Epiphone MudBucker EB 3 pickups

[14 West Guitars]

I have a guitar repair business and 12 years ago, a customer brought in basically what was a copy of the SG/EB bass that Gibson makes. I did basically a pickup swap and my customer informed me that the pickups in both the SG Bass and the EB Bass series were commonly referred to a "MudBuckers". They were very muddy sounding pickups and I certainly would have done a swap also if it were my bass. As that was the first bass of that kind I had worked on, it was news to me and something I did took note of. I have not worked on one since and that is probable due to the fact that few people today don't use them. They are not a good sounding bass as all. The sound very muddy. Good name for them. The last famous musician that I can think of that actually used oned live was Giner Baker of Cream and died a few year ago. I think were have all witnessed Gibson doing ridiculous things as far as business practices? What I would ask you guys is , if you were head of Gibson, why wouldn't you change that ? Even on eBay, that sidewinder pickups ( the Gibson name for it) is sold by sellers as MudBuckers in the title ? There are plenty of designers at Gibson, wouldn't it make sense to have the the staff redesign a pickup set that has improved sound over the MudBuckers and then offer both versions for a year or or two and then eventually faze out the Mud Muckers. That would be my thoughts on this. Open for discussion . Phil Barry, 14 West Guitars, Dunedin, Florida.