Epiphone Newport looks like a winner.

[vates]

I filmed the full review of the lil bugger the other day, and was patiently awaiting the Hipshot replacement hardware. I was looking at the Hipshot Supertone 2 Point and the Hipshot D Type 2 piece bridge. I snagged both heavily discounted off of Hipshot's Ebay store (awesome for deals!) and both came today along with a 3 point for this Jack Casady.

Here's what I learned:
-Hipshot D Type bridge does NOT fit. The piece with the saddles is too wide and the giant screw holes line up.
-The Hipshot Supertone 2 piece bridge DOES fit, but you need to remove both pieces of the bridge and the screw holes are slightly visible.
-The Hipshot Supertone 2 piece bridge screws do NOT fit. Mine only came with the USA pair, and not the import pair like the 3 points (for use with the Jack Casady, EB-0, etc.) Luckily, I had also received the 3 point bridge for the JC project and sacrificed the import screws for the 2 point. I emailed Hipshot about including the import screws in the 2 point as well, and asked for a pair.

Here are the results:

I snagged the lollipops for like $60 shipped, so I don't care if they're not shiny LOL. They're WAY better than the stock tuners.

Happy with the bridge so far. Way easier to dial in. Next up, the phase issue with the pickups! I'll likely replace the mudbucker with something... with what? I don't know yet.

Hope this helps some folks

Looks very nice!
Now why would you need to replace the stock tunomatic?

 

[bobyoung53]

Mine arrived this morning, and after a little thawing out, I tuned it to pitch and wrung it out a bit. It’s small, light and the neck is wonderful - fast and very comfortable. There’s a lot of sounds in this thing! Needed to have the bridge pickup raised and I adjusted the polepieces on the mudbucker for good measure, but it didn’t suffer from the bad factory setup others have mentioned. Gotta give the fingerboard an oiling yet. Everything seems to be screwed together really well. I immediately ditched the plastic knobs for chrome domes, straplocks are up next. Probably will upgrade the pickguard as well for something a little flashier than the basic white, in order to compete with that very orange-y California Coral.
View attachment 4955173

Those knobs look good, do the screws on the humbucker do anything, I've heard they didn't.

 

[Pyrat]

Each of my Epiphone and Gibson basses have been a gift...like coming home. I knew from the first time I plugged in my Epiphone EB-0(h!) I was a goner. My first "good" bass was a Gibson Ripper fretless a-way back in the '70s and I guess it took me all this time to find my way back. And now to our current bass the mighty Epiphone Newport...right out of the box I wasn't sure I'd like the neck profile, it's considerably shallower than my Gibsons but I found the right position for ME (longer strap) and kah-pow! a Rock'n'Roll machine presented itself to me!
The cherry finish is fantastic, I dig the bridge and of course that SOUND. I will post some pics soon but for now, I gotta go play!! These are great instruments at any price~

 

[lowend1]

Those knobs look good, do the screws on the humbucker do anything, I've heard they didn't.

Good question. I honestly don't know, but I figured I'd raise them a bit just in case.

 

[bobyoung53]

Good question. I honestly don't know, but I figured I'd raise them a bit just in case.

The ones I'm thinking of are on the Gibson SG bass, are those same pickups? Something tells me they're not.

 

[roogbass]

I received mine 15 minutes ago.
First impressions.
Feels great, nice weight, tunes well, plays well.
Topnut I will have to replace, to edgy, to high and cheap looking.
The bridge pup sounds great and balanced.
The neck pickup is a piece of sh*t.
Not balanced at all.

Does anyone know which replacement pup would fit?
Also wired out of phase.

I had a serek, with a good neck pup this bass might come close.

 

[LowEndLobster]

Looks very nice!
Now why would you need to replace the stock tunomatic?

The stock bridge is way more of a PITA to setup and dial in. Hipshot makes it easy, especially setting the string height as making an adjustment won't impact the other strings.

 

[roogbass]

I saw your post just now.
Which lollipops are those? I like that a lot!
So you have issues with the neck pup too, do you know if the pup has a standard size?

I filmed the full review of the lil bugger the other day, and was patiently awaiting the Hipshot replacement hardware. I was looking at the Hipshot Supertone 2 Point and the Hipshot D Type 2 piece bridge. I snagged both heavily discounted off of Hipshot's Ebay store (awesome for deals!) and both came today along with a 3 point for this Jack Casady.

Here's what I learned:
-Hipshot D Type bridge does NOT fit. The piece with the saddles is too wide and the giant screw holes line up.
-The Hipshot Supertone 2 piece bridge DOES fit, but you need to remove both pieces of the bridge and the screw holes are slightly visible.
-The Hipshot Supertone 2 piece bridge screws do NOT fit. Mine only came with the USA pair, and not the import pair like the 3 points (for use with the Jack Casady, EB-0, etc.) Luckily, I had also received the 3 point bridge for the JC project and sacrificed the import screws for the 2 point. I emailed Hipshot about including the import screws in the 2 point as well, and asked for a pair.

Here are the results:

I snagged the lollipops for like $60 shipped, so I don't care if they're not shiny LOL. They're WAY better than the stock tuners.

Happy with the bridge so far. Way easier to dial in. Next up, the phase issue with the pickups! I'll likely replace the mudbucker with something... with what? I don't know yet.

Hope this helps some folks

 

[LowEndLobster]

I saw your post just now.
Which lollipops are those? I like that a lot!
So you have issues with the neck pup too, do you know if the pup has a standard size?

I snagged em off of Hipshot's Ebay store for $60-ish. They're NOS 3/8" satin lollipops.

For the neck pickup, I believe it's standard sized. I have a few pickups coming that we'll mess around with. The best bet is probably the Artec 30k mudbucker which has four conductors and a separate shield. The current stock mudbucker has the ground and shield together, so you can't switch the phasing without making it very noisy.

 

[roogbass]

I snagged em off of Hipshot's Ebay store for $60-ish. They're NOS 3/8" satin lollipops.

For the neck pickup, I believe it's standard sized. I have a few pickups coming that we'll mess around with. The best bet is probably the Artec 30k mudbucker which has four conductors and a separate shield. The current stock mudbucker has the ground and shield together, so you can't switch the phasing without making it very noisy.

Aha, thank you very much.
Hope to hear how you modify yours.

 

[lowend1]

The ones I'm thinking of are on the Gibson SG bass, are those same pickups? Something tells me they're not.

They are not. Don't take it as gospel, but as I recall, the "mudbucker" pickup in the Gibson SG Bass is actually a TB Plus under a different cover, with non-functioning polepiece screws. The one on this bass is a "Sidewinder" - style pickup where the coils sit on their side edge instead of the traditional flat position. Epiphone has used this pickup since the 90s, but I don't know if it has been re-engineered or updated. The bridge pickup is the same one they currently use in the 60s Thunderbird (formerly the Vintage Pro) and Embassy bass. Here's what a Sidewinder looks like under the cover. You can see that the screws extend down through the metal plates which to me indicates they are functional.

 

[bobyoung53]

They are not. Don't take it as gospel, but as I recall, the "mudbucker" pickup in the Gibson SG Bass is actually a TB Plus under a different cover, with non-functioning polepiece screws. The one on this bass is a "Sidewinder" - style pickup where the coils sit on their side edge instead of the traditional flat position. Epiphone has used this pickup since the 90s, but I don't know if it has been re-engineered or updated. The bridge pickup is the same one they currently use in the 60s Thunderbird (formerly the Vintage Pro) and Embassy bass. Here's what a Sidewinder looks like under the cover. You can see that the screws extend down through the metal plates which to me indicates they are functional. View attachment 4957482

Thanks, yeah I have a few old Gibsons with those, someone said that the Epi's are similar but wound a little less, something like to 20K, I don't know if that's true or not though but likely.

 

[Hot Rats]

I sent mine back. Good luck everybody. It really is a cool bass.

 

[Cave Puppy]

I was completely underwhelmed by The Embassy a few years ago, so this bass didn’t appeal at all to me. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I got any bass site unseen online that was any good, QC or otherwise. And I’ve tried. And they’ve all been returned, or quickly flipped. It would take A LOT for me to order a bass I haven’t tried in person. I’m not up to working on them anymore to make them how they should be factory fresh. The two instruments I most recently bought when I was able to try them first I still have and play. In one of those cases I went through three of the same guitars. What a pain that would be to do that all online.

 

[SulzerType2]

Thanks, yeah I have a few old Gibsons with those, someone said that the Epi's are similar but wound a little less, something like to 20K, I don't know if that's true or not though but likely.

'90s Epi sindwinders have a DC resistance of 1.2 k ohms. Surprisingly low, so they just use an unusual gauge of wire. To be fair any pickup will sound a bit muddy in that location on a short scale bass.

You can still buy 1.2 k ohms mudbuckers sold under the Guyker brand.

 

[EncoremMP]

I was completely underwhelmed by The Embassy a few years ago, so this bass didn’t appeal at all to me. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I got any bass site unseen online that was any good, QC or otherwise. And I’ve tried. And they’ve all been returned, or quickly flipped. It would take A LOT for me to order a bass I haven’t tried in person. I’m not up to working on them anymore to make them how they should be factory fresh. The two instruments I most recently bought when I was able to try them first I still have and play. In one of those cases I went through three of the same guitars. What a pain that would be to do that all online.

Ummm ok?

 

[mijcstille]

Love this bass. Actually like both PUPs. However, I feel that mine also has this phase issue. How can I fix it?

 

[GwenOnBass]

I see too many reports of QC issues to spend the spacebucks on one. My luthier's queue is two months, and I hold no desire to spend above and beyond the cost of the bass and new strings to fix a nut or a phase issue.

 

[TN WOODMAN]

Well, I ordered a regular Epi bass gig bag with mine, but the bass is so tiny that it fits in a spare heavily padded Gibson guitar gig bag that I had laying around. Normally, I don’t like putting basses with a pitched headstock in a bag, but this will have to suffice until I can source a hard case.

Thanks to Epiphone historically using a scarf joint for their neck to headstock union, a gig bag is not as fearful as with Gibsons.

 

[bobyoung53]

Love this bass. Actually like both PUPs. However, I feel that mine also has this phase issue. How can I fix it?

Reverse the wires from one of the pickups, the outside shielded wire is the ground.