I still have an old fashioned can opener, I use the rounded end to get the knobs off, just put a business card between it and the bass finish.
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NBD: Epiphone Embassy Pro
- Thread starter bobyoung53
- Start date
I see. Here I was thinking it was only the saddle portion of the bridge that was mislocated. Makes sense now. Also explains why it's so hard to tell from pictures unless the angle is just right.
I find the whole shifting bridge thing rather odd. Add in that zzounds seems to be selling the defective ones with nifty new colors and we end up having a real head scratcher. Who thinks this is a good idea? Anyway, this could work out for those looking for an authentic 60's experience: rip off the stock bridge and tail piece and mount a big old Bad Ass.
I love mine and have gigged it on numerous occasions and is a staple at open mic nights, back when there were gigs and nights. For me, it is a great bass I got at a stupid price. Still, a tuner was loose -- like floppy and spinny -- and there were other QC issues. Luckily, the bridge was not one of them. Plays great and sounds greater, if the bridge ain't bad. Epi has had its share of QC problems. My Jack casady had issues when I bought it, too
All 3 of mine have Goto Res-o-lites on them. One has a series/parallel switch and CTS pots, the other 2, I plan on CTS pots and rewiring T/T/V
I wired mine with the series parallel switch too, these pickups in series are bad@$$
D
Yeah, it's not a huge difference so the angle can be misleading. The problem is that these bridges have very limited room for adjustment so 1cm out of position makes a HUGE difference.
I guess the faulty ones can get closer to correct intonation if the E+A saddles are reversed, like you would often have to do on a Rick. This might get the faulty ones within acceptable intonation, at least on the A-string and with the right set strings. But I don't think it will be enough to get the E-string spot on.
I haven't actually tried reversing the saddles myself so I'm not 100% sure it can be done but I would expect it to be possible with this type of bridge. Moving the entire bridge+tailpiece to the correct position would obviously be a better solution. The tailpiece needs to be moved too, unless you want to risk having a very extreme angle over the saddles. But moving the tailpiece is the easy part of the job. Filling, re-drilling and re-finishing the larger holes from the bridge itself is the more time consuming part, at least if you want to make the repair look nice. The new holes will overlap with the old ones so there's no easy way out (but I guess the re-finishing can be optional, the filled holes will be mostly hidden beneath the bridge).
100%!
I played one of these briefly back in the fall of 2018, and it was on sale in brand new condition for about $350 CAD, which was a steal. I found it had a lot of useful tones, and I really liked the feel of the neck, but I was shopping for my kid at the time so didn't bite. I'd forgotten how it sounded, but this fall, I picked up an Epi Vintage Pro Tbird, with the same pickups as this Embassy Pro. I'm a long-time P bass player, so though I love the look of the T bird, the ergonomics are *way* off from what I'm used to. However, the T bird sounds effing a-MAY-zing!! With the neck pickup on and softer right hand attack, it is soooo smooth, and definitely P-bass-esque. But when you dig in, holy ratf**ker, what a snarly rude pig of a bass! I also find the bridge pickup *very* useful, unlike my experience with Jazzes and PJ's. It doesn't get burpy, it just adds some wider range to the tone.
So since buying the T bird, I've been kind of aching a bit for one of these - to have *that* tone in something with more of a P bass ergonomic arrangement would be really appealing for me. I'd read one run of them had a lot of intonation issues, like the frets were just in the wrong place, but I don't know what serial number range that was, or even how credible it is, but I've avoided buying one over the internet, unplayed because of that.
Those pickups are really awesome pickups! They're really unique, IMO, but also really, really useful for a wide variety of applications, and so responsive to right hand dynamics. Epiphone should really consider selling them as stand-alone parts, I bet they'd start popping up all over the place. I'm very happy with my T bird, but if these Embassy's sound at all like my T bird, I would definitely buy one, in any colour.
EDIT: Oops! Didn't realize the OP was back in 2019.
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Mine is an ivory from 2017 it seems (1706201787). Tailpiece close to edge of body. Still the E saddle at the end for ok intonation, A close to end.
The nut began disintegrating the first time I loosened the strings for setup and string changing. Slivers or chunks of it break off every time I do this, like it's made of old chocolate. At this point there remains enough of a nut bed for the open strings to play properly.
Very nice looking bass, most ergonomic and "normal" Epiphone/Gibson model. Dark but articulate punchy dry tone.
I am a p bass man but it's nice to have.
The nut began disintegrating the first time I loosened the strings for setup and string changing. Slivers or chunks of it break off every time I do this, like it's made of old chocolate. At this point there remains enough of a nut bed for the open strings to play properly.
Very nice looking bass, most ergonomic and "normal" Epiphone/Gibson model. Dark but articulate punchy dry tone.
I am a p bass man but it's nice to have.
Ok, a couple of things: the 1st run, and last run were fine, the 2nd run had the problem. Next, the tailpiece does not need to be relocated to correct the problem. I'm still changing mine to V/V/T, but that's by preference, not need (well, CTS pots are a cheap improvement). Anyway, this is post correction with Chrome Lites):
What is the correction? I think mine is an early production, serial no. 1706201787, and my tailpiece is farther back than yours along the edge, although the bridge seems like yours. My E and A saddles are all the way back, the A is properly intonated but the E is sharp, although acceptably so.
Looks like the E saddle was removed and put back on backwards, giving it a contact point with the string closer to the tailpiece.
It's hard to see in the photo, but from what I can tell looking at mine this would allow a very marginal move back, and would sort of put a lot of pressure on the string resting on the sharp edge of the saddle instead of in the rounded side.
Anyway mine is ok as is, a nice alternative to Fenders. It's such a shame Epiphones always have flaws or design issues.
Anyway mine is ok as is, a nice alternative to Fenders. It's such a shame Epiphones always have flaws or design issues.
Yeah I hear you, and agree - maybe not on the "always", but often enough. I'm not a guitar player, but from what I hear from them, it's a Gibson/Epiphone-wide problem of inconsistency. Luckily for this issue, it is just the second run, not the 1st or the 3rd, as @Thumper mentioned. Hopefully the new non-Pro Embassy's will be ok.
It gives us a chance to fix it ourselves and have more pride of ownership. I have no hard feelings at all toward Epiphone. Wasn't too happy with my only real Fender, given the price.
No I don't agree. These are not used products. And guitars are not a new technology with growing pains. And most or all other brands are mostly flawless and properly designed.
Just curious, would one of the Hipshot replacement bridges fix the issue? Or would it still be off due to the original mounting holes and still need modification?
