Epiphone EB-O

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Sat May 19, 2007 1:31 pm

I just picked up one of these locally for a hundred bucks. I had a real EB-O back in the day(72). It was my first brand name bass. My first ever was a pretty well made Japanese P copy.

http://www.epiphone.com/news.asp?NewsID=500

The funny thing is, I am in the middle of an SG project (still need a neck), and the body is black too. So I will have matching Epi EB-O and SG!

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Sat May 19, 2007 1:34 pm

I am on the other end of the spectrum from all these high finance collectors on this site but I still have fun...

firstbassman · Post by **firstbassman** » Sat May 19, 2007 3:37 pm

Congrats Charly.
As I mentioned somewhere else here, I still have my '71 EB-O.
And I've always been meaning to sell it.
But now that I've just taken it out of its case to take some eBay photos, I'm beginning to think ... why not fire up this baby and see how she sounds after all these years.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Sat May 19, 2007 4:01 pm

Cool Mark!

I Had a Dan Armstrong Plexi for a while too! I just love having a short scale around. It is effortless to play IMHO. And I like that huge honkin humbucker right at the neck!

cwk · Post by **cwk** » Sun May 20, 2007 6:19 am

I have an old EB-O copy in the closet(I think it's
a Kay).It's in pices now but I rember when I bought it for $60.00 in a pawn shop it had this really neat
muddy sound.I pulled the frets shortly aftre I got it and to me it had a nice warm almost accoustic sound.Back in the mid '70s my friends father played a real EB-0 and I had a chance to fool around with it.They are pretty neat basses.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Sun May 20, 2007 12:28 pm

I have a real late 60's Gibson EB-3 which is an EB-0 with a bridge pickup and varitone which selects different combinations of sounds from the pickups. The neck pickup alone is total boom. It is a nice bass once you get used to it and many people played them during the late 60's with various great sounds: Jack Bruce, Alice Cooper's bassplayer (Dennis Dunaway), and Free's bassplayer (Andy Frasier who had a great sound) to name just a few. They were almost as common as P basses back then.

iamthebassman · Post by **iamthebassman** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:17 am

I used to own a Gibson EB-O with slothead back in the 80s. I now have a reish Epi which, inspired by Dennis Dunaway's, I covered with mirrors. It's fun and I use it for encores, looks cool under the lights.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Mon May 21, 2007 11:08 am

Ok, I now want to upgrade the pup, and maybe put in a bridge pup. I can't seem to find replacements. Any ideas? I suppose I could REALLY change it and put RIC hb's in!! Nah, I still want the vintage vibe. I did notice Gibson put a mini hb in the bridge position on the reissue.

blueflamerick · Post by **blueflamerick** » Mon May 21, 2007 1:06 pm

Check out Mike Watt's basses. His main bass is an old EB-3. He replaced the mudbucker with a DiMarzio and added a Bartolini preamp.

http://www.hootpage.com/hoot_gallery-thudstaffs.html

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Mon May 21, 2007 1:25 pm

I like his ideas. Although I wasn't thrilled by this statement!

"Those pickups are dead and they weigh a ton (70's EB-3s). One of the settings would sound really thin, out of phase, like a Rickenbacker, oh man. "

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Mon May 21, 2007 1:29 pm

I did play one of those Ashbury rubber band basses this weekend at a store. Not too bad for what it is. Too tiny for my hands.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:13 pm

The original EB-3's have a mini humbucker near the bridge and they sound good on position three which is both pickups on. Mine is a slothead also. Watt's bass, at least on the Stooges new album is muddy and has two new pickups in it, they look identical but don't sound like much of an improvement to me, I have heard much better tones from stock EB-3's especially from Andy Frasier on the Free stuff.

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:10 pm

I'll probably go with the mini hb for the bridge. I have heard that Gibson has a "vintage" replacement pup that is super hot for the neck. Something like 27k or such?

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:23 am

In looking around the web for info on modding EB0s, I stumbled on this fellow's site. I am not linking for his basses, but check out his "over the top" rig!!!!!! Talk about processed sound!! As a tease,the cabs are a 4x10, a 1x15 and 2 separate 18s!!! Scroll down for the rig.

http://www.basskahuna.com/equipment/index.shtml

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Tue May 22, 2007 12:21 pm

A nice pix of EBOs.