I haven't heard an Epi pup that comes close to a Gibson one unless it actually was one (like on the Elitists). The Epi minibucker was introduced sometime in the nineties, long after Gibson had given up minibuckers for bass in their repertoire (the last EB-3s were built in the seventies) and also long before they reintroduced them with the SG RI (some years ago). Epi has to save money somewhere for their budget approach, pups is one of those items.