Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

EB3 tone/level issues


GlynnM
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hello, new to the forum, hoping someone can advise me, I've had a little search but not much came up. 

I've owned an sg bass for a number of years, still a very average player but enjoy it! There are some peculiarities with the tone and volume knobs though. Firstly neither tone knob seems to alter the sound much at all.

Secondly, when just 1 pickup is selected (either) the volume knobs seem to work fine, however in the middle position (both pick ups,) above about 9 on either volume knob there is a noticed jump in level of the relative pickup and then adjusting the other pick up volume seems to make no difference to the sound, its as though you've switched to just select 1 pickup. So balancing tones between the meaty neck and mid-y bridge is a bit tricky. 

Is this normal? Can anything be done? 

Sorry its wordy, hope it makes sense, 

Many thanks 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the forum! 

I have a 1974 Gibson EB3, the tone knobs are essentially worthless and the volume pots effectively act as on/off switches. I haven’t tried too many other EB3s to comment on whether the circuits on the older or newer models have the same issue, but it sounds like they do.

In my opinion you can’t really blend the volumes of the pick ups on an EB3 like you can with a Fender Jazz bass. The front pick up tends to dominate the mix when both pick ups are on. On each pick up selection point you basically get ‘that’ initial sound with little opportunity for fine tuning outside of additional EQ. You can try raising the height of the pick ups so that the ‘both pick ups on’ setting are more balanced, but this might negatively impact the sound and balance of the other pick up settings.

I’m still trying to fine tune my EB3 to find the optimum set up for the pickups, bridge, action and intonation. I have owned the bass since 2001 and the best thing that I have done is replace the original bridge with a Babicz bridge which is a massive improvement on the old Gibson 3 point bridge which continually drove me mad over a fifteen year period. I have devalued the bass but the playability and sound has improved massively. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the replies! Yes it's an epiphone EB 3, I've had it a few years now, been fairly happy with the sound I get from it, nice and meaty, plenty of bottom end, but recently have been trying to refine it slightly hence trying to blend a bit more definition from the bridge pick up. The situation I mostly play in is at a church, 'silent stage' quality front of house and iem's so I've never had the need for an amp, hence the recently purchased Dr J sparrow di/driver, to add a bit more tonal options!! 

I was just really wondering if this was an issue with my particular bass,<that could be sorted) or just one of those 'characteristics' of the instrument generally! 

Oh and thanks Jus, I'll give that idea of starting from 1/2 way a go. 

Edited by GlynnM
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...