**** Vintage!

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

As you know I got a big thrill out of pushin' the BIN button on a 53 Gibson.
I was also thrilled to purchase a 70s Ampeg rig last year.

Unfortunately, they are both USELESS!!
They HUM like a giant fokking swarm of bees.

Together or apart, they HUM. A different bass into the Ampeg still HUMS.
A different amp with the 53...still HUMS.

Not tolerable HUMS at all. HORRIBLE LOUD FOKKING HUMS!!

Good news is:
The Epi V I bought for 5 bills & my trusty ol' Behringer $200 head thru a JBL cab with 2 15s sound GREAT together!! They've been my Go To bass & rig for months now.

[Dave W]

Your 53 Gibson hums because its pickup is single coil. That has nothing to do with being vintage.

Can't help you with the amp, but there's no reason it should hum.

[Max Soren]

It's my understanding that the EB-1 that Jack Bruce played at the reunion concerts was a 1970 model or something like that, but with a 1953 pickup.  Obviously, it was heavily modified and someone took care of the hum problem, too  I'd love to have one of the late 60's/early 70's models, although I doubt if they sound very different from my 1964 EB-O.  I suppose it may be just because of who he is, but Jack Bruce made both the EB-3 and the EB-1 look incredibly cool.  Every time I see a an early pic of Cream or one from the reunion concerts, I take notice. 

[Chris P.]

I totally understand your frustrations. I had a lot of trouble with my '64 Vox Ac50, so I bought a brand new Orange.... And problems again! While my 50 dollar Kustom back up keeps on going.

Same with basses. My '64 Burns is okay now, but started with some small issues. hard to get the right strings, a broken nut, et cetera. But it's fine now!

We buy vintage stuff because we want a certain sound, so please have some patience and go on! maybe you can take the bass to a luthier for some shielding? Same with the amp. I guess a good repairer can do a fine jb resolvingsome problems!

Good luck!

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

The 53 Gibson sounded GREAT when it was righty & my drummer Joe would play it & I'd jump on the drums for a song or 3. Since it's been lefty--Christmas Eve--it's been HUMMING. The luthier who flipped it won't take responsibility for it. Says he didn't touch the electronics. He made a new bridge for it. Could that be causing the damn HUM?
It just spent a month at a repair place & all that was done was copper shielding was added to the pickup cover. It did little or no good.
Also the pickup was sent out to a guy named Jim Kaufman--anyone know him? Thot he was gonna rewind the pickup, but he told me it was ok. (?) He also advised me to buy a Gibson pickup on ebay, which I did. There's more than a little frustration from winning it for $25 then the seller put it back on ebay since I didn't contact him within 24 hours...so I bid on it again & it ended up costin' me over a hun! I'm just glad I won it. Someone had put it in a Fender! Then the seller bought it & took it out & left it on a shelf for 25 years. My tech Tina says it came out of an EBO. Now I reckon it's going into my 53....

The Ampeg rig worked GREAT when I bought it. I wonder if my old guitard roomate F'ed it up. He's on drugs & alcohol Big Time & may have played thru it when I was outa town. I kicked his sorry ass outa my home & 2 bands 2 months ago. The guy I bought the rig from mentioned a real good cat that had worked on it & always made it sound terrific...gotta track him down.....

[Barklessdog]

Your telling us that you got the bass back and you have not posted any pics?

Shame on you!

Did it hum before it went under the knife?

Did he ground the bridge?

[Max Soren]

I would definitely track down the other guy who had worked on it before and see what he can do for it now.  I agree with Chris P that somewhere there is a good luthier out there who can do something about this. 

[SKATE RAT]

make sure your bridge is grounded.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Thanks Skate Rat & Barklessdog!! That's gotta be it, huh?
Back to Bruce Johnson....or on to Michael Dolan....

[Barklessdog]

PICS?

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Patience, man. Bear with me. Soon I'll be smilin' & playin' on her....THEN photos will be posted.

[Barklessdog]

So many smiley faces so little time....

[Dave W]

I don't know why that rolleyes smiley isn't working right. Time for me to install some new ones.

[TBird1958]

"I don't know why that rolleyes smiley isn't working right. Time for me to install some new ones. "



GAY PLEASE 

[Dave W]

Ermm, Mark, do you mean Happy?  Or perhaps this? 

(I've uploaded some new ones, click the "more" for the popup box where I put the larger gifs.


Ba-da-boom!