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NBD: My new favorite bass

M

mbell75

May 23, 2016
2,172
2,886
#1
Just got my new Epiphone Embassy Pro today, love it. Nice thick, rounded 60s neck with a 1.625” nut width is super comfortable, pickups are killer, love the blend control and this one is only 7lbs 10ozs. The only thing I would have liked is a forearm contour. Awesome fit and finish on it, no fret or neck issues at all.

Some have said it can do the Rickenbacker sound, so I wanted to see. It can...kinda. It kinda looks like one too. The Embassy has a thicker, slightly more wooly tone to it than the Rickenbacker as it has humbuckers, but with a little EQ work, I got it to sound pretty close but the Rickenbacker still has its own unique tone that’s just drool worthy IMO.

The Embassy is just begging for flats IMO and I think I will put some on tomorrow. Stock strings on it aren’t that great of course and my P and J basses already have rounds, so flats seem to be in order with the vibe of the bass. This thing is a steal for $399 IMO.

23E343E4-D052-46C9-8C6A-9EFDCF1F8B99.jpeg
DAABB9B5-97E2-4D58-9E0F-5BFC27475E1B.jpeg
 
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#5
Dynacord said:
Nice and can't argue with the price. I like the grain in the fingerboard, too.

Interesting that they changed the nut width. The 60s ones are super skinny. I have one and it's more narrow than a Jazz Bass - had another that was similar.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I’m glad they changed the nut width, I hate skinny Jazz necks. Like the way Epiphone has made T Birds with larger nut widths in the recent past. They have been on a roll lately.
 
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#13
Less like a Ric - the original was essentially a T-bird with a different body/hs shape. The (long-scale) neck was pretty much the same as a T-bird. (thin nut-same profile) That deep 'wooly' sound (from the twin hum-bucker pu's) is what a T-bird offers.
 
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#14
mbell75 said:
1.625" is thin? Not to me. The originals from the 60s had Jazz nut widths. Nothing thin about these neck at all.
Click to expand...

Thin like the very first Jazz Basses - 1/16th of an inch more narrow than later.

Looks like 5 changes from the originals that I can see (maybe more?)

1. nut width (and I assume neck profile)

2. vol, pan, tone rather than VVT (an improvement IMO)

3. wider bridge for better intonation (clear improvement)

4. altered body shape (I get that it makes sense going for better balance though looks odd being used to the originals)

5. the headstock. Makes practical sense in terms of balance and makes it more compact overall - though that is one of the most characteristic elements of the design:

Embassy headstock.jpg


Very cool basses regardless!
 
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#15
mbell75 said:
True, but I also have a T-Bird and they really don't sound alike. Even the Vintage Pro T-Bird with the same pickups as the Embassy sounds a bit different because of the drastically different bodies Im guessing. Same way that a Les Paul with P90s sounds quite different than a double cut Junior with the same P90s despite having the same specs on the neck and pretty much everything in common. Bodies are quite different.
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I have both a '64 Embassy and '64 t-bird. With the same strings and pickup adjustment can get VERY similar tone. T-bird is slightly more taut as it is neck-through while the Embassy is set-neck (like the later non reverse t-birds).
 
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#17
mbell75 said:
Awesome! Post pics if you have them!
Click to expand...

Here you go!

tbird.jpg

Inverness Green Metallic. JIO has a '64 t-bird as well...

embassy body.jpg

It's a very early one - all nickel hardware. Was defretted when I got it. I removed the finish off the face of the board with the intention of refretting it but it plays and sounds so good that I left it as is - in fact, sold off my F-bass BNF5 as a result.

On the new Embassy basses, having the wider nut and smaller headstock certainly equals less risk of broken headstocks!
 
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#18
Dynacord said:
Here you go!
View attachment 3419591
It's a very early one - all nickel hardware. Was defretted when I got it. I removed the finish off the face of the board with the intention of refretting it but it plays and sounds so good that I left it as is - in fact, sold off my F-bass BNF5 as a result.

On the new Embassy basses, having the wider nut and smaller headstock certainly equals less risk of broken headstocks!
Click to expand...

I played a '65(?) Embassy at the Chicago Music Exchange years ago and the neck was very familiar feeling - I couldn't really test it thoroughly but it sounded more like a T-bird than anything else to me. The bridge on your Embassy looks deeper (somewhat different design) than what was on the T-bird, which was too shallow. Can you get proper intonation on it? And was it produced the same years as the gen1&2 T-birds?
 
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#19
JIO said:
I played a '65(?) Embassy at the Chicago Music Exchange years ago and the neck was very familiar feeling - I couldn't really test it thoroughly but it sounded more like a T-bird than anything else to me. The bridge on your Embassy looks deeper (somewhat different design) than what was on the T-bird, which was too shallow. Can you get proper intonation on it? And was it produced the same years as the gen1&2 T-birds?
Click to expand...

It's a bit of a long story on the bridge. I had a completely stock '66 Embassy that I sold on consignment at Real Guitars in about 2005 before moving to Europe. It had the stock bridge - which I could intonate with flats but not quite with rounds. Like so many, I regretted selling it since. In a fluke, I found this one for embarrassingly cheap on Craig's List in NY (an ad for a Kay double bass but there were about 20 other basses in the background - most parts basses and cheaper pawn shop types but I saw that one distinctive headstock sticking out and asked if it was for sale. He said "sure, why not" and named his price - I'll just say I didn't haggle... Anyway, he said he had bought it in the 80s and the mods were done before - they all scream 1970s: brass nut, defretted ala Jaco (whoever did the work really knew what they were doing as it's one of the best set up fretlesses I've played) and fabricated a new wider bridgeplate (using the existing saddles and studs) - very much the same idea as #godofthunder59 's Badbird retrofit bridge (though his is made to a higher standard - I have one on my t-bird).

And, yes, the run of Embassy basses was concurrent with the reverse and non-reverse t-birds in the 60s. Made in the same factory with the same parts, etc.
 
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