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Tobias Toby Deluxe IV by Epiphone Project

Evangion

Evangion

Jun 22, 2005
57
8
#1
So I spotted a real cheap steal at my local dealer for the Toby Deluxe IV. Never heard of it previously but liked the way it looked. Plugged it in and noodled around with it. The bass had potential but the electronics were quite, erm, not for gig use? Liked it enough and bought it immediately.

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Box was to be gutted, so I snapped a shop of it's S/N.

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The bass in it's all stock glory.

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First thing I gutted was the pickups directly the next day. The stock ones were HISSY. Had Bartolini 9CBJD L1/S1 pickups installed and used them for a club gig the night itself. Wasn't the best idea though. The stock electronics were too bright even with the tone & amp EQ dialed down all the way.

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Decided on a Bartolini preamp and had it installed the next day too. Since the local store didn't have a 4 hole preamp, I went with 5 hole and had the treble/bass converted to a stacked knob.

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Dunlop Straploks don't really work with Comfort Strapps so all my basses have the Gotoh EP-B3 strap buttons installed.

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Decided to go all Gotoh and had the stock 14:1 tuners replaced with Gotoh's GB707 20:1 tuners.

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A little vanity on the side so I had the trussrod cover replaced with Mahogany. Also had did a ramp for it. A little shoe polish on the 3 ramps I have and the wood is stained.

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Will be replacing the bridge with a Gotoh quick release similar to my Sadowsky soon.

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Final parting shot for now. The bass is a joy to play and sounds awesome. Totally silent, full of punch and the treble doesn't make you cringe. Will try to upload sound clips once I get my Line 6 UX1 recording working.
 
#5
Nice!!!! I had a Toby in that color - loved the neck and overall feel but hated the pickups and electronics. You're right about the stock pickups- they were really thin sounding and noisy. You've corrected that and made a heck of an instrument I'm sure. Great job!
 
#6
Maxdusty said:
Nice!!!! I had a Toby in that color - loved the neck and overall feel but hated the pickups and electronics. You're right about the stock pickups- they were really thin sounding and noisy. You've corrected that and made a heck of an instrument I'm sure. Great job!
Click to expand...
I thought about getting one and getting it routed for 2 MM styled pups and a Seymore Duncan Stingray preamp!

I used to own the passive one in white. It was the lightest bass I ever owned and played really nice, but the electronics sucked.
 
#7
Hevy T said:
I thought about getting one and getting it routed for 2 MM styled pups and a Seymore Duncan Stingray preamp!

I used to own the passive one in white. It was the lightest bass I ever owned and played really nice, but the electronics sucked.
Click to expand...
The Deluxe isn't really all that much better- in fact, you can hardly tell the difference between that and the standard one other than a slight bass boost. I changed the battery when I first got it thinking that was problem. Any improvement to the electronics and the pickups can potentially make this an awesome bass. It has the feel and weight right, just the sound needs fixing. :)
You can pick these up pretty cheaply now, especially used at GC, so it would be a worthwhile upgrade.
 
#8
Hevy T said:
I thought about getting one and getting it routed for 2 MM styled pups and a Seymore Duncan Stingray preamp!

I used to own the passive one in white. It was the lightest bass I ever owned and played really nice, but the electronics sucked.
Click to expand...

I'm now toying with the idea of getting the Deluxe V in sunburst to route for two Nordstrand Double Coil soapbars, haha. Lightest bass ever but I don't think the Standard IV or V has the giant cavity in the back for the electronics right? Not sure about that.
 
#11
I've got a Toby Deluxe IV that I like fairly well, but I've been considering upgrades. How does the bass sound now? Do you have any audio samples posted somewhere?

Edit: Oh, just noticed you added fret markers too. Nice. :)
 
Last edited:
#13
Bumping up the old thread.

i have this exact same bass and I want to make the exact same modifications, except different pickups. How are you able to install the L1/S1 bartolini set on this bass? As I understand the dimensions of neck and bridge pickup on this bass are exactly the same- 9.5 cm x 1.9 cm. Screw projections are 2.9 cm at their widest point and 4 cm apart.

the L1/S1 set has the neck pickup S1 in a smaller dimension. How are you able to fit it in the neck position? Were the 4 screw holders in the correct place? I see from the photos the neck pickup cavity has some naked sides but I’m more worried about the correct positioning of the screw holders in that position.

I’m not expecting you to reply 5-6 years later but if someone can shed some light on this it would be great. I hate the stock electronics and wanna change the pickups to these ones: MEC Passive Dynamic Correction J-Style Bass Pickups, 4- & 5-String

if anyone knows HOW i can do this please reply
 

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