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The bargain queen's new bass!

#41
Forty-Thirty said:
Y'all, I am so stoked!!

I've been GASing for an SG bass. I've been "visiting" the EB0 at GC and have been looking for one at a good price. My only issue with it is that it's red, and the only bass I currently have is red--I don't need or want two red basses, and my Jag is a prettier red.

I was browsing online this evening and came across a used but in good condition EB0 at a GC in Pittsburgh that came in a package with the bass, a gig bag, and a small amp for... wait for it... $99! I called and talked to the person who has been handling it, and she said it was in really nice condition cosmetically, played very well, and had just been set up and cleaned up by their tech. They're shipping it directly to my house for $25. I don't need the little amp, so I can sell that and make a little bit back. I'm thinking it'll end up being $75 + shipping (or maybe less?) for the bass and bag once I sell the amp!

One of my good friends, and the guitarist I play with on Wednesdays, has gotten into customizing guitars, so he's going to help me sand her down and paint her. I read a thread a while back about this finish being difficult to remove, but the paint job will be opaque so I won't need to get it down to the wood. She's going to be turquoise with a white pearl pickguard, white or chrome knobs (haven't decided), and those fins and chrome humbucker--basically the bass version of a '57 Chevy, one of my favorite cars! :D

I am BESIDE MYSELF! An awesome-looking custom bass for under $100! I will post before and after pics when it comes in. Rejoice with me! But if you have anything negative to say about the bass, zip it. I don't want anyone pooping on my happiness. :)

This will be my second bass! I feel like that's some kind of milestone. And it's almost exactly on the anniversary of when I got my first one (April 2015).
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I can feel your joy Forty-Three!

Congrats on a super deal and what is a very nice bass.

I found a totally destroyed Gibson EB-0 when I was but a lad - I think around 1966. I mean, chunks of wood missing, initials carved into it, stickers, gouges, dents, dings, scrapes - it was a hot mess - but it played fine and the electronics worked alright. My dad had a body shop and he took one look at it and told me to buy it, that he could make it look as good as new. Got it for 50 bucks. He took that puppy out to his body shop, took it apart and removed all the stickers. He stripped it down to the bare wood. He filled it with automotive fiberglass. Sanded it smooth, taped up the headstock and the fingerboard - and painted the whole thing - neck and all - a deep glossy jet black.

I loved the black - at that point Gibson didn't offer it. Actually, I am not sure if Gibson ever offered the EB-0 in black? I think eventually only Epiphone did. A good bass player friend and electronics genius installed a special capacitor with a momentary body switch to brighten up that mudbucker. He also suggested using a wah wah pedal locked in the "down" position to give it a little extra edge and to brighten it up more - without having to use EQ. I tried it and it worked great! He went on to be a very famous FOH mixer at Showco, mixing folks like ZZ Top, REO Speedwagon, Little Feat and Genesis. He also mixed the Carpenters and all the Genesis "live" albums up until his untimely death.

I loved that bass and played it for years. I did eventually realize that I hated gloss finishes on the back of the neck though. I still hate it - I skid too much on gloss. But that lovely bass worked great for my purposes - and I sold it in 1971 when I went into the Army. Wish I still had it!
 
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#43
Forty-Thirty said:
Oh, to follow up on the "this is my second bass" thing, my husband (who is fine with me having this as long as it has a place to live) and I had the following conversation:

HIM: "You already have a bass! Why do you need two?"
ME: "This one is different."
"It's a bass."
"No, this one will sound different from the one I have. It has a different type of pickup."
"It's a BASS."
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LMAO at the reversal of the gender stereotypes in that anecdote. (Usually these stories are about the female SO saying "You already have one.")

Goes to show ya that people are just people, I figure. _Human nature_ is a stronger construct than _gender_.

BTW...OP, great score! Look forward to acquiring your third bass... :thumbsup:
 
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#44
Forty-Thirty said:
Oh, to follow up on the "this is my second bass" thing, my husband (who is fine with me having this as long as it has a place to live) and I had the following conversation:

HIM: "You already have a bass! Why do you need two?"
ME: "This one is different."
"It's a bass."
"No, this one will sound different from the one I have. It has a different type of pickup."
"It's a BASS."
"You have two different video game systems. Why would you need two? It's the same thing you're saying to me."
"I don't have two X Boxes" (actually he does--an old one and a 360, but whatever)
"But you have two video game systems."
"Well, ...(something about how they're different). All basses do the same thing."
"All video game systems play video games."
"But (something again about how they're sooo different). It would be like you having a bass and a guitar, but not like having two basses."
"Video game systems play video games. Some of those video games have different features and formats that only the certain type of machine will play. Basses have different types of electronics (didn't get into any other differences because they are irrelevant to mine) and make different sounds, and you do different things with those sounds. It works exactly the same."
He wasn't buying it.

Pff. Men. ;)
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I had a similar conversation with my wife:

Wife: Why do you need another bass, you have several and you can only play one at a time!

Me: Why do you have several diamond necklaces, you only have one neck!.........and your birthday is coming up............

Wife: I see your point.

Wife has bought almost every bass I've owned since.

:D

and roundwounds for sure.
 
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#45
Forty-Thirty said:
It might sound like it from the conversation, but no, not even a little. :) He is not musical in any way, shape, or form. He has no rhythm, and is not entirely tone deaf but not too far from it, either (which makes his playing French horn in junior high band a ...choice, but he claims he was not awful at it (which is interesting because even good French horn players aren't that good at French horn! ;) Trust me, I sat right next to them for 10 years in the saxophone section!)).
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How do you make a trombone sound like a French horn? Put your hand in the bell and play a lot of wrong notes!
 
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#48
Olde Axeman said:
Finally, ReRanch (Guitar ReRanch ~ Available Colors) offers proper guitar paint in spray cans, including Fender seafoam and surf green colors that are kinda turquoisy. Not that you can't use cheaper Krylon or similar spray paint but it's not specifically formulated for guitar colors like the ReRanch stuff.

(Edited to add): Surf Green is allegedly a factory color used on '56 Chevys. Possibly the same color was used for '57 Chevys, I dunno.
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'57s used a color called Tropical Turquoise. My friend that's going to help me paint it actually uses car paint; he says it's more durable and looks better, so I will LITERALLY be using the same paint as a Bel Air! :D
 
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#49
Ewo said:
LMAO at the reversal of the gender stereotypes in that anecdote. (Usually these stories are about the female SO saying "You already have one.")

Goes to show ya that people are just people, I figure. _Human nature_ is a stronger construct than _gender_.
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As a social/personality psychologist, I greatly enjoy gender stereotype reversals, too!
 
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#52
Forty-Thirty said:
Don't knock my man, now. He plays video/PC games and reads comics, but he's also an incredibly brilliant scholar of Medieval literature with four dead languages (Old and Middle English, Old High German, and Latin) under his belt with translation proficiency in each, and can write and teach circles around anyone I know. Ignorant of musical things he is, but juvenile, he is not.
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Then buy for your husband a crumhorn and a rebec, and y'all can play duets.
 
#53
Forty-Thirty said:
Unfortunately he's all practical. Those of you who have six P basses in all different colors? He'd say that's nonsense.

But I could put a different type of strings on it, and THAT might hold some water for him! Question to all: If you had a Jaguar and an EB0, on which one would you put flats, and on which one might you put rounds or half rounds or something like that? Bonus: changing strings will give me even MORE toys to play with! :D

Either way, I've bought the thing, so there's no going back now. He's happy for me to have what makes me happy, but he just doesn't understand it.
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Of course, a select few among us know that one way to sneak a new bass past a spouse who is not too musical is to get the additional bass in the same color as the old one. My wife has so far not distinguished between my 4-string Jazz in natural, and a new (to me) 5-string jazz-style bass also in natural.

I prefer not to think of it as trickery, but more like "truth management".
 
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#55
Forty-Thirty said:
Also, I'm not sure why playing video games makes him "a grown boy." Why are some hobbies "adult" and some hobbies "for boys"? It sounds very junior high--back then some hobbies were arbitrarily "cool" because someone said they were, and others were "uncool," again because someone arbitrarily determined that they were, and then you got made fun of for it. That's incredibly asinine. Let people enjoy what they enjoy as long as it doesn't harm others, and don't patronize them for it.
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I play the shiz out of video games and i am a 37 year old lawyer. Congrats on the bass OP.
 
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#56
I had a '54 chevy in trop turq., Very nice for a guitar color.That was 1 of 2 colors for my shorty p bass project.The other candy tangerine won out.While you have the EB-0 apart for painting see if you can find dimarzio model one(used) that should help it a lot and make it more of a keeper.
 
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#57
pcake said:
congrats on your new bass and in such an interesting color. can't wait for pics!

i love the sound of the one-pickup EB0 just as it is. maybe it's personal preference, how one tweaks the settings or something else, but it works for me as-is.
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From my limited experience playing one at the store, I wouldn't want to add a pickup. I really loved it with just one!
 
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#58
Congrats on the new bass, first off. I think it will look great in the new finish. Having owned an eb-0 I would personally choose rounds. The bass is really dark and deep as it is, so flats might make it muddy.

You'll have to excuse the comments about your significant other, there's no harm intended. If there's anything that shows when somebody opposes bass, it's that people here are incredibly protective of their hobby. Once you understand why something something is, it can be hard to see why others can't see it as well.
 
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#59
Something you may want to consider is a set of LaBella Copper White Nylon strings. I'm not a fan of tapewounds in general. But on a whim (plus some backscatter here on TB) I picked up a set and threw them on my Squire VM Jag Special. And I couldn't be happier. I can get everything from an edgy alt rock sound all the way to a fairly good impersonation of an amped string bass out of them. Very interesting string with a lot of warmth and solid yet complex mids - and none of the toppiness (is that a word ?) you'll sometimes get with the LaBella Whites or Golds.

Put them on and give them a day or three to settle down and I think you'll be very happy. I've tried every tapewound string there is at one time or another. These "coppers" are the first tapewound set I ever tried that stayed on a bass Iown for more than a few days if that tells you anything. Definite keepers AFAIC. YMMV. :cool:
 
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