Free Epiphone EB-O Pickup Upgrade

[tabdog]

I thought I would share something I stumbled on.

If you don't know, it is kind of hard to find a good upgrade
pickup that will drop into an EB-O. It's expensive also.

Well, you know me. Free is always better than cheap. I
thought out of the box and boxed my Washburn Humbucker.

I had a couple of Washburn HB's from when I upgraded my
Washburn Electric guitar. Nice clear pickups, but not much
balls. Clear is much better for bass.

So I removed the muddy, boomby from the EB-O,

I simply put the six string HB under the cover for the EB-O
factory pickup,

It is kind of weak. That is no problem. It's quiet and I can
turn up the amp. So, I won't call it bad.

The good is that is has a smooth response across all four
strings and the output is now much clearer and has more
treble than before. It's all good.

Killer idea if I do say so myself. I'm tickled pink,

Tabdog

 

[lowerthetone]

I tried a ceramic guitar humbucker for my bass one time and I was surprised of the sound quality too, very crisp. Didn't have the low output problem though.

You could try to remove the metal enclosure of the guitar humbucker. This way you can get the pickup a little closer to the strings, wich should bring the output a little bit up. It could also give you a little more highs because of the eddy currents loss you get with a conductive metal enclosure.

 

[tabdog]

I tried a ceramic guitar humbucker for my bass one time and I was surprised of the sound quality too, very crisp. Didn't have the low output problem though.

You could try to remove the metal enclosure of the guitar humbucker. This way you can get the pickup a little closer to the strings, wich should bring the output a little bit up. It could also give you a little more highs because of the eddy currents loss you get with a conductive metal enclosure.

I cured the low output problem by raising
the pickup. I was worried it might look
odd, but you can't tell it unless you are
close and looking down the side.

It has more punch and definition. I am
very happy with it now.

Tabdog

 

[Ric5]

Yes ... there are many different pickups that fit under the EB0 cover.

 

[Ric5]

Rickenbacker uses guitar pickups in their basses. So yes guitar pickups work on a bass.

 

[tabdog]

I have a question if anyone can help.

The output of the guitar HB is even
across all 4 strings.

I have used guitar pickups before and
the output was never even.

Do you think the extra metal cover has
anything to do with with the even
response?

Thanks for any responses,

Tabdog

 

[SGD Lutherie]

I have a question if anyone can help.

The output of the guitar HB is even
across all 4 strings.

I have used guitar pickups before and
the output was never even.

Do you think the extra metal cover has
anything to do with with the even
response?

Thanks for any responses,

Tabdog

A pickup with a blade would work much better. The pickup is more sensitive over the poles. if they don't line up with the strings, the response will not be even.

Depending on how the poles are spaced, and how wide they are, it can work fine, like on a Rick toaster (narrower spacing and wide magnets). But the magnetic circuit is much different on a guitar humbucker than a pickup with rod magnets.

The metal cover does change the sound. It flattens the resonant peak slightly, and reduces the high frequencies.

 

[bazzanderson]

Tapdog,
Did u wire that humbucker in series or parallel? Just curious, I'm about to do this to my epiphone EB3 but I'm using a dual blade telecaster mini humbucker. Mine states it's 8.25k ohms. That would b in series right? Just trying to figure if should wire mine in series or parallel
Thx!
Bazz