Epiphone Newport shortscale

[covermego]

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.

@Pyrat , you didn't ruin my day.... It means there are some out there that actually play proper, so you gave me hope, lol. Thank You. I'm hoping the second one is "tweakable" !! I, too, absolutely love the shape and look, plus as stated before, it's just so comfortable to play and sounds great.

 

[YRPALJG]

@Drucocu ,@AlexanderB ,@John DaBass: Thank you for the warm welcome!

Swapping those small wires on the underside of the bridge pickup is all it takes to get things sorted out with the pickup phase issue. @Drucocu shared a photo a few posts back, post-swap, and it shows what I'm speaking of for anyone that wants to see. Apparently some basses exhibit this problem and others do not? From what I've read, this first run is rife with all sorts of problems which is a real bummer!

There are issues with the neck pickup. I will detail this in my next post.

 

[LowEndLobster]

@Drucocu ,@AlexanderB ,@John DaBass: Thank you for the warm welcome!

Swapping those small wires on the underside of the bridge pickup is all it takes to get things sorted out with the pickup phase issue. @Drucocu shared a photo a few posts back, post-swap, and it shows what I'm speaking of for anyone that wants to see. Apparently some basses exhibit this problem and others do not? From what I've read, this first run is rife with all sorts of problems which is a real bummer!

There are issues with the neck pickup. I will detail this in my next post.

This is great. I'll be doing a video demonstrating how to do this and doing a before/after at center position. I have to say the quality of the blend control on mine is pretty crappy too. I'll be modding it with a 3 way toggle instead of the blend.

Thank you!

 

[YRPALJG]

Yes. I'm gutting the electronics on mine now and the blend pot is a 250k which isn't right or proper with humbuckers in this type of configuration. It's a double-you T F moment with that, really. This shunts off too much treble and doesn't allow the sonic range of the pickup to come through. But hey, $379 for the build specs I wanted? Totally worth this extra effort.

I anticipated an electronic sh!tshow when I ordered the Newport and simultaneously placed an order with Allparts for their 295 Series 500k pots, which are excellent and rated at 100,000 full sweep uses. The best and most direct electronic path for humbucker pickups, with this bass, in my experience and opinion, is 500k in all positions, V/V/T like a Fender Jazz bass, but with a .022 cap.

With a "blend" pot, one is always at the mercy of such a minuscule range of adjustment that doesn't really give the end-user full and total control. There's a bigger sweep and range to adjust with separate V and V for each pickup, and that's the stuff that a real bass player needs!!

Some have reported issues with the neck pickups extended magnetism pulling at the strings and messing with intonation. I know why and am going to fix and proof-test. Will report back later.

 

[Humberto Gillan]

So, no one answered my question, so i will do it again: That mudbucker is a true, 30k ohms one or it's the same, musicman sounding one as with the Epi EB-0/3 ones? Someone has measured how much resistance that pickups has?

 

[Pyrat]

So, no one answered my question, so i will do it again: That mudbucker is a true, 30k ohms one or it's the same, musicman sounding one as with the Epi EB-0/3 ones? Someone has measured how much resistance that pickups has?

It's the modern Sidewinder. Mine seems to be a little hotter that the one in my EB-0(h!) but I attribute that to it being closer to the strings than it is on the EB-0(h!), it still sounds quite nice but they are NOT the 30k mudbuckers of old...hope this helps!

 

[covermego]

Well, alrighty! I took delivery of my second Newport and the difference is night and day! Set up very nice but I will try to get it just a tad lower..... not by much, though. @Pyrat , I'm glad I decided to exchange and not just get a refund. This feels great, sounds great and no buzz of any kind. Still, I am definitely not a fan of the pan pot; it doesn't seem to work properly and I'm pretty sure it, too is out of phase. I can handle that. I'm looking forward to @LowEndLobster and @YRPALJG 's vids and mods/tweaks. "VVT is for me". I wouldn't be afraid to play it out as-is, but I'll probably do the Hipshot Bridge and I'd sure like some ultralight tuners with the clover keys. Oh, yeah....... I'm seriously thinking about refinishing the headstock, too. I think an Epiphone decal would look nice with those clovers. I plan on making a template for a new pickguard....... probably a bit more curvy than the stock one.

 

[GodsLove66]

Well, alrighty! I took delivery of my second Newport and the difference is night and day! Set up very nice but I will try to get it just a tad lower..... not by much, though. @Pyrat , I'm glad I decided to exchange and not just get a refund. This feels great, sounds great and no buzz of any kind. Still, I am definitely not a fan of the pan pot; it doesn't seem to work properly and I'm pretty sure it, too is out of phase. I can handle that. I'm looking forward to @LowEndLobster and @YRPALJG 's vids and mods/tweaks. "VVT is for me". I wouldn't be afraid to play it out as-is, but I'll probably do the Hipshot Bridge and I'd sure like some ultralight tuners with the clover keys. Oh, yeah....... I'm seriously thinking about refinishing the headstock, too. I think an Epiphone decal would look nice with those clovers. I plan on making a template for a new pickguard....... probably a bit more curvy than the stock one. View attachment 4977763

If I get one, first mod is definitely Hipshot Tuners!!! I’d also do pickup swaps with either Novaks or Sereks!

 

[covermego]

NOTE: The following semi-rant took place over a couple hours. Figured I'd just wait to post this until I was done for the night, lol..........................
Ummmmmmm... I'm gonna hafta take all my boasting back. I picked it up tonight and almost every single fretted note on all 4 strings buzzes! Going nuts trying to figure it out. Why was it perfect earlier? Granted, I didn't wait the full 24 hours (I unboxed it in a room that has no heat and let it sit for 4 hours) I have not done a single adjustment to it yet. I will string it with D'Addario EXL 160s strings, .50-.105...... the strings on here measure .41 - .895.....what on earth? I really hope the strings are the culprit. It almost sounds like the truss rod is buzzing....man, I sure hope not. Back soon.......
WOW.... I'm back - - D'Addario short scale strings are too short - the taper starts about 1/2" before the nut.. I laid a straightedge rule from the saddle to the nut and it measures 30.75". Then there's the tailpiece, which takes it out even further. I read in here somewhere that medium scale strings may need to be utilized, but I kind of ignored that. Shame on me. I'll dig around and see if I can find some "longer short scale strings".
Well, DR SNMR 45's work fine. It helped the buzzing a bit, but still buzzes. I increased the neck relief and it helped, but that just raised the action. Tried lowering the bridge, but the higher frets buzz worse. I'll play with the relief and bridge height next.............
Well, reducing the amount of relief helped, only after raising the bridge up a tad. Lots better, but tomorrow - if I decide to keep this - I will run the fret rocker over it.
More tomorrow, hopefully. Also, I've never owned a bass with a Sidewinder or Tbird pickup. I can tell it's going to take some getting used to.
Thanks for reading my long, sad story.....lol.

 

[LowEndLobster]

NOTE: The following semi-rant took place over a couple hours. Figured I'd just wait to post this until I was done for the night, lol..........................
Ummmmmmm... I'm gonna hafta take all my boasting back. I picked it up tonight and almost every single fretted note on all 4 strings buzzes! Going nuts trying to figure it out. Why was it perfect earlier? Granted, I didn't wait the full 24 hours (I unboxed it in a room that has no heat and let it sit for 4 hours) I have not done a single adjustment to it yet. I will string it with D'Addario EXL 160s strings, .50-.105...... the strings on here measure .41 - .895.....what on earth? I really hope the strings are the culprit. It almost sounds like the truss rod is buzzing....man, I sure hope not. Back soon.......
WOW.... I'm back - - D'Addario short scale strings are too short - the taper starts about 1/2" before the nut.. I laid a straightedge rule from the saddle to the nut and it measures 30.75". Then there's the tailpiece, which takes it out even further. I read in here somewhere that medium scale strings may need to be utilized, but I kind of ignored that. Shame on me. I'll dig around and see if I can find some "longer short scale strings".
Well, DR SNMR 45's work fine. It helped the buzzing a bit, but still buzzes. I increased the neck relief and it helped, but that just raised the action. Tried lowering the bridge, but the higher frets buzz worse. I'll play with the relief and bridge height next.............
Well, reducing the amount of relief helped, only after raising the bridge up a tad. Lots better, but tomorrow - if I decide to keep this - I will run the fret rocker over it.
More tomorrow, hopefully. Also, I've never owned a bass with a Sidewinder or Tbird pickup. I can tell it's going to take some getting used to.
Thanks for reading my long, sad story.....lol.

Yeah I noticed similar with mine. It doesn't really like to hold a setup.

 

[Deleted member 271037]

I finally got mine working properly.

The main problems were extremely high action, severe fret buzz and a weak E-string.

First I did all the normal stuff:

-Levelled/crowned the frets (the factory fretwork was awful).
-Filed the nut slots (they were insanely high).
-Adjusted the truss rod/relief (it had a slight backbow out of the box).
-Lowered the bridge all the way (but the action still wouldn't go lower than 3mm across all strings).
-Replaced the stock strings (junk).

After this the bass still had too high action AND fretbuzz as well as a weak E-string.

The action was sorted out by filing the saddle slots (which of course meant the fret buzz got even worse) and the E-string was still very weak.

The problem seems to be that the bar magnet on the sidewinder pickup was too close to the strings. At first I thought I would have to route the neck pickup cavity to lower the pickup but thankfully there was thick layer of foam that I could remove. This got rid of the fret buzz but the E-string was still a lot weaker than the other strings. I fixed this by installing a thinner layer of foam (about half the thickness of the original foam) on the treble side ONLY. Then I raised the pole piece on the E-string. The pole pieces of A-D-G are not sitting slightly below the pickup cover and the pole piece on the E-string is raised 1-1,5 mm above the cover.

The volume/tonal balance across the strings is now acceptable and the bass is playable with acceptable (although slightly high) action. I still get some fret buzz when digging in hard but it's ok (although not exactly impressive) for a bass in this price range.

I chose to install D'Addario Chromes even though I normally don't like them very much. The reason for this is that they're the stiffest short scale strings I can think of (without going for heavier gauges that will compromise the tone when playing higher up the neck on the E-string).

At least I can use it now but I still won't recommend this bass to anyone unless you have the skills, tools and patience for all of the above.

Of course, mine might have been a lemon but after seeing several reports of issues simular to mine I'm not so sure. At least try before you buy!

 

[andare]

Looks like this Newport bass is a total failure yet I only hear good things about new Epiphones.
As a matter of fact I got an Epiphone Coronet guitar this week that is pretty much flawless for 350 euros. Everything is well aligned, the fretwork is pretty good, the fretboard edges are rolled, the tuners are high quality. Just a wonderful unboxing experience.
The only real issue is that the P90 hums a lot (par for the course with these pickups I believe) and it needs to be raised because it's too far from the strings. There are shims for that.
And the plastic control cover creates a ton of static that won't go away with antistatic spray.

 

[johnk_10]

i got my Newport bass yesterday from Sweetwater. all it really needed was a neck adjustment (it had too big of a front bow for me). i also prefer a wider nut spacing so i made a new one out of bone. i also adjusted the action (lower) and pickups more to my liking and flipped the phase on the treble pickup. it's mudbucker measures 12.1K (the same as my '73 EBO) and i think that it sounds pretty good. to me, it was a real bargain. and i can set the action super low on it. mine didn't have anywhere near the issues that some have mentioned on theirs in this thread. I'm running ernie ball cobalt flats on mine and i dig the way that it sounds with them.

i did notice a few things about it. mainly that the pole spacing on the neck pickup is a bit too narrow and didn't align very well with the strings. i had a mudbucker that measured 30.1K in my parts bin and strangely enough it had a bit wider string spacing that does align with the strings so i installed it in mine. it's quite a bit darker than the stock pickup but it does sound good and i'll probably leave it in it since it sounds better than the stock one when the pickup balance control is set in the center detent setting.

here's a pic of mine (before i swapped the neck pickup):

 

[Bikeguy57]

You guys are sure giving this bass a big pass on the abysmal quality. The fact that it's only 400 dollars is no excuse. Having to put this amount of work Into AN
Y new bass to make it playable is inexcusable. Most beginners buying a bass at this price can't even change strings, let alone rebuild the electronics, fret leveling, etc...Epiphones "Gold Foil"?

 

[Cave Puppy]

You guys are sure giving this bass a big pass on the abysmal quality. The fact that it's only 400 dollars is no excuse. Having to put this amount of work Into AN
Y new bass to make it playable is inexcusable. Most beginners buying a bass at this price can't even change strings, let alone rebuild the electronics, fret leveling, etc...Epiphones "Gold Foil"?

Came here again to say this.

 

[Toadcaster]

I was going to pick one of these up, but I guess I'll stay with my cheap ol' Bronco bass and just mod it because I want to not because I have to.

 

[grrg63]

These really seem like too much trouble for what they are worth. Which sucks because its a great design that should have been a winner with decent QC.

 

[johnk_10]

tough crowd.

 

[Old Blastard]

It's a shame. My Jack Casady had a lot of things wrong that the local shops tech fixed on warranty, including a dead Jack, spinning selector switch and wonky bridge. MyEmbassy had a bad tuning key and Jack issue. I'm tooltarded so I was happy he was around. Love both basses, but QC was terrible

 

[Drucocu]

Some people like to tinker, including me.

You guys are sure giving this bass a big pass on the abysmal quality. The fact that it's only 400 dollars is no excuse. Having to put this amount of work Into AN
Y new bass to make it playable is inexcusable. Most beginners buying a bass at this price can't even change strings, let alone rebuild the electronics, fret leveling, etc...Epiphones "Gold Foil"?