90s Epi Rivoli Opinions?

[saltymonkey]

I've been thinking about purchasing a 90's Epi Rivoli reissue. I've been reading up on them a bit and just decided I should ask you guys what you think of them. It's sunburst with a single Mudbucker at the neck and the tone button. It's really pretty and in great shape but how do they sound and or play? I haven't found much praise of the pup's tone including here in the archives. Any opinions/experience are greatly appreciated.

[Daniel_J]

I bought a '96 Rivoli in 2005, a sunburst one that was mint, except it had a thumb rest installed and a extra screw hole where the previous owner probably installed the same thumb rest but in a different position. Sold it in 2008.

The bass itself was really beautiful, great comfortable neck, intonated properly and action could be set quite low if needed. It was simply a top notch instrument in terms of construction quality. But the sound is a different story.

The mudbucker just didn't had that great hollow mudness, nor the sublow presence expected from a real mudbucker. But that didn't make it necessarily bad, it was a very usable tone, it just didn't sound or felt like a mudbucker.

But the main problem was that it was just damn noisy! I even thought it could've been damaged or something, but that wasn't the case. I tried to shield everything on the bass: the pickup cavity, the output jack, switch and pots. Basically I made individual little shielding boxes out of copper foil for each eletronic component and even wrapped the wires with copper foil, but to no avail. Even though it did reduced the hum considerably, it was still picking up noise out of somewhere and it was just not acceptable for me.

Never had that problem with any other instrument before, not even ones equipped with single coils.
Maybe it was just this one pickup, I don't know.

Anyway, it is a really well built instrument and it's well worth the money if you have a good Mudbucker replacement to drop in.

[Droombolus]

Maybe it was just this one pickup, I don't know.

I've had a beautiful Rivoli RI but the PUP wasn't really to my liking soundwise, so I've used a succession of replacements. Even an ordinary Gotoh / All Parts replacement sounded better but I got the best result form a DiMarzio Willpower PUP. She sounded even better when I replaced the 3-point bridge with a HipShot SuperTone.

[Aussie Mark]

A couple of years ago I owned a 90s MIK Rivoli that the previous owned had fitted with a Dimarzio Model One.  That pup was a good match with the Rivoli, which was very well made and played nicely.

[uwe]

I haven't played a newer Epi that could not have been upgraded to something really good via better pups. Other than the budget pups, the Epis are good value for money. So go for it.

Usability of an original EB-2 is in my humble view greatly overrated. If you are doing 60ies Brit Invasion tribute it makes sesnse, but other than that ... I don't like how they killed the acoustic tone with that huge sustain block for one and a maho neck on a maple body is never a smart idea. I much prefer the LP Sig..