I tried out a 70's EB3 bass in a local music store today and I didn't like what I heard in position 4. Position 4 sounded awfully thin and trebly with a bit lower output to my ears. The 1st 3 positions sound great, with position 1 being by far the beefiest and best sounding. Is that the way position 4 is supposed to sound?
Thank you.
Welcome. You may find this useful
http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/1961gibsonEB3soundclips.php
Quote from: Basvarken on September 24, 2012, 04:00:11 AM
Welcome. You may find this useful
http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/1961gibsonEB3soundclips.php
Ahh, thanks for the link. So it seems as if the 70's is most different than the 60's layout.
According to your link above, position 1 is the neck pickup with the choke, while position 4 is the neck pickup alone.
However, using this other link here of 1978 wiring: http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/EB3_controls.php
It seems the opposite. Position 4 is the neck pickup with the choke (midrange notch), nad position is neck pickup alone.
Thanks!
Welcome to the forum!
If it helps at all, I describe the settings like this:
The early EB-3s up thru late-1971 used a circuit design that would result in:
Position 1 - Neck pickup with lowpass filtering (heavy lows, not much in the way of mids or highs)
Position 2 - Bridge pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 3 - Bridge pickup, and neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
Position 4 - Neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
The late-1971 and up basses used a different variation of that circuit:
Position 1 - Neck pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 2 - Bridge pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 3 - Bridge pickup, and neck pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 4 - Neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
Quote from: chromium on September 24, 2012, 03:07:23 PM
Welcome to the forum!
If it helps at all, I describe the settings like this:
The early EB-3s up thru late-1971 used a circuit design that would result in:
Position 1 - Neck pickup with lowpass filtering (heavy lows, not much in the way of mids or highs)
Position 2 - Bridge pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 3 - Bridge pickup, and neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
Position 4 - Neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
The late-1971 and up basses used a different variation of that circuit:
Position 1 - Neck pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 2 - Bridge pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 3 - Bridge pickup, and neck pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 4 - Neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
Thanks for your reply Chromium!! As you have described position 4 (thin / nasal), that is certainly consistent with what I head when I play tested the EB3 in the store.
Please clarify one thing for me though. In the description of the 1978 model by Gibson (as posted by Fly Guitars), position 4 is described as a "midrange notch". Perhaps it is just semantics, but I would expect a midrange notch to dip midrange frequencies only, and leave the highs and lows in tact.
Here is the link to Fly Guitars I was referring to: http://www.flyguitars.com/gibson/bass/EB3_controls.php
Thanks!
Quote from: fuzzy645 on September 24, 2012, 08:27:31 PM
Please clarify one thing for me though. In the description of the 1978 model by Gibson (as posted by Fly Guitars), position 4 is described as a "midrange notch". Perhaps it is just semantics, but I would expect a midrange notch to dip midrange frequencies only, and leave the highs and lows in tact.
I think in the >1971 circuit, that position 4 setting does indeed implement a notch filter (aka band-stop, or band-reject). Being a simple passive implementation, however, that notch might be fairly wide... and I suspect its tuned in a way that some low end is being impacted in the process. It sounds more like a bandpass filter to my ears, but that's probably because that pickup is midrange heavy to begin with, with not a lot of high end.
I had come across a nice whitepaper that gets into more of the theory behind the varitone circuits:
http://www.gtvnyc.com/okguitars1/varitonepaper.pdf
The author's description of the EB-2/EB-6 circuit would apply to the 60s EB-3 - similar filter topologies at play there (e.g. RL lowpass filtering in position 1, and RLC bandpass in position 3 & 4)
Confusing stuff! :o
Very interesting read! ;)
Quote from: chromium on September 24, 2012, 03:07:23 PM
Welcome to the forum!
If it helps at all, I describe the settings like this:
The early EB-3s up thru late-1971 used a circuit design that would result in:
Position 1 - Neck pickup with lowpass filtering (heavy lows, not much in the way of mids or highs)
Position 2 - Bridge pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 3 - Bridge pickup, and neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
Position 4 - Neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
The late-1971 and up basses used a different variation of that circuit:
Position 1 - Neck pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 2 - Bridge pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 3 - Bridge pickup, and neck pickup (wide open, no filtering)
Position 4 - Neck pickup with "choke" circuit applied (thin nasal sound)
Most helpful and comprehensive synopsis on the subject I have ever laid eyes upon. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Secrets of the varitone finally laid bare!!!