Epiphone EB3 experiences?

[Scott Sauna]

Hey TB, just wondering about your experiences with the Epiphone EB3 Bass. Either the Long or Short Scale version doesn't matter. Are they lightweight? Is the tone eternally muddy? What kind of bass would you compare the sound to? Thanks!

Here is a link just in case: http://www2.gibson.com/Products/Elec...hone/EB-3.aspx

[IronLung1986]

ehhh not a super great bass in my experience. i have an EB-0 and it is mostly bad. it does have kind of a cool sound but none of it comes through with a band, it's just VERY dark and muddy. the tone knob does almost nothing and it's nearly impossible to intonate properly and get decent action. i have wrangled with the poor thing extensively and i'm afraid it just wasn't very well made. you can picture the sound of this bass if you imagine going to your amp EQ and turning the bass way up, the treble completely off, and putting a pillow in front of the speaker.

the EB-3 is better because you get the bridge pickup and the long scale ones are a little easier to work with as far as action and intonation. but still, the hardware isn't good and the pickups are woofy and weak. i guess i wouldn't recommend it all that much.

[Stormer]

Had a long scale EB3 a few years back.
Serious neck dive, very weak bridge pick up & muddy neck pick up. never had any problems with intonation but i didnt keep it very long.

Very pretty though!!

[dcalde78]

Tried one in a store a couple of months ago. It wasn't too bad weight wise, which surprised me. Nice handful of a neck, not too big but not too small. I never got to play it through an amp which I was a little disappointed with but for playability it was great. Long scale, low action with little to no buzzing. The only thing that put me off a little was that there was no decent place to anchor my thumb for finger playing. When I play my P bass I like to play just on the pickup, and since there's such a gap between the pickups it put me off a little, but it was still nice to play. I'd play that bass pretty much exclusively pick style, near the bridge with both pickups on.

Overall really, it felt like a good quality bass, well finished, nice fretwork and overall nice feel in the hands.

[KPJ]

I have one and am very happy with it. Not muddy at all. It has a very strong mid presence, actually. The bridge pick up is very bright with little low end. I use it more to add more brightness, much the same way you would dial in the bridge pickup on a G&L SB-2. Soloed, with distorion, gives a very guitarish sound.

The bass is very lightweight. I wouldn't say neck dive - it's more that the bass prefers to be paralell. Since it is lightweight it's not to difficult to control for me. A wide strap does a good job of keeping the bass in the position that I want it to be.

Mine is one of the limited edition "worn" cherry finish ones.

[sanfi4u]

I have Epiphone EB-3 1960's Limited Edition Custom Shop Short Scale Bass and I like it a lot. It has its slightly colored EB-3 tone. But I won't call it muddy. It's quite versatile, with a lot of details. As it's short scale it has no neck diving. And it's nice looking bass:songcrafters.org. So I think it deserves giving it a try.

[jackcassruce]

The Epi EB-3 is the best junk bass there is . A HipShot bridge is a must , then you can really dial it in