EB-0 info?

[Evilbiker]

Hi everybody, this is my first post! Is there any body that have some information about the EB-0 pickup pre-72, wire size, turns, bobbin size.....? I have a customer who wants to have a Epiphone pickup rewired to that spec, hope to get some answer

Best regards / Urban - Sweden

[David Schwab]

I've got an old one. I'll post some info later or tomorrow along with photos...

From what I've heard the Artec copy of the pickup is a lot more accurate than the reissues.

http://www.artecsound.com/pickups/f-...s/pickup30.htm

[David King]

I did this search "EB0" on the board and came up with three old discussions and this link that DS had posted a while back:
http://www.gruhn.com/articles/eb0.html

[Evilbiker]

I've got an old one. I'll post some info later or tomorrow along with photos...

Hi David! Did you take some photos and messur it?

Do any one know the right wire awg size?

[chevalij]

Going by the article, the pickup had 25k turns, or 12.5k a bobbin. They also said it made the pickup larger than usual. From this I would have to assume 42awg. Gibson pickup, so I would assume PE. Thoughts?

[David Schwab]

Yes, 42 AWG, 25K total. It's a whole bunch of wire.

Here's the pickup I have. It was from a '72 EB-2. I had unwound about half the wire from it, and now it's about 12K total. I also wired it up with 4 conductor wiring. I also had a NOS pickup which I then put in the EB-2 before I traded it for a '74 P bass.

As you can see, it has a thin blade running up the middle of the two coils. On the end of each coil is a ceramic magnet. I've seen some of these with two magnets set up like a P-90. At one point I had added two extra magnets.

[Evilbiker]

Thanks alot guys, very good! I´m happy now

[Possum]

.

Dave: are those ceramic magnets on yours? I have one and it has alnico bar magnets. Mine has plain enamel wire too. Mine has blue coil tape on it....

[David Schwab]

They are ceramic magnets.... but now that I think about it, you might be correct, maybe it had Alnicos and I changed them to get a brighter tone. It's been a long time so I'm fuzzy on the details. I had this in my Ric bass and it didn't balance well with the Hi-A I had at the bridge (or with the mini hum in the EB-2 for that matter). Not sure where I would have gotten the magnets though back then. Also the newer pickup I had was different sounding... maybe these magnets are from that pickup.

It still sounds like a sidewinder, just clearer with a bit more top end. Still has that nice grunt though. I'm restoring my Ric, and I never play four string basses anymore, so it's just been sitting in a box. Would be nice to use it for something... Maybe I'll build myself an EB-3 and use it in that.

[soundmasterg]

I've always liked the sound of those pickups on recordings, but can't stand them when I play them....too muddy. Maybe unwinding one like what you did is the ticket.

Greg

[David Schwab]

I've always liked the sound of those pickups on recordings, but can't stand them when I play them....too muddy. Maybe unwinding one like what you did is the ticket.

That was exactly it. My EB-2 was totally unusable live. Too muddy and it was a feedback machine!

But I love the tone of those pickups, especially on the Black Sea album by XTC. So unwinding it and adding magnets (I found my notes and apparently I had added two extra magnets) really made it more useable while retaining the enough of the classic tone.

I might just put it back in the Ric...

[soundmasterg]

That should sound good in the RIC, though will it balance with the bridge pickup?

One of these days I plan on making myself a quasi RIC 4005, aka semi-hollow bass, but with a modern RIC horseshoe in the bridge and a vintage Harmony H22 pickup in the neck. I've got both pickups already, its just a matter of building the bass....haha. Those Harmony pickups have soooo much bottom end, and should be a good volume match with the horseshoe.

Greg

[David Schwab]

That should sound good in the RIC, though will it balance with the bridge pickup?

The bridge pickup was an old Bartolini Hi-A mini humbucker.

[soundmasterg]

Oh yah, sorry, I missed that little tidbit.

greg