Epiphone EA-260 Semi-Hollow

Epiphone EA 260. made Matsumotu factory, Japan circa 1971 - 1974.,No reliable info on serial numbers available. 2 passive humbucking pick-ups with separate tone and volume control and 3 possition toggle switch.Semi-hollow body, 2 F holes with white binding. Black and white bindig round top and back. Bolt on 3 piece neck, 20 fret short scale. Shape and style based on Gibson 335 model.Enclosed tuners with black knobs, floating wood/metal bridge with built in spring loaded mute.Floating metal/wood tailpiece.

I have been playing this bass for over 25yrs both in the studio and on stage,I have recently retired from the music profession now I am approaching 70!.Having been a session musician for almost 40 yrs I have played most styles of music, appart from "punk" which lacks musicality.I have 9 bass guitars covering Fender, Gibson, Aria, Hofner,Gretch and Warwick.
Without doubt my Epi is my favourite. The variety of sound and tonal range inherent in individually controled twin pick-ups is a great advantage for studio and stage work.I may have been lucky with my guitar but the neck is THE finest I have come across and the action is much lower than on any other guitar I have played.I have picked up a lot of recording session work purely by the fact that the producers and artists wanted the particular sounds this guitar can produce.

In the 25 yrs I have used this guitar I can honestly state that I have experienced no problems.There are no noisy pots or switches, no fret rattles. The red translucent finish is still excelent although it is fading (maturing?)to a slight orange tint. As stated before the action is low, very low for a bass, therefore it only needs a very light touch when playing which is a boon when some sessions can last 10 - 14 hrs.

My use of this bass as my primary instrument as a professional musician over the past 25 yrs must surely speak for itself. True, this instrument has been well cared for and well used, but not abused.

Not realy applicable for an instrument of this vintage seeing as the manufacturers closed in the 80's.

Loves. Low,light action. Thin profile,very playable neck. Very stiff 3 piece neck. Very light in weight for a bass and the short scale and low, light action is ideal for fast passages and is a lot less tiring to play over long periods.

Hates. Only one. It is a pain to string as this requires the dismantling of the mute mechanism on the bridge as well as dismantling the tailpiece. It then requires the reseting of the floating bridge to correct the intonation.

1970's, hollowbody, laminate top, 2 pickup with a volume and tone for each and 1 3way selector switch- best part is the built in string mute! very motown sounding!!!!

full, very bassy- with the mute, very upright bass sounding. love the sound!

good- needs to be shimmed with time- the action gets high, but once you do that it plays great! really nice neck on these.

this is a true hollow body- don't be too rough, could definately put a hole in it if you tried. otherwise, plays and looks great!

what?

if you find one, buy it! you will love it! not a main bass, but a great compliment to any collection.

Semi-hollow, arch-top, 335-style short-scale bass.
2 bass humbucker pickups
2 volume-2 tone controls, plus 3-way toggle

Not sure of the year of make (yet), or any of the other details. I'd guess sometime in the early 1970's in Japan, based on what I've read.

The neck is very thin and playable. The bass itself is extremely light-weight, even lighter than my Epi 335 Dot.

I like to play stuff with a vitage vibe, so this bass it absolutely perfect. I record at home, and run it into my computer using an amp sim and tube preamp, and it sounds wonderful. A warm, rich thump at the bottom. It actually has a good bit of variety to the sound, if you play with toggle and the tone/volume controls. They're all pretty vintage sounding, but you can go from dark and thumpy to bright and twangy, as long as you don't mind that vintage hollow-body vibe. (And if you mind it, why are you reading this?)

I bought it used, and it looks like a bass that has been around for 30+ years - the usual dings and nicks, but nothing bad. The chrome is pretty heavily worn, but I'm going to get to work on that. Over the course of her long life it appears that she had some slight modifications - most notably someone stuck scotch tape under the bridge saddles. To what end, I can't imagine. I took care of that, and polished her up a bit, and while she doesn't look like new, she looks a lot better.

The action is just great - the lowest action I've ever been able to put on a bass.

One tiny problem though, is that the bridge is not attached to the bass in any way. So you have to monkey around with it a LOT to intonate it properly, and if you happen to bump it hard enough, the bass will go wildly out of tune/intonation. (I understand that these bases are supposed to have a sticker on the body to tell you where the bridge is supposed to go, but mine seems to have been lost somewhere along the way.)

Another related complaint is that the tailpiece doesn't seem to be properly aligned with the neck, and with the floating bridge the result is that the strings tend to list to the low-E side of the neck too much. Hopefully on my first string change I'll be able to correct this.

It seems solid, but like all hollow-bodies it seems a little fragile, if that makes sense. It's held up for 30+ years, though, and I imagine that as long as I don't drop it or run over it with my car or anything, it'll last for another 30.

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I've been playing for - jeez - 25 years. This is by far the most fun bass I've ever owned. I mostly play guitar, so the short scale is perfect. And it just has such a sweet sound - not unlike a Hofner, but a bit different (and certainly easier to play while sitting down!). If someone stole it I'd be heartbroken, because they don't come around that often.

I'm confident that any problems I have are unique to mine, though I haven't seen any other reviews so I'm not sure. Despite these problems, I'm in love with this thing - it's my new favorite guitar to play - and I have to give it a: