NBD: Epiphone EB-0!

[Pentatonic]

New bass day!

Picked this beauty up at my local GC for $99. Like new condition with the factory plastic still on the pickguard, just a few minor issues to sort out - the rear bridge pins coming out of body, smoothing out some rough spots on the fretboard, doing a basic set up. For once a new bass comes with flats installed!

For fellow EB-0 owners, the tone control wiring on mine appears to be reversed, turning the tone knob down increases brightness. Not sure if that is normal behavior. Also, looking in the control cavity either they put decent components in at the factory or perhaps someone modded it? Is that an orange drop cap I see? Switchcraft jack?

 

[wisconsindead]

How do you like this bass? I saw one for $99 as well at GC last night. Was considering scooping it up for some modifications. Probably drop my extra bi sonic pickup in it.

 

[Pentatonic]

I like it okay after doing some work on it. It feels good and has old school thump which I like, it is also short scale like my violin basses.

So far, I have not been able to get the action as low as I like without any fret buzz. I have it pretty close now though and am going to get some lighter gauge strings for it, hopefully that will help. The bass is very pretty and totally different from all my other basses. It would be a good platform to do mods on (lots of threads on this), and for $99 you really can't go wrong if it is in decent shape.

One issue to be aware of is that there are 2 versions of this bass - a mahoghany one and a plywood one. The plywood ones ship with the starter packs and are supposed to be a lot heavier. Some players who have used both say the plywood ones actually sound better, YMMV. I was able to get a sense of which one I had by looking at the body end grain (mine has veneer on top and bottom so you can't tell by looking there). You can also check the neck pocket and cavity.

Good luck.