Epiphone Newport shortscale

[andare]

I sent mine back, too. I can handle a setup, but it was far beyond that; the bridge PU is crooked (off-axis), plus it's mounted approx 3mm to the left, where strings don't line up properly. And the string "anchor"is also off axis. Since there's those lugs pressed into the body, there's no way to correct that. I have another on the way; hopefully it will be better. Oh, yeah..... no Cali Coral for me.....I'm old and looking at it reminded me of eating sour oranges. View attachment 4962928

I know CNC machines are only as good as their operators but come on, even I could install a pickup straighter than that using a simple ruler.
Manufacturing is taking a massive hit lately. Similar QC horrors on high end instruments too.
It's the late 70s all over again. Time to look for Japanese knockoffs!

 

[Crobybass]

Got mine today, it looks killer I think! Saw someone writing it was very light, Id say the opposite, its much heavier than my Gretsch junior jet atleast, but no neckdive tho. The total length is actually shorter than a Fender Jaguar Guitar too haha! Guess Im just a lowtech punk but I think it sounded fine, floppy strings tho but they are replaceable

 

[lowend1]

Oh, and remember that this bass might need MEDIUM scale strings, depending on the manufacturer. D'Addario short scale strings are definitly not long enough. On the other hand, Thomastik short scale strings may be slightly on the long side... D'Addario medium scale strings were perfect.

I used DR Short Scale Sunbeams, and had to cut probably 6" off each string. Even with that, the strings wrapped around enough times to fill the posts.

 

[covermego]

I know CNC machines are only as good as their operators but come on, even I could install a pickup straighter than that using a simple ruler.
Manufacturing is taking a massive hit lately. Similar QC horrors on high end instruments too.
It's the late 70s all over again. Time to look for Japanese knockoffs!

I hear you. I hafta say, however, that I REALLY wanted one of these and after noodling around on it for probably 5 minutes, I absloutely loved the feel and sound, so I decided to exchange this one for another........ and I also hafta say I went with Pacific Blue..... I really, really thought my monitor was a bit whack (well, it is, really) and figured that "California Coral" was a bit more subdued than it really is. I reported the return/exchange to my Sweetwater Salesperson and he said he'd make sure the new one is flawless (man, I hope he's right!).

 

[Deleted member 271037]

I forgot to mention that the lowest possible action on this bass without filing the SADDLE slots is 3 mm (on all strings). The bridge won't go any lower than that. As a reference, Fender's recommendations are 2.5 mm on the bass side and 2 mm on the treble side. Fender's recommendation is what I would condsider a "medium" setup. Many bass players would a lower action than Fender's recommendation. 3mm on all strings is definitely too high.

Did I file the saddle slots on my Newport bass? No. Why not? Because even at 3 mm I still had too much fret buzz around the 7th-12th frets. Lowering the action any further than this would make it useless above the 7th(ish) fret. This bass can't handle low action. Tightenin the truss rod might get rid of some buzz in this area but I also have some buzzing around 1st-3rd fret unless I play relatively softly. Tightening the truss rod any more would make the bass useless in the lowest frets.

In some cases lowering the pickups can help with fret buzz but the sidewinder/mudbucker can't be lowered. At least not without routing the pickup cavity. The bridge pickup is already on the low side.

As for the pickups themselves... The mudbucker sounds more or less like the EB-0 mudbucker. Some people hate it, I kinda like it. The T-bird style bridge pickup is not my thing but others may like it. The blend pot is completely useless. They might as well have installed a switch because that's how it works. There is no gradual blend whatsoever. It's either neck, bridge or both pickups on full. I cleaned all the pots (crackling) and the blend pot lasted about one day before it started crackling again. I guess they must have used the cheapest pot they could find.

I have to say the Newport is a huge disappointment after the excellent Embassy Pro (well, apart from the huge batch with the incorrectly installed bridge...). The Epi EB-0 is a MUCH better instrument than the Newport. The best thing Epiphone can do with this bass is a factory recall and then burn them all.

 

[andare]

I forgot to mention that the lowest possible action on this bass without filing the SADDLE slots is 3 mm (on all strings). The bridge won't go any lower than that. As a reference, Fender's recommendations are 2.5 mm on the bass side and 2 mm on the treble side. Fender's recommendation is what I would condsider a "medium" setup. Many bass players would a lower action than Fender's recommendation. 3mm on all strings is definitely too high.

Did I file the saddle slots on my Newport bass? No. Why not? Because even at 3 mm I still had too much fret buzz around the 7th-12th frets. Lowering the action any further than this would make it useless above the 7th(ish) fret. This bass can't handle low action. Tightenin the truss rod might get rid of some buzz in this area but I also have some buzzing around 1st-3rd fret unless I play relatively softly. Tightening the truss rod any more would make the bass useless in the lowest frets.

In some cases lowering the pickups can help with fret buzz but the sidewinder/mudbucker can't be lowered. At least not without routing the pickup cavity. The bridge pickup is already on the low side.

As for the pickups themselves... The mudbucker sounds more or less like the EB-0 mudbucker. Some people hate it, I kinda like it. The T-bird style bridge pickup is not my thing but others may like it. The blend pot is completely useless. They might as well have installed a switch because that's how it works. There is no gradual blend whatsoever. It's either neck, bridge or both pickups on full. I cleaned all the pots (crackling) and the blend pot lasted about one day before it started crackling again. I guess they must have used the cheapest pot they could find.

I have to say the Newport is a huge disappointment after the excellent Embassy Pro (well, apart from the huge batch with the incorrectly installed bridge...). The Epi EB-0 is a MUCH better instrument than the Newport. The best thing Epiphone can do with this bass is a factory recall and then burn them all.

Sorry you had such a disappointing experience. Not only is quality control nonexistent, the pickup height can't be adjusted. Why design it that way?

 

[DavidEdenAria]

Those old ones look gorgeous! The finish on the current Epis look more like they've been dipped in plastic.

I forgot to mention that the lowest possible action on this bass without filing the SADDLE slots is 3 mm (on all strings). The bridge won't go any lower than that. As a reference, Fender's recommendations are 2.5 mm on the bass side and 2 mm on the treble side. Fender's recommendation is what I would condsider a "medium" setup. Many bass players would a lower action than Fender's recommendation. 3mm on all strings is definitely too high.

Did I file the saddle slots on my Newport bass? No. Why not? Because even at 3 mm I still had too much fret buzz around the 7th-12th frets. Lowering the action any further than this would make it useless above the 7th(ish) fret. This bass can't handle low action. Tightenin the truss rod might get rid of some buzz in this area but I also have some buzzing around 1st-3rd fret unless I play relatively softly. Tightening the truss rod any more would make the bass useless in the lowest frets.

In some cases lowering the pickups can help with fret buzz but the sidewinder/mudbucker can't be lowered. At least not without routing the pickup cavity. The bridge pickup is already on the low side.

As for the pickups themselves... The mudbucker sounds more or less like the EB-0 mudbucker. Some people hate it, I kinda like it. The T-bird style bridge pickup is not my thing but others may like it. The blend pot is completely useless. They might as well have installed a switch because that's how it works. There is no gradual blend whatsoever. It's either neck, bridge or both pickups on full. I cleaned all the pots (crackling) and the blend pot lasted about one day before it started crackling again. I guess they must have used the cheapest pot they could find.

I have to say the Newport is a huge disappointment after the excellent Embassy Pro (well, apart from the huge batch with the incorrectly installed bridge...). The Epi EB-0 is a MUCH better instrument than the Newport. The best thing Epiphone can do with this bass is a factory recall and then burn them all.

Wow.....unacceptable....on my bros 65 Newport we removed the mute under the bridge entirely to allow lower action...also the neck is very straight with a fret rocker but hey its a 65 Newport.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Sorry you had such a disappointing experience. Not only is quality control nonexistent, the pickup height can't be adjusted. Why design it that way?

That's just the nature of the beast with sidewinder pickups. You can adjust the individual pole pieces though (I guess the technical term may be "steel slugs" rather than pole pieces... please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no pickup expert). The T-bird-style bridge pickup can be height adjusted of course.

Still, I don't think magnetic drag from the pickups is the cause of the fret buzz on the Newport. That kind of buzzing is more common issue with alnico pole pieces. It's just a poorly made bass. I normally wait for reviews before buying anything in this price range but it looked so cool! Huge mistake.

For all I know mine is a lemon. There might be some better ones out there but somehow I doubt it...

 

[DavidEdenAria]

That's just the nature of the beast with sidewinder pickups. You can adjust the individual pole pieces though (I guess the technical term may be "steel slugs" rather than pole pieces... please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm no pickup expert). The T-bird-style bridge pickup can be height adjusted of course.

Still, I don't think magnetic drag from the pickups is the cause of the fret buzz on the Newport. That kind of buzzing is more common issue with alnico pole pieces. It's just a poorly made bass. I normally wait for reviews before buying anything in this price range but it looked so cool! Huge mistake.

For all I know mine is a lemon. There might be some better ones out there but somehow I doubt it...

Curious how bad the strings are but im guessing cheap strings can be part of the fret noise....on my bros 65 Newport the string height is 1/4" from the mudbucker and the action overall is low....GHS Pressurewounds light set with very little fret buzz.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

Finally some good news. The fret buzz is all caused by the mudbucker. The bar magnet closest to the fretboard gets REALLY close to the strings. I lowered the pickup by cutting/removing half the foam beneath it. The fret buzz is now 99% gone. It looks a bit weird as the pole pieces now sit around 2 mm lower than the chrome cover. I had to use foam ON TOP of the pickup to avoid it rattling around inside the cavity. I guess I can raise the pole pieces a bit but I'll have to plug the bass in and listen to it first.

This still leaves me with the issue of the bridge that can't be adjusted for lower action than 3 mm on any strings (at the 12th fret) but at least I can probably file down the saddles without introducing more fret buzz now.

The issue with the mudbucker causing fret buzz is a weird one. I've owned and played LOTS of EB-0 basses over the years. NONE of them had this issue. I guess Epiphone must have messed up the routing for the pickup cavity vs the neck angle and bridge height. It's either that or the bar magnets in this particular pickup are too strong.

Anyway, this is good news as the Newport will now definitely become a nice little instrument. I'll still need to spend another hour or so filing down the saddle slots (very fiddly!) and I've already spent around 4 hours troubleshooting and working on it. This is nowhere near acceptable of course.

I repair guitars for a living so for me this is just a fun little project. But a bass in this price range is targeted at beginnners. SHAME ON YOU Epiphone for selling this JUNK to beginners!!!

 

[fretno]

Working on my new Embassy and I think i may have figured out why the pickup won’t go down. It’s because the cavity is too small. Or the pickup is too big. I noticed that the solder on the sides of the metal cover are expanded. They dripped solder in and on the sides of the metal cover which made the pickup bigger than the cavity. On top of that the cavity has some extra lacquer on the side inside edge and this is all just too tight. What I did was shave some lacquer, paint and maybe a little wood and now I am able to lower the neck pickup. The bridge did not give me any trouble though. This certainly seemed to work so take a close look and see if that is your issue as well.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

So... I finally found the time to plug this piece of junk into an amp. The output from the E-string is extremely weak with the neck pickup soloed. I can raise the pole piece under the E-string to increase output but it needs to be practically touching the E-string to get similar output as the other strings. The bridge pickup works fine but I'm not really into that kind of tone. I wanted this bass for the mudbucker and it's utterly useless.

What a piece of junk! They've literally messed up EVERTHING on this bass. That's 4-5 hours of troubleshooting and work to end up with a 100% USELESS instrument.

I guess it's firewood after all. Spending money on a Curtis Novak mudbucker for this piece of junk is out of the question.

I honestly didn't think anyone could manufacture instruments of such poor quality in this day and age. Nice one Epiphone...

 

[GwenOnBass]

So... I finally found the time to plug this piece of junk into an amp. The output from the E-string is extremely weak with the neck pickup soloed. I can raise the pole piece under the E-string to increase output but it needs to be practically touching the E-string to get similar output as the other strings. The bridge pickup works fine but I'm not really into that kind of tone. I wanted this bass for the mudbucker and it's utterly useless.

What a piece of junk! They've literally messed up EVERTHING on this bass. That's 4-5 hours of troubleshooting and work to end up with a 100% USELESS instrument.

I guess it's firewood after all. Spending money on a Curtis Novak mudbucker for this piece of junk is out of the question.

I honestly didn't think anyone could manufacture instruments of such poor quality in this day and age. Nice one Epiphone...

Frustrating in that it would be a bass I'd love to play if it worked properly. But (this is the big part) at this point in life, I need a bass that I can play more or less out of the box without making it an upgrade hobby. Buy strings, do a setup, and go — is what I want in a new bass. No soldering, no filing, no RMAs.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Tilting the pickup slightly upwards towards the E-string (using a thin slice of foam under the pickup on that side but no foam on the treble side) balanced the output of the E-stings nicely but also reintroduced fret buzz. The pickup cavity will have to be routed lower to be able to tilt the pickup for a balanced E-string output without getting fret buzz. Of course, tilting the pickup like this will make the G-string a bit weak compared to the other strings but I'd rather have a slightly weak G-string than a useless E-string, which is what this bass offers out of the box.

(Btw, I've seen some people using hex keys on the magnets on sidewinder pickups to improve the E-string by "expanding the magnetic field". I took this as an opportunity to test it and it did absolutely nothing whatsoever. Clearly just another piece of internet myth.)

For now I've found a setup where I get a little bit of fret buzz (but not a bad as before) and a slightly weak E-string (but not as bad as before). It's a compromise but the way Epiphone has designed this bass you can't get both a balanced output and no fret buzz. This is caused by the strong magnetic pull on the strings unless the pickup is lowered as much as possible. The only way to get completely rid of severe fret buzz is to remove ALL the foam under the pickup but this makes the E-string weak. The pickup needs to be raised sightly on that side for a more balanced output but it can't because raising the pickup introduces fret buzz... Compromises must be made.

This is very strange because I've never had this issue on Epi's cheap EB-basses. My EBs have never had any issues with saddles either (that the action won't lower then 3 mm at 12th fret unless you file the saddle slots).

This is by far the worst bass I've purchased in a VERY long time. Lowering the pickup cavity might help but I'm not sure I'll bother. I mean, it's already quite deep and the body isn't very thick... This piece of junk isn't worth any more of my time.

 

[andare]

Tilting the pickup slightly upwards towards the E-string (using a thin slice of foam under the pickup on that side but no foam on the treble side) balanced the output of the E-stings nicely but also reintroduced fret buzz. The pickup cavity will have to be routed lower to be able to tilt the pickup for a balanced E-string output without getting fret buzz. Of course, tilting the pickup like this will make the G-string a bit weak compared to the other strings but I'd rather have a slightly weak G-string than a useless E-string, which is what this bass offers out of the box.

(Btw, I've seen some people using hex keys on the magnets on sidewinder pickups to improve the E-string by "expanding the magnetic field". I took this as an opportunity to test it and it did absolutely nothing whatsoever. Clearly just another piece of internet myth.)

For now I've found a setup where I get a little bit of fret buzz (but not a bad as before) and a slightly weak E-string (but not as bad as before). It's a compromise but the way Epiphone has designed this bass you can't get both a balanced output and no fret buzz. This is caused by the strong magnetic pull on the strings unless the pickup is lowered as much as possible. The only way to get completely rid of severe fret buzz is to remove ALL the foam under the pickup but this makes the E-string weak. The pickup needs to be raised sightly on that side for a more balanced output but it can't because raising the pickup introduces fret buzz... Compromises must be made.

This is very strange because I've never had this issue on Epi's cheap EB-basses. My EBs have never had any issues with saddles either (that the action won't lower then 3 mm at 12th fret unless you file the saddle slots).

This is by far the worst bass I've purchased in a VERY long time. Lowering the pickup cavity might help but I'm not sure I'll bother. I mean, it's already quite deep and the body isn't very thick... This piece of junk isn't worth any more of my time.

Maybe I missed something but can't you just return it?
It sounds like the neck angle is wrong.
Funnily enough there's a NBD post that's very enthusiastic about this same bass.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

Maybe I missed something but can't you just return it?
It sounds like the neck angle is wrong.
Funnily enough there's a NBD post that's very enthusiastic about this same bass.

Not after all the work I've done on it. I assumed the fret buzz was just a poor fret job, which would have been an easy fix but unfortunately it turned out to have several more serious issues. You're right about the angle of the neck, it's definitely wrong. As is the routing for the neck pickup. I can make it work if I want to, it's just a matter of how much time and money I'm going to spend on this piece of junk.

As for the good review you're referring to, it may be the same model but it's definitely not the same bass. Maybe some of them are ok but the quality control must be close to non-existent when something like mine is allowed to leave the factory.

 

[YRPALJG]

First post and Hi! I too picked up one recently and have some helpful information regarding the phase issue complaint.

It's the bridge pickup. If you pull the pickup and look underneath, you'll see two small black wires coming out of the underside of the pickup frame: one is attached to a larger black push-back cloth wire and the other attached to an equally small black pvc-coated wire that is soldered to the braided ground connection.

See it?

They got it backward. On a typical humbucker, the North magnetic coil Start wire of the wind is what goes to the Hot connection of an output lead. In the case of these pickups and factory output lead hookup, they have the South magnetic polarity coil Start wire as HOT which is wrong and goes against how humbuckers are wired internally and have been for years since the dawn of PAF.

TLDR: Swap the coil output lead wires on the underside of the bridge pickup. This will bring it in-line with nearly every humbucker pickup made in the last 50 years.

Glad to be here TB! This information is going to solve all the pickup issues 100%. Easy fix, but be careful ok?

 

[YRPALJG]

I'd like to speak on the neck pickup for a moment too, if y'all don't mind? Mine was horribly imbalanced straight away and wasn't fun to hear or play. It WAS wired up correctly with its output leads however, so there's that! It's normal and right with pickups generally. To fix the imbalance that I witnessed with mine, I did this:

Pull the cover and pull the pickup. Use 2 pieces of thin double-sided sticky tape under the brass mounting frame on the bridge facing coil side, one strip of this same tape on the neck facing side. When you drop it back in, a small push toward the low E as you press down lightly to mount it is all that's needed. I had to because it was all off for me. Your situation may vary?

What you're doing here is aligning the overall height of the pickup and positioning to match the bridge/neck angle and making it snug up firmly with the cover. Your bass may be different but this is what I had to do. YMMV, as they say.

No issues with neck to bridge alignment, pickup location alignment toward the mounted aspect of it, and remarkably the nut/string heights were pretty dang close once I straightened the neck out. Tuning machines were really loose so I snugged those up, snugged up all mechanically tightened parts too as the pots weren't tightened up all the way. I've done this with USA Fender Custom Shop basses too so I'm not crying!

Incoming: 3 CTS 500k 295 model pots. I've got a PIO .022 cap and will start with a solid mid 60's Jazz bass wiring schematic applied V/V/T. I may opt for a 1meg Master Vol controlling a Stacked V/T Neck and Bridge. We shall see. ♥

 

[DavidEdenAria]

So... I finally found the time to plug this piece of junk into an amp. The output from the E-string is extremely weak with the neck pickup soloed. I can raise the pole piece under the E-string to increase output but it needs to be practically touching the E-string to get similar output as the other strings. The bridge pickup works fine but I'm not really into that kind of tone. I wanted this bass for the mudbucker and it's utterly useless.

What a piece of junk! They've literally messed up EVERTHING on this bass. That's 4-5 hours of troubleshooting and work to end up with a 100% USELESS instrument.

I guess it's firewood after all. Spending money on a Curtis Novak mudbucker for this piece of junk is out of the question.

I honestly didn't think anyone could manufacture instruments of such poor quality in this day and age. Nice one Epiphone...

Still the stock strings?

 

[ProdigalBassman]

here's another demo vid..

Thanks a lot for making and sharing this video! You said you were recording with no effects. It may be my headphones, my ears, or too much caffeine but it sounds to me like there's some chorus effect, reverb maybe?