Tokai EB-3 copy.

[Alanko]

This was a birthday present for myself!

I've been on the hunt for something with a mudbucker down at the end of the neck for a while. My 4003 and Starfire both have true neck pickups, but neither has a hot, punchy pickup in that spot. I was looking at basses to modify, when I stumbled up on this! Its red, SG-shaped and doesn't need any routing or hacking about.



I'd previously been checking out a used, and abused, longscale Epiphone EB-3, but I didn't like the block inlays or the visual impression of a small SG body on the end of a long neck. Plus, the neck angle wasn't quite right as the strings were tickling the bridge pickup, which was about as low as it would go in its trim ring.

From some Googling, it seems that Tokai make/made a few EB-3 copies. One was a bolt-on necked bass. One had a weirdly short pickguard. One had a wider knob spacing like an early EB-3. I'm not sure what model this is, but it has a set neck and the pickguard is almost the right shape. Unfortunately the pickguard isn't quite flat on the top of the bass, but I plan to cut another with a 30 degree bevel.

Just to clarify, this isn't an old 'lawsuit' instrument but something built in the last few years, most probably in China. I think it shares a lot of DNA with Epiphone EB-0 basses.





Headstock has a cheeky open-book shape and the tuners have nice small paddles, rather than the huge cloverleafs that make some EB-0/SG/EB-3 basses look a bit silly. I have some Wilkinson tuners of the same design if I need to upgrade.




The pickups are a mixed bag. The 'mudbucker' is similar to an Epiphone EB-0 pickup I had for a while. Specifically it measures 1.2 k ohms on the multimeter, as some Epiphone EB-0 pickups do. Tonally it is a dull pickup with low output but very little treble as well. I will probably replace this with an Artec sidewider.

The bridge pickup is like a Firebird/minibucker pickup and has a bit more snap to it. It meters out at 5.6 k ohm, which is still a bit low for a humbucker. It is also very slightly microphonic and slightly more susceptible to interference. It is mounted to a low, flat trim ring. I will probably swap this out with a Gotoh/All Parts repro EB-3 bridge pickup.


Tokai fitted 34'' roundwounds to this bass and simply chopped them down to fit. This makes the strings sloppy, buzzy and very uneven. I will probably go with some sort of black tapewound strings for maximum British Invasion tones.


As for the wiring, the bass is currently configured like an SG guitar. Each volume acts as a master in the middle setting. I'm planning to replace the pickup switch with a 6-way varitone control, using the primary of a small transformer to act as a choke. I plan to wire the bridge pickup with a treble bleed (4.7 nF cap with no resistor in series). The neck pickup tone control is getting swapped for two schottky diodes in parallel, back to back.

[Basvarken]

Congrats. It looks the part.

[Pilgrim]

Nice looking bass!  I agree short scale looks much more in keeping with the bass, and in my experience, balances much better.

[BTL]

That's a cool bass, congratulations!

[Dave W]

Wherever or whenever it was made, it's beautiful.

[westen44]

That is certainly a very good birthday present.   

[amptech]

Looks great! Just a tip, the regular Allparts mini HB is quite dull too - probably not far away from the one you have.
But EY Pickups (who makes the chinabucker/t bird pickup) made some great firebird pickups that drop right in.
They have alnico 5 magnets, are a bit hotter than the Allparts mini HB and sound great in EB3's. Bought some of them on ebay a
couple of years ago.

[Alanko]

Looks great! Just a tip, the regular Allparts mini HB is quite dull too - probably not far away from the one you have.
But EY Pickups (who makes the chinabucker/t bird pickup) made some great firebird pickups that drop right in.
They have alnico 5 magnets, are a bit hotter than the Allparts mini HB and sound great in EB3's. Bought some of them on ebay a
couple of years ago.

Ah ok. I've bought the AllParts/Gotoh pickup, but its coming from the US. I'm not entirely sure the ring will cover the screw holes of the current ring. There is about 8mm difference in width.

Is this the boy?

https://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Mini-Humbucker-PickupChromeAlnico-V1Conduct-with-shield_p_1064.html

The flat bridge pickup ring winds me up more than it should! I would prefer to see a tall pickup ring with rounded sides. Eyguitars seem to provide something that looks correct!


Does anybody have recommendations for black nylon tapewound strings for EB-family basses?

Thanks everybody for the kind words. It is a budget instrument at the end of the day, but I will get it playing and sounding nicely.

[Dave W]

I use D'addario tapewounds on my EB-0. I used to use LaBellas on my old EB-0L but nobody had short scale LaBellas in stock when I needed them for the EB-0. The D'addarios fit the bill just fine.

I've tried Rotosound and Fender tapewounds in the past and didn't care for either.

[amptech]

Is this the boy?

https://www.eyguitarmusic.com/Mini-Humbucker-PickupChromeAlnico-V1Conduct-with-shield_p_1064.html

The flat bridge pickup ring winds me up more than it should! I would prefer to see a tall pickup ring with rounded sides. Eyguitars seem to provide something that looks correct!

I think so, the ones I got was Alnico5 and around 7k.
I think they cost around 9 Dollars including ship on ebay, would guess two years ago.

[Alanko]

I use D'addario tapewounds on my EB-0. I used to use LaBellas on my old EB-0L but nobody had short scale LaBellas in stock when I needed them for the EB-0. The D'addarios fit the bill just fine.

I've tried Rotosound and Fender tapewounds in the past and didn't care for either.

Thanks for this Dave. Fenders are quite textured, from experience. I've used them and the D'addarios on my Starfire (in my avatar) and I think I marginally preferred the D'addarios. They also make a 32'' set, which worked with the longer bridge on the Starfire. They were very smooth.

The Rotosounds appear to be very smooth as well, but I've never found a Roto string I like for bass (I use their guitar strings) and I've found their QC to be a bit sketchy. I guess they would be the Brit Invasion string though, being an English brand?

I think so, the ones I got was Alnico5 and around 7k.
I think they cost around 9 Dollars including ship on ebay, would guess two years ago.

I found Artec pickups with the same spec. I paid £20 gbp, shipped. Inflation! The pickups on Eyguitars are cheap, but I would be paying the same again in shipping.

Weirdly I bought a red pickguard for my Jazz Bass, and a green pickguard the week after. Both came from the same Chinese vendor on Ebay, and they arrived a day apart. I think shipping from China is a bit messed up at the moment.

I will stick a project thread in Bill's Section when I start putting this bass under the knife.

[Dave W]

Thanks for this Dave. Fenders are quite textured, from experience. I've used them and the D'addarios on my Starfire (in my avatar) and I think I marginally preferred the D'addarios. They also make a 32'' set, which worked with the longer bridge on the Starfire. They were very smooth.

The Rotosounds appear to be very smooth as well, but I've never found a Roto string I like for bass (I use their guitar strings) and I've found their QC to be a bit sketchy. I guess they would be the Brit Invasion string though, being an English brand?

The Rotos were very smooth and there was no QC problem with that set, but they were noticeably stiffer feeling than LaBellas and D'addarios and they just didn't sound good to me.