sound difference between 60's and 70's EB3

[chromium]

I can understand this reaction....maybe we were too serious with our EB3 experiments, but I have learned a lot about my EB3 and the wiring from these post. I am glad I have found this forum for this reason and other things I will learn from reading the posts.

I want to thank Chromium again for his time and good insights!

I end with with a quote of myself, maybe some other EB3 owners can jump in and answer this question:

One more question. I noticed that with the original wiring the bridge pickup (position 2) has much more volume than the neck pickup (position 4). Is that also so on your bass? With the EB-O mod is the other way around: position 2 has less volume than position 4.

Hey Barend- no problem.  I enjoy tearing into these kooky old beasts, and I had not done this yet with the EB-3.  I'm still amazed how differently voiced our two EBs seem to be - especially in their "choked" regions!  You have the Barry White of EB-3s!  Makes me wonder if anyone who has more than one of these buggers notices any significant differences in sound between specimens!?

And yes, on my stock/original bass, 2 (bridge) is louder than 4 (choked mud).  Position 4 chokes the dickens out of the mudbucker, leaving it brittle and without any oomph.  The bridge pickup is not over-wound like that colossal neck pickup, and it is also positioned smack up against the bridge - so it follows that the neck pickup should be much louder when that choke is not in play.  That is what you are noticing with the "EB-0 mod" in place.

[Chris P.]

Barend,

I was justi kidding you a bit;) I find this thread very interesting!

[barend]

Hi Chris,

yes, I know of course. No offence taken. I also don't like to be serious all the time. 

[uwe]

So do I. It's one of those threads people will dig up again and again as I'm sure other EB-3 owners will address the same issue in the future.

We're just childish here and cannot always concentrate on topics that deserve attention. But I learned from it that EB-3s are choked in all positions as opposed to the natural mudbucker might of an EB-0.

Uwe

[chromium]

Story of my life:



now... what was I doing again? 

[bobyoung]

Well I was bored tonight and finally read this thread carefully or at least enough of it to understand what was going on here. I unsoldiered the choke from the Varitone switch and also bypassed the resistor. The sound difference is amazing to me. I always use position three, both pickups and with these mods the bass came alive almost like bypassing the cap in Rick 4001's. Position 3 now has much more bottom especially with the neck pickup cut a bit as was described before. I used to have to put the treble tone control on almost 0 because of the lack of bottom to balance them. I can now have it wide open and it still sounds full and now has more bite to it and has more bottom to boot, the combination is also a lot louder. The neck pickup soloed also has more top and mids to it and I may also use that. Positions 1 and 4 do sound pretty much the same on my bass also. I am also happy with the much smaller volume difference between positions on the Varitone. The neck pickup sounds like a neck pickup, the bridge pickup sounds like a bridge pickup and both of them together now sounds like a combination between a bridge pickup with a real neck pickup. The neck pickup opened up in combination with the bridge sounds great. I'm going to use it tomorrow as a matter of fact. I got a pretty dramatic change from these two simple mods, thanks!

[top028]

Hey guys, new here and I was digging up some threads, because I am a proud new owner of a 70 Eb-3L. This is my first factory bass in a while, because I am a tinkerer. I have quickly discovered the same situation you guys are talking about.
I have a third variation that I did before I looked you guys up. I took out the cap and resistor, then hooked up the coil directly to the position 4 of that pole. It kinda tightens up some lower mids compared to position 1. I find it useful enough to leave it.

My bridge pickup is so much hotter than the neck in position 3. Has anyone found a way to ballance that other than using the volume knobs, since that opens its own can of worms.

Before doing that I had also replaced the 220k to a 220 ohm because I found a schematic that had a .220k, just for giggles. I liked it better, than stock, but that cap had to go. You guys seem like a good group, glad to stumble on this site.

[bobyoung]

Sorry to dig up this old thread but if you cut the lead to ground from the inductor they balance a lot better. The bridge will still be louder in fact it almost entirely blanks out the neck when they are both on 10 but if you set the bridge volume somewhere around 9 they will balance pretty nicely. You will get a lot more bottom in pos 3.

[uwe]

Good advice!