'72-'75 Gibson EB3 Epiphany

[godofthunder]

    I did a sub gig last night , lots of Sabbath and Ozzy in the set so I thought I'd bring along my '72-75 EB3. Oddly I was also compelled by watching some clips of Badfinger and Tommy was using a double Mudbucker EB3. I gave the bass a quick set up as I had never used it in a band setting and off to the gig I went. My rig for the night consisted of the Hiwatt DR201 running the Hiwatt 2150 (2x15) and a Marshall JCM 800 2x15 cab also with that I had a Hiwatt DR103 running a Hiwatt 4123. A pretty substantial rig but I was working with a guitar player with three Marshall stacks! During sound check I plugged this little beast in and HOLY COW! Big thick, punchy, articulate, gritty tone. Not muddy at all. The notes on the D and G string literally jumped off the fingerboard. I have said this many times EB3s sound best through big tube amps, for whatever reason  modern SS amps do them no favors. Being a short scale you'd think there would be some adjustment transitioning from Thunderbirds but It did not seem to be a problem. This experience reminded me of why I loved EB3s and as a kid that was the bass I really wanted but was talked into the G3 which in turn started a two year search for a bass that fit me. Will this replace Thunderbirds for me? Of course not but it is like rediscovering a old passion. The EB3 will be coming out more often!

[leftybass]

I go back and forth between short and long scales during the course of a show, and singing on most tunes, not a problem.

[Granny Gremlin]

Maybe it's because yours is a series 2 and mine a series 1, but I find the Mudbucker (which changed from S1 to II, as did the electronics and position of the pup) really gives tube preamps a hard time - requires a rumble filter at least.  SS preamps don't sweat it half as much, I find.  I think these just really benefit from a big rig that can reproduce what they dish out properly, and possibly tube power sections to add some harmonic content to fill out the upper midrange a bit.

Anyway, its great that that worked out for you.

[4stringer77]

Glad to hear you had fun playing the EB3 through the big rig Scott. Last time I played my 66 I used only the bridge pickup. It was a solo bass competition and the house amp provided was an ampeg svt-7pro I think. I told the sound man to give me some juice so I could get a little grit. He said "you mean like a Jack Bruce sound?" and I said exactly. The bass going through that head gave me a very full sound even without the mudbucker. Both the pickups together never seem to mix well and either give you more of one or the other depending on where you set the volume, at least so it seems to me. Do you also think the series two pickups mix markedly better than the series ones do?

[Dave W]

I'm not surprised at all that you liked it.    A mudbucker is controllable with the right amp and knowing how to dial it in.

Now if you could just get that prototype of yours into production and so something about that 3-point bridge! 

[Chris P.]

Great!!

I told it here before. I used to have a '76 with the pickup in the middle. It never sounded good with modern amps. As if the big signal was squeezed through something small. One day I used a tube amp and an old guitar 4x12" And wow! It came to life, exactly like you tell us. It sounded great! Then I realized most EB3 players used 4x12" Marshalls back in the sixties and seventies.

[godofthunder]

    Dave I should have product in 6 weeks!

[OldManC]

    Dave I should have product in 6 weeks!

  Excellent news!

[Highlander]

No shorties in the herd...

[drbassman]

Ah, a short scale hooks another one.   

[uwe]

Now if you could just get that prototype of yours into production and so something about that 3-point bridge! 

I'm not even ignoring that statement.

[Pilgrim]

I'm not even ignoring that statement.

That is one of the most magnificently circular statements I have ever read. 

[uwe]

I swiped it. It's from a German comedian of the 20ies and 30ies called Karl Valentin who excelled in portraying tragic-comic figures forever struggling with the fallacies of everyday life. Imagine Buster Keaton with words.



A lot of his jokes/statements/wordplays have become proverbial in Germany, things like "The future used to be a lot better in the past." or "Everything has been said. Just not yet by everyone."

[Dave W]

That is one of the most magnificently circular statements I have ever read. 

He's dancing the masochism tango. That's what you have to do with a three-pointer.

[Pilgrim]