybe one or the other here knows these basses; they are actually pretty rare:

The 1960s Epiphone EB-0. The well known body and hardware from Epi's normal EB-3 line, but with e decent shortscale neck and dot inlays. Available in black, white and cherry. Apparantly a custom series of a few 100 instruments made for a big music store in Germany, in 2011.

In 2011 i bought a white one - i think i showed it earlier. This is the original state (the black one is an Epi EB-0 modded with an additional bridge pickup, it belongs to my son):

 

[bea]

I did some fairly heavy modding of it - hipshot supertone bridge, additional thumb rest, a better custom wound bridge pickup mounted into the MM position and some active electronics designed by me. And of course strap buttons moved in order to improve the balance of the bass.

 

[bea]

A few months later i could get hands on a 2nd one, for practising in my office room. A red one. I dis also play it in a short lived all female music project called "Eine fehlt immer" ("One (of us) is always missing.")
Well, that became the root of Velvet Beyond, my duo porject. And more.

Anyway, here the bass with a few minor mods (disabled tone pots, different pickups, thumb rest, better strap knob position, and even some slight stiffening of the bridge plate.)



But i did not start with the mod that's is actually the most important one on every EB-3, even vintage player basses from Gibson: moving the bridge pickup away from the neck into the MM (Stingray bass) position. Simply because that means extending the pickup hole.

But today i finally did that job, and some detail: added a 4th strip of brass beneth the plate of the bridge in order to further stiffen it. And had to loosen the trussrod for while because the bass had some nasty stirring (acoustic) sound. but after readjusting it, increasing the string height a bit and adjusting the bridge compensation exactly, everything is fine now.

 

[Thatbastarddon]

Fantastic looking work @bea !!! The white one is especially stunning! The bridge on the white one also looks like it may be quite robust, in comparison to the original style.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Awesome as always, bea. I'm also glad to see you are getting some live gigging time too.

 

[Alex_SG]

I picked up a Cherry Epiphone EB-0 about 4 weeks ago for my son. I paid AUD $400, which was probably a bit much, but it's a nice bass. It has a "Mudbucker" neck pickup and no bridge pickup. I'll post a pic shortly...

 

[Alex_SG]

Somehow I managed to stuff up the format and sizing of this picture, so I apologise in advance!

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Alex, the size and bass looks perfect

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Good to see you, Alex. Great bass u got too.. My mom n pop shop was selling those when I was getting my Epi LP and Epi Dot, Steve Harris P Bass etc circa 2010-12

 

[bea]

@Alex_SG : the mudbucker can be improved a lot. You can add a small rod of steel (6x6mm cross section) in the space where the pole screws are located. Of course You need to drill holes for the screws. The mudbucker will sound a lot fuller. Even more if You add a few stripes of thinner steel with some paper insulation instead of the rod. In order to reduce eddy currents. Like i did it here with an epiphone mudbucker in my Gibson EB-11. And of course give it a bridge pickup like i did with the black baby. Regarding prices: i paid 188€ for the black EB-0. Meanwhile those basses cost about 2 times as much.

 

[Alex_SG]

Good to see you, Alex. Great bass u got too.. My mom n pop shop was selling those when I was getting my Epi LP and Epi Dot, Steve Harris P Bass etc circa 2010-12

Good to catch up Chili... It's been a while, had a lot of stuff happening over the past year. I'm planning on being here at least a couple of times a week, so it will be like the old ETSG days.

 

[Alex_SG]

@Alex_SG : the mudbucker can be improved a lot. You can add a small rod of steel (6x6mm cross section) in the space where the pole screws are located. Of course You need to drill holes for the screws. The mudbucker will sound a lot fuller. Even more if You add a few stripes of thinner steel with some paper insulation instead of the rod. In order to reduce eddy currents. Like i did it here with an epiphone mudbucker in my Gibson EB-11. And of course give it a bridge pickup like i did with the black baby. Regarding prices: i paid 188€ for the black EB-0. Meanwhile those basses cost about 2 times as much.

View attachment 104575

Thanks for the information Bea! I gave the bass to my son, so it's his decision whether to modify it or not, but we'll see what he says.l The information is definitely very helpful though!

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

Thanks for the information Bea! I gave the bass to my son, so it's his decision whether to modify it or not, but we'll see what he says.l The information is definitely very helpful though!

bea is the bomb!!!!!

 

[Thatbastarddon]

bea is the bomb!!!!!

She certainly is! Her projects always seem to be interesting and inspiring! Oh, and entertaining!

 

[Jethro Rocker]

Sposed to be a form of EB-O too.

 

[chilipeppermaniac]

She certainly is! Her projects always seem to be interesting and inspiring! Oh, and entertaining!

Bdon, you took the words out of my mouth. If bea were a girl in our same classes in school, we probably would have learned as much from her as we did our teachers.

Inquiring minds like ours are like sponges that absorb knowledge of all kinds especially when it is fascinated by stuff like tech, engineering, new spins on old ideas etc.
Bea never disappoints in all aspects like that. She has a creative mind and great skill in her hands too. I hope she never tires of my sincerest praise too.

 

[bea]

Sposed to be a form of EB-O too.

That guy is definitely besser in putting on makeup than i am *smile*

 

[bea]

New electrics: 3-way-switch, 1xVol with acustically neutral treble bleed (the sound will remain bright when the vol is turned down) and one single tone control. With a treble bleed pot. Unfortunately, these pots are only available with 250k. So i need another 270k in series to keep the load on the PU small. Even more unfortunate is that the length of the thread is too small for the wood; these thingies are intended to be mounted on pickguards. So in lack of a router i needed to use a 25mm drill bit freehanded (!!!) in order to make the wood around the hole for that pot thinner.
Keeping the machine at slow speed... holding my breath... well i was really lucky und it came out perfectly.

Now i have two pots left over with no function. Leland Sklar might be happy for having two producer pots instead of one single producer switch, but i am not Leland Sklar... mhmm...)

BTW, the white bass also has an unused pot.

 

[bea]

Well, today i seem to have been busy as a bee...
I found a push-pull-pot of 500k which fits into the hole of one of the two unused pots. Nice. Put some 2.2nF in series with the output, bridge it with the 500k pot... You'll end up with an adjustable bass cut. Make this switchable in order to retain the original sound of the bass (important!).

Now i have only one producer pot left.

 

[bea]

Well, the EB3 and my golden SG with the recently finished rig. 80-90 Watts on a powerful cab can be really loud...
Unfortunately the golden bass sounds a bit dull, for whatever reason. I have to check the (active) electronics :-(