Is woody playing an Epi?

[Freuds_Cat]

In this vid I was surprised to see a close up of the headstock of Woodys EB-3 and noticed that the truss cover had Gibson on it. Then I looked over the clip a little more closely and is it just me or is that an Epi he is playing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-NP-LdLu3g&feature=related

[hollowbody]

That's definitely an Epi.  Look at the long neck on it.  He played a lot of Epiphone basses live.  I've seen clips of him playing the reissue Rivoli and a non reverse Thinderbird. 

It goes to show that Woody could play the hell out of anything he put his hands on!

[Freuds_Cat]

I made a compilation CD of Thorazine Shuffle to listen to in my car when I decided to learn the Mule version of the song and on a couple of the live takes you can hear Woody adjusting his playing (not the dials on the bass or amp) in the the first minute or so to compensate for the different basses he played. They all sounded fairly different but you could hear him enhance the good aspects of that sound and repress the sounds that were less pleasurable to the ear on each bass. For eg he made the T-bird sound more T-bird and less EB and visa versa.
Kinda playing to the bass rather than the song if that makes any sense.

Great player.

[Dave W]

IIRC when Vintage Guitar magazine interviewed him, he said he had over 200 basses.

[Freuds_Cat]

The Irony is that in the pics with him sitting in front of his collection there are no noticeable EB's or Thunderbirds which were the ones he most commonly played.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

The Irony is that in the pics with him sitting in front of his collection there are no noticeable EB's or Thunderbirds which were the ones he most commonly played.

Hot damn!!!! 

Epis are gooood....I love my Epi V !

[Chris P.]

Nice pics!

Well, it sure is an Epi:

- Epiphones have 'Gibson' on the truss rod cover
- Gibsons don't!

yeah, strange...

[shadowcastaz]

I love that pic!!! The double necks he has with the mandolin are awesome because he started as a mandolin player, I believe.
He could have played a cardboard box with rubber bands on it and rocked the house.Thanx for the pics.

[Blazer]

The Irony is that in the pics with him sitting in front of his collection there are no noticeable EB's or Thunderbirds which were the ones he most commonly played.

Look a little closer: behind his sunburst Double neck and his Les Paul Triumph, there's at least seven T-birds and to his left shoulder there's an EB1 standing and behind the sunburst violin bass there are two SG shaped basses (I can't tell if they're EB3's or EB0's.) And on the top row next to the Ripper there are at least five Eb2's (or Rivoli's, I can't say for sure) Because this picture is so small you can hardly tell that they're there but they are.

[Freuds_Cat]

Hehe  thanks Blazer, I did say "Noticeable" 

[Chris P.]

Well, than we baptize you Eagle Eye Blazer.

[uwe]

Blazer Gazer.

[barend]

I also came across this same cool clip and was going to post it, but I saw it was already posted here.

That sure is an Epiphone EB3. I had one for two months or so and I really liked the sound of it. It is a good bass and it plays very smooth as well  but unfortunately it has terrible neckdive. But it is amazing what you can buy for less than 300 bucks. It had to go because I bought an '68 EB3.

Did anyone try his Epiphone Rumblecat?

[shadowcastaz]

I had one early on and sold it . I wish I had kept it because it was  fun to play. I think Dr Bassman had/has one with TV jones pups in it. Im sure when I get done with my projects Ill start lookin for another  Woody bass

[Freuds_Cat]

Yep, I've got one and love it.  It feels great and sounded excellent until a month ago then it wen all um.... Blaty on me. I cant work out why. It still sounds excellent without being plugged in ie no dead notes or differences in sustain but when it plugged in and you play even slightly hard it starts to sound like the bass dissapears  and it distorts slightly.