Billy Speaks of his EB-0 inspired pickup

[Barklessdog]

Great interview with one of my favorite modern bassists.

The dual output of the bass is one of my secret weapons. Each pickup has a dedicated amp and cabinet. My sound breaks down into a clean, bright sound with not much low end, a distorted sound without much low-end, and a separate amp with just super-deep lows. I mix those three together to get articulation, harmonic content, and deep low end.

The neck pickup on my bass is modeled after the Gibson EB-0 sound and that big, deep, Paul McCartney-like tone runs through a Hartke LH1000 head and AK410 4x10 cabinet. I don't need much tone shaping on the lows—I need power. The highs and grind come from the P pickup, which I run through a Hartke HA5500C head and AK115 1x15 cab. I run the P pickup's signal through two channels of a Pearce BC1 pre-amp. One channel is clean and one is distorted. The clean is always on full volume, and the distortion channel is switchable. Each system runs through an Ashly Audio SC-50 compressor.

[fur85]

That's interesting, good find. Here's the whole interview.

http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2011/Mar/Billy_Sheehan_4_String_Commando.aspx?Page=3