Interesting re-do on an Epi Woody

Barklessdog · September 21, 2009, 12:22:15 PM

Wow that looks great, cool design, looks like a nice bass.

drbassman · September 21, 2009, 06:02:26 PM

Wow, very nice, my kind of bass!!!!

Here's my simple mod, just a pickup improvement.......

Daniel_J · September 21, 2009, 07:31:06 PM

That's a beauty, Doc! The Gretsch/TV-J pickups look like they just deserved to be there... Do they make it sound a bit more trebbly than the stock minis?

hollowbody · September 21, 2009, 08:19:04 PM

Quote from: Daniel_J on September 21, 2009, 11:37:06 AM

BTW, I recently finished a personal project that I started about two years ago (kind of a prototype, building between customer's projects whenever I had the time) which is a long scale bass using the same body shape and size of the Kat series. I'm calling it the PhattKat $:-\$
I still haven't got the time to do my usuall photoshoot and sound tests, but when I do I'll be posting it in the projects section.
Here's a peek...

That is one classy looking bass! I can't wait to read more about it.

Daniel_J · September 21, 2009, 11:01:10 PM

Quote from: hollowbody on September 21, 2009, 08:19:04 PM
That is one classy looking bass! I can't wait to read more about it.

Hopefully I'll be posting about it on the projects section next week. I intend to take 'real' pictures until the end of the week.

I picked it up today for about half an hour before dinner just to try some tones out, and played "Lady Madonna" with different pickups settings. I had a lot of fun and it sounded better with both pickups full on (they are singles, RW/RP between each other) playing with a pick and some light palm mutting.

note: I just listen to the original recording on the Past Master Vol.2 album and I think Paul played the Ric with the mute on this one.

drbassman · September 22, 2009, 05:04:27 PM

Quote from: Daniel_J on September 21, 2009, 07:31:06 PM
That's a beauty, Doc! The Gretsch/TV-J pickups look like they just deserved to be there... Do they make it sound a bit more trebbly than the stock minis?

Thanks Daniel. I think they have a lot more clarity than the cheaper minis. You lose some of the low freqs with the TV Jones pups if you use 500k pots for the tone controls. Shortly after I did that mod and sold the bass to Uwe, I discovered that humbuckers sound much better if you wire the tone controls using 250k pots with .047 orange drop caps. Now I do this on all of my new wiring jobs and the basses sound much better to my ear as this config bleeds off some of the highs, which I'm typically not looking for anyway.

Come on over to the projects sub-forum anytime, you're welcome to join in! I'd love to learn more about your bass pictured above.

uwe · September 23, 2009, 05:47:56 AM

Well, it's not like it is now a treble monster!

Still not for your Level 42 tribute band. The little bass has prominent subwoofish low and low mid frequencies, standard mids, subdued treble and a slight presence lisp which I find very appealing and which the original Epi minis (never heard them) probably have a hard time transporting.

Dave W · September 23, 2009, 08:49:07 AM

Quote from: drbassman on September 22, 2009, 05:04:27 PM
Thanks Daniel. I think they have a lot more clarity than the cheaper minis. You lose some of the low freqs with the TV Jones pups if you use 500k pots for the tone controls. Shortly after I did that mod and sold the bass to Uwe, I discovered that humbuckers sound much better if you wire the tone controls using 250k pots with .047 orange drop caps. Now I do this on all of my new wiring jobs and the basses sound much better to my ear as this config bleeds off some of the highs, which I'm typically not looking for anyway.

I don't quite understand this. A passive tone control circuit is a treble bleed circuit. 500K pots do bleed less treble than 250K, but how would that cause you to lose low frequencies?

uwe · September 23, 2009, 09:20:02 AM

I would assume that bleeding treble will make the bass frequencies appear louder to the human ear? Isn't that an old music production trick, decreasing treble to enhance bass rather than raising the bass fader?

Dave W · September 23, 2009, 09:22:24 AM

Well, yes, but turning down the 500K pot bleeds treble too.

Unless I'm missing something, the actual lows shouldn't be affected.

Freuds_Cat · September 24, 2009, 07:53:18 AM

I have to go into bat for the Pups on mine. Firstly according to Woody tech Brian Farmer (via Walter Carter, I emailed them both) He and Woody redesigned some Firebird pups and these are fairly different to what we know as Mini Humbuckers.

I love the sound of these pups! this is the only bass I've ever owned at any price level that I have not made a single mod on. I play it on about 6 songs at every gig and love it to bits. The original pups not only have massive bottom end but excellent definition. Not wooly at all.
Beautiful little bass. Excellent neck feel too.

uwe · September 24, 2009, 08:24:41 AM

I wasn't dissing the original pups, I have no idea how they sound cause Bill (Dr Bassman) wouldn't give them to me! Rather, he is probably hoarding them to this day!

The TV Jones things look nice though.

drbassman · September 25, 2009, 09:00:41 PM

I may have misspoken (too ,much Riesling, love that region of the Fatherland), I didn't mean to say the 500k pots affect the lows, they just don't affect the highs like the 250k ones do and I've been happy with this mod on all of my builds using humbuckers, including several T-Birds. No magttef how to parse it, reducing highs enhances the lows to my ears. back to my wine..............

uwe · September 26, 2009, 04:25:56 AM

Don't dodge the question, Bill, where are you keeping - tapping foot ... - the original Epi pups?

drbassman · September 27, 2009, 06:09:54 AM

Quote from: uwe on September 26, 2009, 04:25:56 AM
Don't dodge the question, Bill, where are you keeping - tapping foot ... - the original Epi pups?

Ooops, overlooked that one! That damn wine...........I'm sad to say I eBayed them. That was before now and I have the common sense to hold onto things for a while! I'm much better now about keeping stuff I take out of basses for possible future use unless I'm pretty sure I won't need it later. Wish I could offer them up here!