Gibson EB 2014 5 String

[Grog]

I gave the EB-4 String a good three hour workout yesterday. I was quite impressed. It had great tonal range. It might be my most versatile bass next to the Hobbit. It had a little neck dive, but nothing horrible. Surprisingly though, the pickups on the Hobbit were much hotter than the pickups on the EB. I might need to raise them a bit. I usually run the Hobbit on about three on the bass volume. I had to crank the EB up almost all of the way to achieve the same level of sound.

[patman]

I raised them on mine

[uwe]

The EB-4 has a meek output - even in its loudest setting.

[Pilgrim]

The EB-4 has a meek output - even in its loudest setting.

That's why you buy the sticker that says "11" to put around your volume knob, right?

[Psycho Bass Guy]

The EB-4 has a meek output - even in its loudest setting.

Mine, a 2013, equals my Fralin-equipped LP Standard and the notoriously high output of my G&L L2500 in volume and the pickups are at factory height. It definitely has more output than almost all of my Fender Jazz Basses excepting my old Marcus Miller signature model that is VERY loud even without the preamp.

[Dave W]

When i had Uwe's 2013 here, the output didn't seem meek to me.

[patman]

I wouldn't describe output as meek, but when mine came, pickups were REALLY low...as in screwed down into the body...I replaced the foam and raised them up.

[uwe]

Huh? I said the EB-4(L) - the 70ies shortlived excursion of Gibson in single-coilish sounding territitory that had its coffin nailed shut by the soon advancing Grabber - sounded meek. I meant this here:



The newish EBs (current and of recent years) aren't meek at all, not as roaring as TB-Plus pups, but then which passive pup is? And the force of the TB-Plus comes at a price, it is not the most transparent sounding bass pup on earth though I like its characteristic. The Jim DeCola pups are much more refined and focused in comparison, but not sterile at all. I don't believe you could get them any louder without sacrifing the balance of the frequencies and the sonic "tidiness".

The one drawback of the Jim DeColas is that you cannot get them as close to the strings as TB-Plus pups without - audible (ghost notes and such) - interference to the string movement and that they have - an unfortunate parallel to the EB-4L pup of yore - a narrower magnetic field. if you pull strings a lot (and out of the magnetic field), you'll get fade-outs.