Epiphone EB-0

Foster

What's the general consencious on these?

Quite like the look of them and wouldn't be opposed to a shortscale bass (not that i need another bass)

paulnb57

They are ok, but a bit of a one trick pony, not really very versatile tone wise, I thoroughly enjoyed mine.
Can be a bit neck heavy. I found it comfortable to play sitting or standing, nice neck profile.
I replaced my standard pickup with a Dimarzio Model 1 pickup (which I still have somewhere) that improved things a bit.
Be aware that some Epi EB0’s have a plywood body

If you want a fairly cheap short scale its worth a punt

https://youtu.be/RXZ6amEJU0w

p90fool

I waited months for one when everyone was out of stock a few years ago and gave up in the end. I've since actually tried one and hated it apart from that very niche thud it does well. 

If you just want short scale I ended up with one of these and it's fantastic.

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/ibanez-tmb30-talman-short-scale-bass-guitar-mint-green

Foster

ah neck dive on a bass is something i don't get on with that well, pretty much why i sold my epi thunderbird years ago

fretmeister

I had one. I enjoyed the Jack Bruce tone but the neck drive drove me nuts. So it went.

For a cheap shorty - try and find a used Jim Deacon Precision. 30 scale, quite narrow string spacing and better balance.
I put some lighter tuners on mine as it was a tiny bit neck divey, but massively better than the Epi.

You can always get your chisel out to put a neck mudbucker in if you want.

If you are patient you'll get one for about £100

YellowLedBetterMan

My first electric instrument. It was ok for learning on but as soon as I tried anything else there was no going back. I ended up selling mine and haven't missed it a single bit.

Creed_Clicks

I like the sound. The semi hollow Rivioli is used to great effect in Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Most people seem to replace the stock Epi pickup. You could get lightweight tuners and problem solved. Sounds great with fuzz.

Funkfingers

The combined MSRP of the Epiphone bass guitar, replica Ultralite machineheads and a pickup upgrade would exceed the asking prices of several of the short scale instruments listed in Basses £.

Creed_Clicks

Very true but none of them would have a mudbucker sound  

Funkfingers

The G&L MFD pickup, in series mode and with the treble rolled off a bit, would not be far off.

I understand the appeal of the Mudbucker. I have a DiMarzio Will Power in a Yamaha Attitude Special and the original Yamaha 33k stealth mudbucker in an Attitude Custom. For me, the main appeal is adding the deep, farty thud to a hot P Bass sound. That requires dual output sockets for discrete signal processing.

Creed_Clicks

Those G&L short scales look lovely and tidy too

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

I understand the appeal of the Mudbucker. I have a DiMarzio Will Power in a Yamaha Attitude Special and the original Yamaha 33k stealth mudbucker in an Attitude Custom. For me, the main appeal is adding the deep, farty thud to a hot P Bass sound. That requires dual output sockets for discrete signal processing.

You are Billy Sheehan and I claim my £5 .

Funkfingers

Nah. Attitude Special and Custom are poverty models. Billy wouldn't touch those with a barge pole.

Creed_Clicks

Anyone tried a pickup with series/parallel switching?

Funkfingers

Creed_Clicks said:

Anyone tried a pickup with series/parallel switching?

Tried it on P, J, 'Ray and DiMarzio Will Power pickups.

On the MM type pickup, in the MM sweet spot, parallel sounds as you would expect. Series is dark and farty, driving the amplifier into distortion whether you want that or not.

Series/parallel on a split coils P pickup can be useful if the pickup is hot enough. P in parallel may balance better with a single coil J pickup in the bridge position.

Series/parallel is only relevant to J pickups with dual coils. With stacked coils, it makes surprisingly little difference. With side-by-side coils, it thins things out a bit.

On DiMarzio Model 1 and Will Power Neck pickups, the usefulness of parallel mode depends on how low the pickup is adjusted in the instrument. Series has the gutsy tone you expect but, possibly, not as loud as you might wish. The Billy Sheehan bi-channel amplification idea helps to balance up what each pickup contributes to the overall sound. Alternatively, try a distortion pedal with high- and low-pass filter controls.

Clear lows and overdriven mids and top end are very effective. 

Fuzzy lows under clear mids and top end is interesting as a variation. 

Dave_Mc

Funkfingers said:

Creed_Clicks said:

Anyone tried a pickup with series/parallel switching?

On the MM type pickup, in the MM sweet spot, parallel sounds as you would expect. Series is dark and farty, driving the amplifier into distortion whether you want that or not.

Series/parallel on a split coils P pickup can be useful if the pickup is hot enough. P in parallel may balance better with a single coil J pickup in the bridge position.

Series/parallel is only relevant to J pickups with dual coils. With stacked coils, it makes surprisingly little difference. With side-by-side coils, it thins things out a bit.

I guess you could wire a series-parallel option between two genuine Jazz single coils (kind of like a 4-way switch on a Tele). I haven't tried it, though- I don't really like series-wired single coils in guitars which kind of puts me off, but then again it doesn't always translate directly from guitars to basses! For example, I cautiously agree with @ICBM 's theory that parallel sounds better for basses, but coil splits sound better for guitars (I say "cautiously" because I haven't tried enough examples to be absolutely sure!).

I've tried series/parallel/split on my Sire M5... the big problem is the big output jump from series to the other two, as you said in your description of what it does to the MM pickup. Series sounds fine in the Sire, but then the other two are a bit low in output as a result... (To be honest even series is a bit low compared to my other basses... I think Sire has a bit of a rep for underwinding the pickups in its active basses, maybe?)

I haven't tried it on a PJ but that does sound interesting to help balance the outputs. I just lower the P volume very slightly if it bothers me!