I have a seafoam green Epi Newport, batwing headstock version. Lovely little bass. With a clear and pure sound emitting from its mudbucker.
Mudbucker with a clear sound. That always had me wondering. The mudbucker looked a little weird, it didn't have any pole pieces/screws sticking out of the chrome cover. Well, I thought, Epi tried something different on that one. Then people in this forum and previous ones would write "the Newport sounds like an EB-0". And I'd think "what do they know, my Newport sounds nothing like an EB-0", much cleaner and clearer with still sufficent ooomph, you could play on Beach Boys albums with it". And there the case rested for many years.
Until today. I plugged the Newport in after a long telephone conference. And when it again defied expectations you have with a mudbucker, I intrepidly took out the screwdriver and dismantled the venomously chrome cover ...
To find what? Bedded in greyish porous foam, an early Fender P single coil in full glory revealed itself. In slanted position to accomodate the narrower string spacing of the Newport but with every pole piece nicely matching one of the strings - string response had always been surprisingly even on this bass, more so than on many a mudbucker-equipped one.
So what I have been hearing all these years is the puristic single coil sound of a Fender pup which had me unjustly doubt your judgement, my dear brethren, that "Newports sound like EB-Os". Of course they do, except when they have a Fender pup camouflaged by that deceptive chrome cover and sound more like a short scale Jazz Bass in front pup mode! Forgive me!!!
And now? Of course I could drop an original mudbucker in - I even have one lying around. But I won't. I know how a mudbucker neck pup sounds in a maho bass and have that combination several times over. But my Newport and I will forever share a dirty little secret ...
