WTF Esquire shortbass

[MattK]

Visiting my brother interstate, flew in with carryon only, return ticket includes a suitcase. Let’s have a quick look at Gumtree. Half a day later I have this 70s beauty, for about $A100 or fifty quid. Short scale, bolt neck, early 1970s, same as the Ibanez EB3s of the period (and same factory). Needs work but DAMN. Plays good.

[sunshiner]

£50? That's a steal.

I find it interesting how Japanese manufacturers went from Teiscos to this in just a couple of years, and then from this to almost period correct replicas of everything made in the US in the 50s and 60s. Not saying that Teiscos were bad, I love them, but they were sure different.

[MattK]

Yeah, it’s like the solid body guitars were covered by the oddball Teisco / Guyatone / Arai models, but then the Gibson styles were cloned, and the Fender styles followed.
I’ve never had a Gibson style bass and I’m loving it so far. When I get home I will be sorting out the electronics etc, looking forward to hearing it speak!

[Freddy V-C]

Intrigued by a shortscale SG-style bass! I used to have a full-scale Epiphone EB3 and found it pretty unwieldly.

This is a nice score.

[NickS]

I have an Epiphone EB0 that I've only played two or three times since bringing it back from the shop. That's a short scale SG shaped bass, but I'd rather it had two pickups.

[MattK]

Alas I brought a crappy head cold home from the trip with me as well, but the bass survived its trip disassembled in a terrible old suitcase. Gotta get it back together and see what's what.
It came strung with some very old flatwounds which I'm pretty happy about!

[MattK]

So - the bass played OK but both pickups were disconnected. The bridge "humbucker" (pretty sure it's a single with 2 rows of screws) needs a mounting ring so it's in the "to do" basket.



Wired up the neck pickup - another single coil under a big square dummy cover - but nothing at all. Turns out the windings were broken away from the leads.



After three attempts and one of the most frustrating solder jobs I've ever done, I got it sorted out, I hope for good, and got a click when I tapped it.



Put it all back together, restrung it with the ancient flats and WE HAVE BASS.




Still to do: make a pickup ring and a back cover plate.

It plays really nicely, light and "chuckable", easy to get around the fretboard even for a gimp like myself.

[MattK]

Also sounds a lot like an acoustic bass which I’m really enjoying.

[sunshiner]

Nice job fixing the pickup and wiring! I love the bass, to me it looks better than "the real thing". And the body is solid wood too, I was half expecting it to be plywood just the way lots of early Japanese replicas were.

[MattK]

I really love it, despite my Fender bias. Thanks!

[NickS]

Googling for the construction of the original EB-0 pickup and looking at some of the grumbles about the "mudbucker" there seem to be a lot of alternatives for what lurks in that big cover.

[MattK]

Authentic it’s not, but a 10k single coil is its own thing, and sounds very woody and breathy which I love. If I need deeper bass there’s always the Squier 50s P or the HARD PUNCHER.

[sunshiner]

Googling for the construction of the original EB-0 pickup and looking at some of the grumbles about the "mudbucker" there seem to be a lot of alternatives for what lurks in that big cover.

It's a hum cancelling construction that Lindy Fralin took and used in his hum cancelling "p90" widely advertising it as something original, turns out it's just a 6 pole EB-0 pickup resized to fit a p90 cover

[sunshiner]

Authentic it’s not, but a 10k single coil is its own thing, and sounds very woody and breathy which I love. If I need deeper bass there’s always the Squier 50s P or the HARD PUNCHER.

Absolutely. Gibson probably made the most elaborate constructions of the era which doesn't make the pickups the best sounding ones. Until relatively recently nobody cared about lipsticks, all types of DeArmonds, Valcos filtertrons, etc. If it sounds great, it sounds great no matter how "correct" it is