Epiphone Jack Casady

neepheid · March 27, 2013, 04:43:35 AM

Well, after the "Gibson Grabber 3 70s Tribute Bass" fiasco, I consoled myself with an Epiphone Jack Casady. In gold, of course, gold is the colour of winners (medals) after all. Well, unless you are literally coloured gold, then you lose:

But I digress. I always liked the look of these, and let's face it - the chances of me owning a Les Paul Sig are virtually zero - I've never spent more than a grand on a bass (my wife bought me my RD

). However, I tried one in a shop a couple of years ago and thought "meh" to myself - it didn't particularly stand out or do anything special. So I put it down and tried to forget about it.

But I started finding YouTube vids of it sounding tremendous:

So it got me thinking again. So I ended up with some money after the refund. So I bought one. You've seen them all before, so I'll only bore you with one pic (to prove that I have it, naturellement)

Had a very successful band rehearsal on the day it arrived (only had time for a quick tune up and off I went) and it performed very well - I did experience a little feedback if I stepped too close to the amp, but rehearsal rooms are cramped both physically and acoustically so I'm sure it won't be so much of a problem in a bigger environment. Since then I've put my preferred strings on it (Hartke nickel roundwound 45-105) and tweaked the setup. Also did a wee recording of a song idea (varitone on 250, tone at 10) -

I am really fond of this bass, it definitely has a sound all of its own - it has no problem being heard in a band mix, but at the same time is quite old-school and warm. And growly. I've located a gig bag it'll fit in. I am going to pimp it up a little - got a set of Hipshot Ultralite tuners on their way - there is but the slightest hint of neck dive - more like a slight tugging on my sleeve than any actual movement, but also one of the press fit bushings is lifting out of the headstock under string tension. I do not like press fit bushings. They're fine if they're properly installed, but if the hole is even a hair's width oversized then this stuff is bound to happen. And the three pointer's got to go. I'm not saying this to stir the pot, just a declaration of my intentions.

But consider me a happy camper. Got another band practice tonight, and I've just acquired a Zoom H2n so I hope for some tasty recordings

Chris P. · March 27, 2013, 05:13:56 AM

Cool, congrats! I sold mine once because I needed money for another bass. Want one back, once.

clankenstein · March 27, 2013, 05:17:36 AM

nice.what bridge is going on there?

Basvarken · March 27, 2013, 05:23:06 AM

Congrats. Welcome to the club.
Keep the bridge. It does what it should do. Nothing more nothing less.

neepheid · March 27, 2013, 05:42:17 AM

Quote from: Basvarken on March 27, 2013, 05:23:06 AM
Congrats. Welcome to the club.
Keep the bridge. It does what it should do. Nothing more nothing less.

Thanks, glad to have joined.

RE: the bridge - it's not up for discussion. I'm a paid up member of the three point disliker's club. It's just preference though, I'm not going to expand upon the reasons why in a probably futile attempt to convert anyone. You like three point bridges and that's cool with me.

neepheid · March 27, 2013, 05:42:50 AM

Quote from: chordzilla on March 27, 2013, 05:17:36 AM
nice.what bridge is going on there?

Hipshot Supertone

4stringer77 · March 27, 2013, 07:40:40 AM

My EB-3 now sports a hipshot. Nice piece of machinery. Went with a webtecca mod bar for my EB1. Very happy with the results.

Shout out to Kevin Chubbuck of Chubbuck guitars for the help. He had to adjust the mod bar to make it fit the EB1 right. A couple nice pics of my shorties if you scroll down on the link.
http://chubbuckguitars.tumblr.com/

Dave W · March 27, 2013, 08:50:12 AM

Congrats on the bass, I hope it works much better for you than the Grabber.

Denis · March 27, 2013, 09:14:57 AM

Brand new bass and the pressed bushing is already coming out, the stock three point bridge has to go and yet a simple strap button problem on the G-3 caused it to be returned. LAME!

jumbodbassman · March 27, 2013, 09:24:24 AM

Quote from: 4stringer77 on March 27, 2013, 07:40:40 AM
My EB-3 now sports a hipshot. Nice piece of machinery. Went with a webtecca mod bar for my EB1. Very happy with the results. Shout out to Kevin Chubbuck of Chubbuck guitars for the help. He had to adjust the mod bar to make it fit the EB1 right. A couple nice pics of my shorties if you scroll down on the link.
http://chubbuckguitars.tumblr.com/

I went with the mod bar on my JC and flats. sounds great but i find the neck dive quite annoying and the whole bass rather large for my 5'9" body. But i admit i hold the bass up high not rockstar looking at all.

neepheid · March 27, 2013, 09:42:58 AM

Quote from: Denis on March 27, 2013, 09:14:57 AM
Brand new bass and the pressed bushing is already coming out, the stock three point bridge has to go and yet a simple strap button problem on the G-3 caused it to be returned. LAME!

I can see how you could think that.

However, there was more wrong with the first Grabber 3 than just the strap button. There was bad touch buzz on pickups 1 and 3 (which I would have been willing to ignore because my hand fell naturally onto pickup 2 which didn't buzz) - turned out later on to be an earth wire come off according to the shop. Also while I accept that it was never going to be "shiny" being a satin finish, it was poorly applied, quite orange peely. I just felt really let down by the whole thing, especially in comparison to my older Gibsons.

Everything about the JC apart from the lifting bushing is perfect - electronics and finishing. Also, it's half the price of the Gibson and as such I'm a little more tolerant of issues and a little more inclined to fix things myself.

I expect more from Gibson USA than the Peerless factory in South Korea because I pay more. I'm supposed to be paying more for better QC, more TLC and instruments spending more time in human hands. This has not been borne out by my experience and it does make me grumpy.

For what it's worth, I would have replaced the three point bridge on the Grabber 3 as well had I received one in line with my expectations. That's a moot point

4stringer77 · March 27, 2013, 10:15:35 AM

Hate to mention it, but if the Epi has a carved top, wouldn't that make it harder to install a hip shot bridge?
On the bright side, you've got plenty of good haggis and neeps and tatties around in Aberdeen. That stuff is great, along with all the great cheese, cask beer and single malt scotch. Scotland rules!

neepheid · March 27, 2013, 10:20:10 AM

Quote from: 4stringer77 on March 27, 2013, 10:15:35 AM
Hate to mention it, but if the Epi has a carved top, wouldn't that make it harder to install a hip shot bridge?
On the bright side, you've got plenty of good haggis and neeps and tatties around in Aberdeen. That stuff is great, along with all the great cheese, cask beer and single malt scotch. Scotland rules!

This TB thread shows how it's done: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f18/hipshot-bridge-epiphone-jack-casady-bass-683402/

Yes, I feel fortunate indeed to live in Scotland. Apart from all the local produce, in my experience being Scottish seems to be a great conversation starter when visiting foreign lands. We seem to be held in reasonably high regard. One of these days I'll invade a country dressed in the kilt. Will I even make it out of the terminal building without someone checking to see if I'm "doing it right"...? Who knows?

Denis · March 27, 2013, 10:32:34 AM

Quote from: neepheid on March 27, 2013, 09:42:58 AM
I can see how you could think that.

However, there was more wrong with the first Grabber 3 than just the strap button. There was bad touch buzz on pickups 1 and 3 (which I would have been willing to ignore because my hand fell naturally onto pickup 2 which didn't buzz) - turned out later on to be an earth wire come off according to the shop. Also while I accept that it was never going to be "shiny" being a satin finish, it was poorly applied, quite orange peely. I just felt really let down by the whole thing, especially in comparison to my older Gibsons.

Everything about the JC apart from the lifting bushing is perfect - electronics and finishing. Also, it's half the price of the Gibson and as such I'm a little more tolerant of issues and a little more inclined to fix things myself.

I expect more from Gibson USA than the Peerless factory in South Korea because I pay more. I'm supposed to be paying more for better QC, more TLC and instruments spending more time in human hands. This has not been borne out by my experience and it does make me grumpy.

For what it's worth, I would have replaced the three point bridge on the Grabber 3 as well had I received one in line with my expectations. That's a moot point

I'm just needling you a little bit. Honestly, I'm almost as disappointed as you that the G-3s you received had problems. I hate that so far only Mark and I can talk them up so highly.

Congrats on the new Jack Casady, by the way.

neepheid · March 27, 2013, 10:55:06 AM

Quote from: Denis on March 27, 2013, 10:32:34 AM
I'm just needling you a little bit. Honestly, I'm almost as disappointed as you that the G-3s you received had problems. I hate that so far only Mark and I can talk them up so highly.

Congrats on the new Jack Casady, by the way.

Ach, I know. I saw the smiley, I just thought I'd take the bait

I'm never going to stop loving my Gibsons (and by extension, certain Epiphones

), but it'll take a while for this huff to wear off. I'm glad you got a good one. I'm only talking about 2 basses in a production run of how many? Maybe I got the only two duffers...

Cheers, the JC is a really nice bass. I'm enjoying it thus far, and got a band practice tonight to look forward to, yay!