Dimarzio Model one will make a difference but it will never be as bright as say a Precision bass. Mike Watt used Eb3s and did all sorts of mods to it and even routed a pickup in the middle position to get the sound similar to his old T-bird.
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Epiphone EB3 sound... Too dull. Any suggestions?
- Thread starter Tigerclaw_x
- Start date
i wonder what a 'frowny-face' curve on an e.q. pedal would make your bass sound like.
edit: or maybe a high pass filter.
edit: or maybe a high pass filter.
$29 Great Sounding!! I’ve owned two $209 Sansamps and this is a great value!!
Gibson and Epiphone basses are mostly inherently dark and muddy sounding. You could add bright strings, change the pickups, boost your mids and it will still never sound bright and lively like say, a Jazz or an Ibanez.
There's a reason EB style basses fell way out of favor for many decades. You now know the reason.
I hear you complain that you don't want to do any mods that exceed the cost of the bass. I'd say ditch it and go with a P bass.
I hear you complain that you don't want to do any mods that exceed the cost of the bass. I'd say ditch it and go with a P bass.
Good pickups cost $. Think of it this way - it'll sound as good or better than the gibson version.
Swap out the pots for 1 meg valued pots. It's an inexpensive mod and has made a difference for me in the past.
I had one for a couple of years for the purpose of wiring in stereo (saweeeet!), and in that time I stopped liking my J enough that I sold it, and the EB3 became my only bass. To make it useable in normal, mono bass placings, I did some of these things alone or together:
-Chromes
-plucked over the bridge pickup
-using the neck pickup, turned the bass way down on the amp
-rat pedal/distortion
-using the bridge pickup, cranked the bass on the amp
-rotosound PSD
-wide open tube amp
I never liked any both-pickups settings in mono.
At the end of the day, it's not a stratocaster, it's not a synth, it is a bass guitar. Bum bum bummm ba bummm bum.
-Chromes
-plucked over the bridge pickup
-using the neck pickup, turned the bass way down on the amp
-rat pedal/distortion
-using the bridge pickup, cranked the bass on the amp
-rotosound PSD
-wide open tube amp
I never liked any both-pickups settings in mono.
At the end of the day, it's not a stratocaster, it's not a synth, it is a bass guitar. Bum bum bummm ba bummm bum.
Come on over to the SG & EB Bass Club,show us your weapon and I'll give you a member number and we can explore this and many other options/alternatives together.
Wasnt gonna go there but I gotta defend it or live with myself knowing I didnt try. Where in hell did the OP ever say or ask what other brand of bass he should buy instead?. Did he not request a recommendation on an alternative to modding his tone?. Im pretty god damned sure he wasnt looking for people to make him feel at a loss about his preference in bass. Quit wasting fn' thread space and leave room for people who are generally willing to help a brother out.
You get a great improvement in the tone of the Epi EB-3 mudbucker if you do one of two very easy and inexpensive things:
1. Take the two pickup coils out of series and wire them in parallel. They are wound to such a high DC resistance when stock. I think mine was something dumb like 30K or more! This kills definition and makes the tone harder to tweak, because your starting point is a high output, treble-attenuated tone. Putting the coils in parallel really tames the pickup so it becomes something that can be tweaked a lot better with e.q. and gain. It gives you a clean, low output starting point, with which you can do practically anything in terms of tone shaping. It also makes it possible to truly balance the output levels of the two pickups, which makes the bridge pickup more usable in the real world.
I would also pad the pickup with gaffer tape or a thin layer of foam while you are in there. It sits loose in the pickup rout, held in only by the pickup cover. The pickup being held in in this janky way can cause annoying rattles. It took me *literally* years to figure out where that damned rattle was coming from. Once I found it, a couple strips of gaffer tape and five minutes of my time solved the problem.
2. Replace the pickup selector switch with a passive bass cut control (like G&L and Reverend use). You'll have to experiment with pot and cap values, and ideally you want a reverse audio taper pot. But it's not hard to do, and it's very rewarding tonally, especially with that bass.
I didn't ever replace the pickup cover on mine, but I wouldn't be surprised if doing so opened up a bit of top end clarity as well. The Epi covers have traditionally been quite bad in that regard (not sure if they have improved since I formed that conclusion, though...or if anyone else makes covers that are any better, for that matter).
The standard Seymour Duncan mini humbucker pickups (available in three outputs) are good economical replacements for the bridge pickup. They're designed as guitar pickups, but they're built like old Firebird pickups (i.e. with blades, not one pole piece per string), so they work quite well for bass.
1. Take the two pickup coils out of series and wire them in parallel. They are wound to such a high DC resistance when stock. I think mine was something dumb like 30K or more! This kills definition and makes the tone harder to tweak, because your starting point is a high output, treble-attenuated tone. Putting the coils in parallel really tames the pickup so it becomes something that can be tweaked a lot better with e.q. and gain. It gives you a clean, low output starting point, with which you can do practically anything in terms of tone shaping. It also makes it possible to truly balance the output levels of the two pickups, which makes the bridge pickup more usable in the real world.
I would also pad the pickup with gaffer tape or a thin layer of foam while you are in there. It sits loose in the pickup rout, held in only by the pickup cover. The pickup being held in in this janky way can cause annoying rattles. It took me *literally* years to figure out where that damned rattle was coming from. Once I found it, a couple strips of gaffer tape and five minutes of my time solved the problem.
2. Replace the pickup selector switch with a passive bass cut control (like G&L and Reverend use). You'll have to experiment with pot and cap values, and ideally you want a reverse audio taper pot. But it's not hard to do, and it's very rewarding tonally, especially with that bass.
I didn't ever replace the pickup cover on mine, but I wouldn't be surprised if doing so opened up a bit of top end clarity as well. The Epi covers have traditionally been quite bad in that regard (not sure if they have improved since I formed that conclusion, though...or if anyone else makes covers that are any better, for that matter).
The standard Seymour Duncan mini humbucker pickups (available in three outputs) are good economical replacements for the bridge pickup. They're designed as guitar pickups, but they're built like old Firebird pickups (i.e. with blades, not one pole piece per string), so they work quite well for bass.
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Cmon man. OP bought a bottom feeder bass and (gasp) it sounds like he got what he paid for. We've all been there. Mentioning that is perfectly legit. Especially if it stops him from throwing more money down the drain. I always advise people buying entry level instruments NOT to mod them. Play it. Learn on it. Enjoy it. When you finally outgrow it, it will be worth more dead stock than if you modded it. Plus you didn't spend money on mods. Win-win.
Bought my Epi EBO already modded with a Di Marzio Model 1 and Hipshot Supertone bridge. Slapped on a set of chromes and this is a fun little bass to play and sounds killer through my Jeff Berlin Combo with NY151 extension cab. Mods worth considering for the bang for buck factor.
Understood. I got the single pickup version and liked the neck enough that I replaced the bridge and the pickup. It was worth it in the end.
