Herr Scott Dasson, for all his (s)awful sins aptly documented in this forum, is a good person at heart, albeit misguided at times. He was kind enough to obtain a little Epi for me and here it now is among its Gibson brethren:
I'm quite enchanted by it. Of course, soundwise it has nothing whatsoever to do with either the fifties model or the late 60ies reissue (fat slabs of maho while the Epi is your usual light wonderwood with an as skill- as deceitfully applied thin maho veneer), but it has a - very good - fretless voice of its own. Surprisingly double-bassish, scoopily hollow with a blur warm enough to keep out the cold in winter nights. I had planned to replace the rather low output Epi pup with either a true mudbucker or an SG-RI mockbucker, but I like it's current acoustic note so much that I will keep it original.
And while the pic doesn't really show it due to the lower stand of the Epi: It is medium scale so I don't look
quite as silly playing it slung as with the Gibbies.
Valuable acquisition for/addition to the herd, vielen Dank, Herr Dasson!
Uwe
PS: No snide remarks about the Schaller monstrosity on the fifties EB-1, please, I know, I know ...
But it has made intonation perfect (which wasn't bad with the original bar bridge it has to be said) and if Jack Bruce is allowed to do it ...
I still have my liver though, thank you.