I Dig it!!!! I’d get one for the body and IMMEDIATELY swap the pickups with Curtis Novaks and tuners with Hipshot Ultralites!!! I say it’s a GREAT moddable platform!
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Epiphone Newport shortscale
- Thread starter Crobybass
- Start date
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- Tags
- bass epiphone newport
I have one but I quite like the stock pickups in it- the mudbucker in the neck in the Newport opens up some interesting mod possibilities, especially since I'm not really into routing out big holes in general.
Still I'm glad epiphone is doing interesting things in the bass space despite gibson caring approximately 0% about that market. You'll buy our tbirds and you'll like it. I'm not trying to put Serek out of business but would it kill them to reissue the ripper?
Serek has positioned himself in the expensive boutique segment of the market, I think his instruments cost around 3500 dollars now, I don't think he'd be threatened by Gibson reissuing these old basses.
It's so weird that Gibson never cared about basses
It's so weird that Gibson never cared about basses
Just unboxed mine. California coral. The color is just WICKED! Depending on the lighting it's tangerine or yellow or orange..
Not bad right outta the box for the set up. A little buzz but neck is straight. Fit and finish is right on. Bridge pick up was way to low but easily corrected. Love the volume, blend, tone set up. Will hafta find her settings on my orange terror but love it. Reminds of skittles. Probably re-sting with flats soon. Totally worth the scratch.
Not bad right outta the box for the set up. A little buzz but neck is straight. Fit and finish is right on. Bridge pick up was way to low but easily corrected. Love the volume, blend, tone set up. Will hafta find her settings on my orange terror but love it. Reminds of skittles. Probably re-sting with flats soon. Totally worth the scratch.
Well, mine arrived yesterday. After letting her sit for 24 hours, I got to play her this evening.
Impressions:
Fit/Finish: absolutely flawless! The fret work is exceptional! No dead spots, no fret buzz, everything level, no fret sprout or sharp edges.
Finish, gorgeous. The Sunset Yellow is perfect.
Set Up: for me and how I like mine, it was perfect out of the box!
Pickups: the neck Sidewinder is a beast! Big, punchy, yet nice warm round tone when you roll the tone off.
The bridge TB Pro is great! Throaty with the classic Thunderbird growl!
Mine didn’t seem to have the out of phase wiring. The blend knob in the middle is tonal bliss!
Playability: perfect balance. No neck five and ergonomically incredibly comfortable!
Final rating 5
️!
Impressions:
Fit/Finish: absolutely flawless! The fret work is exceptional! No dead spots, no fret buzz, everything level, no fret sprout or sharp edges.
Finish, gorgeous. The Sunset Yellow is perfect.
Set Up: for me and how I like mine, it was perfect out of the box!
Pickups: the neck Sidewinder is a beast! Big, punchy, yet nice warm round tone when you roll the tone off.
The bridge TB Pro is great! Throaty with the classic Thunderbird growl!
Mine didn’t seem to have the out of phase wiring. The blend knob in the middle is tonal bliss!
Playability: perfect balance. No neck five and ergonomically incredibly comfortable!
Final rating 5
️!Attachments
Dont worry Serek aint goin nowhere.....Now that Gibson and Mesa have merged who knows, it seems an effort is being made in the bass world.
Those semi-reverse-bodied "EB" basses Gibson made some years back looked like a surprisingly-solid effort, at least in terms of design and feature set. I'm kind of surprised they didn't get more traction...
Got a chance to set up my Newport today only to find that the truss rod is maxed out. Hoping to get an issue free exchange from Sweetwater.
Well THAT stinks. I would figure they will do ya right...hope the next one has no issues~
Pretty sure the Newport has the two-way truss rod that has a neutral area at the halfway point and tightens in either direction. It's not helpful that they chose to omit the usual instructions and adjustment wrenches in the package - at least mine didn't come with them...
Doh! I feel a little foolish now. Mine also came with no instructions or a wrench. Just tried to adjust it the other way and was able to dial it in a little better. I still have some fret buzz to address, but the action is much better now. Thanks for the info.
godofthunder59
Life is short, buy the bass.
- Feb 19, 2006
- 9,057
- 38,405
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Cataldo Basses, Whirlwind products, Thunderbucker pickups
Here's my full review of the Newport. I love mine though a set up including a lot of filing the nut and a new set of strings were needed to put it right. Not all Newports are being delivered like this but I have heard enough instances about poor set up and bad strings that it warranted addressing. I do love this bass, it's a winner!
D
I finally got mine today. First impressions:
-The packaging has a sticker saying "valuable & important accesories in the box, do not discard". I'm not sure what they mean... The Epiphone sticker? Because that's all I could find inside the box. They haven't even included a simple hex hey to adjust the truss rod.
-The stock strings are rubbish (for MY taste anyway). They feel horrible, sound horrible, metallic/clanky. They also feel far too floppy/light gauge for a short scale which is weird because they look like 45-105. They vibrate FAR to strongly in certain areas of the neck and cause excessive buzzing. Of course this may be caused by the bass itself. An uneven response along the neck is not unusual on cheap instruments made from poor quality wood.
-The nut slots are insanely high. Unplayable IMO. Very poor.
-The neck seems to have a dip around the 8th/9th fret (or rather, the end of the fretboard seems to be slightly raised, like on many cheap, poor quality asian guitars of the past). Because of this dip the area around the 8th-10th frets has horrible fret buzz. Tightening the truss rod is not an option as the neck is already too straight in the lower frets. There is really bad fret buzz in the 1st to 3rd frets so I'm gonna have to loosen the truss rod, which will most likely make the situation even worse in the 8th-10th frets. I hope levelling/crowning the frets will help. This bass is not playable out of the box. Not even close.
-The frets look rather grey and have a slightly rough surface. Not the shiny, smooth frets I would expect on a brand new instrument.
-The neck profile feels nice. I've not compared side-by-side with the Embassy Pro but based on memory this one feels considerably slimmer. I'll have them in the same room tomorrow so I guess I'll find out. Also, there are no sharp frets whatsoever. The fret ends are VERY smooth for such a cheap instrument.
-Weight... Insanely light. I was actually worried they has sent me an empty box. I haven't played the bass with a strap yet but I expect it to have significant neck dive.
Until I've sorted out the frets/strings I won't even bother plugging it in.
I hope I can get a playable bass out of it after levelling the frets, filing the nut slots (or make a new bone nut), give it a setup and install better strings but this is nowhere near the quality of the Epi Embassy Pro. The best way of describing this bass is an Epi/Gibson-style Bronco. The Epi EB-0 basses I've played (and own) are MUCH better instruments. I might have gotten a lemon of course. The best thing to do would probably be to return it for a refund... but I like a challenge so I will probably keep it to see how much I can improve it. This might be the first bass I re-sell in a VERY long time though. Something about it just doesn't feel "right". It feels ultra-cheap.
The only thing I like about it is the visual apperance (apart from the dry fretboard but that's easily fixed). It looks very cool in a quirky, cheap bass kinda way.
Definitely not recommended unless you have the tools/skills to level the frets and file the nut slots (or factor in the cost of getting a luthier to do it). Chinese guitars have gotten VERY good over the years but this one reminds me of the junk they churned out 20+ years ago.
-The packaging has a sticker saying "valuable & important accesories in the box, do not discard". I'm not sure what they mean... The Epiphone sticker? Because that's all I could find inside the box. They haven't even included a simple hex hey to adjust the truss rod.
-The stock strings are rubbish (for MY taste anyway). They feel horrible, sound horrible, metallic/clanky. They also feel far too floppy/light gauge for a short scale which is weird because they look like 45-105. They vibrate FAR to strongly in certain areas of the neck and cause excessive buzzing. Of course this may be caused by the bass itself. An uneven response along the neck is not unusual on cheap instruments made from poor quality wood.
-The nut slots are insanely high. Unplayable IMO. Very poor.
-The neck seems to have a dip around the 8th/9th fret (or rather, the end of the fretboard seems to be slightly raised, like on many cheap, poor quality asian guitars of the past). Because of this dip the area around the 8th-10th frets has horrible fret buzz. Tightening the truss rod is not an option as the neck is already too straight in the lower frets. There is really bad fret buzz in the 1st to 3rd frets so I'm gonna have to loosen the truss rod, which will most likely make the situation even worse in the 8th-10th frets. I hope levelling/crowning the frets will help. This bass is not playable out of the box. Not even close.
-The frets look rather grey and have a slightly rough surface. Not the shiny, smooth frets I would expect on a brand new instrument.
-The neck profile feels nice. I've not compared side-by-side with the Embassy Pro but based on memory this one feels considerably slimmer. I'll have them in the same room tomorrow so I guess I'll find out. Also, there are no sharp frets whatsoever. The fret ends are VERY smooth for such a cheap instrument.
-Weight... Insanely light. I was actually worried they has sent me an empty box. I haven't played the bass with a strap yet but I expect it to have significant neck dive.
Until I've sorted out the frets/strings I won't even bother plugging it in.
I hope I can get a playable bass out of it after levelling the frets, filing the nut slots (or make a new bone nut), give it a setup and install better strings but this is nowhere near the quality of the Epi Embassy Pro. The best way of describing this bass is an Epi/Gibson-style Bronco. The Epi EB-0 basses I've played (and own) are MUCH better instruments. I might have gotten a lemon of course. The best thing to do would probably be to return it for a refund... but I like a challenge so I will probably keep it to see how much I can improve it. This might be the first bass I re-sell in a VERY long time though. Something about it just doesn't feel "right". It feels ultra-cheap.
The only thing I like about it is the visual apperance (apart from the dry fretboard but that's easily fixed). It looks very cool in a quirky, cheap bass kinda way.
Definitely not recommended unless you have the tools/skills to level the frets and file the nut slots (or factor in the cost of getting a luthier to do it). Chinese guitars have gotten VERY good over the years but this one reminds me of the junk they churned out 20+ years ago.
I would actually like to own one of these basses, but at this point, I think I'm going to wait for Gen. 2.
my Embassy came the same way. 10 minutes with a set of fret erasers solved that pretty easily.
D
Correct. Mine came with the truss rod tightened just a tiny bit. It was more or less in the "neutral" position. In this position the neck didn't have enough relief (buzzed like crazy in 1st-3rd frets) which I personally think is a sign of a poor neck. Of course, higher tension strings may sort this out without resorting to a "negative" truss rod adjustment, which I personally think shouldn't be necessary on a properly made instrument.
Also, whoever installed the knobs on this bass must have been doing it blindfolded. They were pointing in completely random directions.
It looks like QC isn't the best at whatever Chinese factory these are made. Or perhaps Epiphone didn't pay them enough for adequate QC. Chinese guitars have become really good lately so this one was a huge disappointment to me. It may still become a playable instrument with some work but out of the box this is the worst Epiphone instrument I've played in a VERY long time.
