Epiphone Newport shortscale

[LowEndLobster]

....... This is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. He describes the out the pickups being out of phase as 'some sort of filter' and you can really tell he's biting his tongue. Big oof!

 

[covermego]

....... This is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. He describes the out the pickups being out of phase as 'some sort of filter' and you can really tell he's biting his tongue. Big oof!

I just can't believe he demo'd it with all that horrendous string buzz...... and he's all excited about it, along with the blokes off-camera! Man, I sure hope my SECOND one comes in relatively flawless. I can handle a setup, but have no intention of re-engineering it if it's just plain too badly built.
And speaking of Newport reviews..... @LowEndLobster ............. have you put your review up yet? I don't see it. I'll bet quite a few are waiting......... patiently ............ lol.

 

[Cave Puppy]

RECALL SHOULD BE ISSUED. HARRUMPH!

 

[Cave Puppy]

....... This is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. He describes the out the pickups being out of phase as 'some sort of filter' and you can really tell he's biting his tongue. Big oof!

I could only take about five seconds of that video. The first sounds were awful.

 

[Cave Puppy]

I’m glad I didn’t jump on the bandwagon for this one, or the gold foil jazz bass … I’ll let others make those decisions for me. Thank you.

 

[andare]

....... This is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad. He describes the out the pickups being out of phase as 'some sort of filter' and you can really tell he's biting his tongue. Big oof!

Man those guys would do anything to sell a guitar. Shame on them.

 

[Drucocu]

Thank you, THIS WORKED! this is the perfect first post, you're welcome!

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.]

 

[AlexanderB]

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

Ouch, nothing really lines up here... All things are crooked or off in different ways...

 

[AlexanderB]

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?

Welcome here!

 

[msb]

I’m glad I didn’t jump on the bandwagon for this one, or the gold foil jazz bass … I’ll let others make those decisions for me. Thank you.

Not all of them seem to have issues , and some of the Newports have stickers saying they have been set up in the USA. And were nicely set up.
It’s not rocket science to adjust one , and if you have a good number of basses it would be prohibitively expensive to pay somebody twice a year to adjust them. I look upon that as just another aspect of learning to play.

 

[Cave Puppy]

Not all of them seem to have issues , and some of the Newports have stickers saying they have been set up in the USA. And were nicely set up.
It’s not rocket science to adjust one , and if you have a good number of basses it would be prohibitively expensive to pay somebody twice a year to adjust them. I look upon that as just another aspect of learning to play.

I agree learning to work on one’s own basses is indeed a valuable skill. Some players never learn to and that is fine. I’ve been doing my own bass/guitar work for over forty years. I’ve had and seen enough poorly made Epiphones in my day to know instinctively the Newport was gonna be a dog - and it is, and knew enough to stay away from it. I had the Embassy when it came out and that one was a dog, too. No more Epiphones for me. I watch these new bass release threads with popcorn in hand, waiting to see, inevitably, that they are substandard instruments. I would not want to foist one of these dogs on a beginner player to learn the art of bass set up, because - you need a good starting point (a properly set up bass - to you) and these basses don’t provide that and - a beginner player would not feel comfortable with these out of the box and would feel disheartened by such a project. It would be daunting for a beginner to play and work on a Newport and would probably want to quit.

 

[msb]

I have not seen a Newport in the flesh yet , but I am looking forward to checking one out. As I have almost a dozen short scale basses it’s unlikely I’ll buy another right now , but you never know. I do have a couple of older Epi short scales , a Flying V and a Rumblekat. Both were manufactured in the Unsung factory in Korea and are very well made. I also have a couple of Gibson short scales.

 

[LowEndLobster]

I just can't believe he demo'd it with all that horrendous string buzz...... and he's all excited about it, along with the blokes off-camera! Man, I sure hope my SECOND one comes in relatively flawless. I can handle a setup, but have no intention of re-engineering it if it's just plain too badly built.
And speaking of Newport reviews..... @LowEndLobster ............. have you put your review up yet? I don't see it. I'll bet quite a few are waiting......... patiently ............ lol.

I shelved this morning's review and ended up speed editing the Newport review for this AM ;P. You hear that? That's the sound of the hopes and dreams of Ibanez Talman fans being crushed as the TMB30 review gets pushed out another week hahahaa ;P

 

[John DaBass]

Thanks for sharing your really helpful first Post.
Is there any possibility you could post a few photos of the underside of the troublesome bridge pickup?

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?

 

[covermego]

I shelved this morning's review and ended up speed editing the Newport review for this AM ;P. You hear that? That's the sound of the hopes and dreams of Ibanez Talman fans being crushed as the TMB30 review gets pushed out another week hahahaa ;P

Gee, you're SWELL! And...... sorry, but I gotta say..... "Talman Schmalman!!!", not to mention "Neener-Neener-Neener" to the Talman fans. JK. Those basses rock, too.

 

[covermego]

I just watched @LowEndLobster review of this and while it's a mega bummer it needs so much tweaking/setup, I would really, really love to get one that's at least geometrically correct (my first one wasn't- it's being replaced). The feel and sound of this bass was great. Well, my replacement one is arriving Weds, so if it's straight, I'll get the setup going, plus buy a hipshot bridge........ and I hope to have this for many years.

 

[Pyrat]

Not all of them seem to have issues , and some of the Newports have stickers saying they have been set up in the USA. And were nicely set up.
It’s not rocket science to adjust one , and if you have a good number of basses it would be prohibitively expensive to pay somebody twice a year to adjust them. I look upon that as just another aspect of learning to play.

Yeah...I don't wanna ruin anyone's day...I must've gotten incredibly lucky. The one I got has the 'set up and inspected sticker' and with what I would consider minimal set-up (and LaBella DTFs, natch), plays like a dream, has three distinct usable tones and is really well balanced sitting or on a strap. I would recommend using medium scale strings (the Labella DTFs seemed a tad short, stretched out fine eventually) and it's not terribly light like some I have seen but overall it has rapidly become a favorite and gets a lot of play time. Also and as always IMHO, it is one of the COOLEST looking basses I have ever owned. Looking forward to gigging mine and of course more gig shots to follow.

 

[Haans]

That Anderton's video ... so weird they would record a video with such a poorly set up bass. The fret buzz is horrible throughout, and the chorusy effect on the high frets is appalling. Pretending the bass is awesome out of the box when it's clearly in desperate need of potentially serious work is not doing Anderton's any favours.

 

[GwenOnBass]

None of this is doing Epiphone any favours.

 

[Tooned]

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?

No problem but that's not me.. it's Danny Sapko.