So, it's finally here. Bought this one from Scott. I'm hooked on short scale Gibson basses, so I was curious to explore this one.
I have tried one before, way before I started to play shorties - but that might have been a SB-400. It was horrible, neck like a bow and impossible to play. I don't remember if I even played it on an amp, owner just wanted to show it to me because I had a Gibson too at that point (Grabber). He said it sounded weak and sold it off cheap. And now I lusted for one, who would have known. Here it is in all it's glory:
Hope you all can see pic (Photobucket) The finish is not as good as in the pic, just turned out that way
Naturally I wanted to fiddle with it right away. Tuned it up after a quick look, it was strung with very thin strings (measured .082, .065, .047, .045 on my digi caliper). I know Scott fixed the truss rod on it, but anyhow I use TI's and the sort so it's OK. I have an extra LaBella deep Flats lying around I might try.
Sounded good acoustically and played really easy, but the E was making a pretty nasty buzzing sound. A quick look under the hood
of that clever bridge revealed the reason for the bad behaviour, the nylon E saddle was chipped.
I might try to make steel saddles, but for now I just filed a notch with a rat file. There was enough room on it for it to seat, so it will probably stay this way if it sounds OK. It now played very nice (notched the other saddles too to set the radii).
Time to plug in. There was an EBS Fafner 2 that I just finished repairing on the bench, so I plugged into it (and a Marshall 412 with Eminence Bass neo's). Even at 12 o'clock gain/vol there was just a very low sound, although both pickups made som popping when touched with a nail. Measuring the output jack it has a very high dcr. That does not really worry me, the control plate have two screws only. Turns out corrosion got the better of it, a ground connection was loose and the jack was all gunky and green. The electronics takes about 30 seconds to resolder, and a thorough jack cleaning and pot lubing another 30 seconds. Both pups measure 6,6 K ohms each, so quite good output should be possible with both on (in series).
And yes, now it played nice and loud. So good I had to go find my '73 Superbass. (the EBS makes every bass a bit dull) I must say, this is a really good one. It does bite, but that is very controllable with the tone control (which I never use on EB-3's or mudbuckers in general). Can almost match the rick in clank and it is louder. Can do a good P too! Very easy to dial in the sound, compared to muds.
Both pickups on and tone backed off a tad, very varm and full sound but with super definition. It can definitely be expressive, not dead at all. OK, it's new to me - but it is a bass I can see myself spending a lot of time with, it screams 'do me again'!
I can only join in with Uwe and the others who praise this beauty, it is a very good instrument! For the record I did try a SB-350 a while back, but I'm glad I waited. The 350's bridge pup is as useless as everybody claims.
I'm not too fond of walnut, but decide to keep it as-is. Only thing that must be done is a refret, wich is boring to do but I'm sure it will be worth it when I'm done. It's a winner!
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