Epiphone EBM-5 Custom

Obviously several years old but "new" from the shop. Lovely transparent cherry red finish, one-piece ash body, fretless rosewood fingerboard on maple neck. 34in scale, gold bridge and tuners, black pick ups, one J one P. Looks gorgeous. Active electronics, volume, pick-up balance, bass, trebble. Later model with 3-up-2-down tuner arrangement.

Used for home recording only, DI'd into mixer or Zoom recorder. Very wide range of tones, can growl, twang or sing, excellent sustain for fretless. Bit of buzz from bridge pick up. Good neck, string spacing just right for me. Comfortable and well balanced on knee or strap.

Seems well adjusted (unlike the owner) and very well made. Looks, sounds and feels expensive, high class.

Seems robust and solid but I do not gig with it so no comment.

No experience.

I play mainly 6 string and keyboard. Had a Westone Thunder 1A active fretless years ago which I loved but was stolen in Paris. I like the expressiveness and flexibility of fretless, and I appreciate the low B on the 5 string. So far I love the EBM-5 and would be heartbroken if I lost it.

5 string fretless, made in early 90's, I think, by Samick in Korea. This is an early model with all 5 tuners on the same side. Active electronics. Neck is maple and I don't know what wood the body is. The color is a kind of candy-apple red, and the finish is very nice. I think the tuners are Gotoh, gold plated. (I have replated all of the gold hardware on the instrument. It looks great.

I am a jazz player. I play my Epi bass through my Lab Series L-5 amp (Gibson), and I get a sound that is very similar to a full size acoustic bass. I have a style of finger-picking that brings out the deepest tones, especially on the lower notes. The combination of gear is ideal for any playing situation for me. I like this bass very much.

I bought the bass used about 10 years ago and I have set it up to suit myself. Had to adjust everything. The only flaw was the gold coming off of the hardware, which I corrected by re-plating. Everything else is still in new condition.

Very reliable and very tough. I only had to replace the input jack, which I got at a local Guitar Center. No other playing problems. The bass stays in tune very well.

Not needed.

Been playing jazz for over 50 years. I am primarily a woodwind player, but I worked with some great guitar and bass players, and I liked these instuments so well I decided to learn to play them about 11 or 12 years ago. I still play gigs, once in a while and a lot of them are on the bass. I like this instrument and I don't intend to lose it.

This was an excellent buy. I traded in an old Guild EB-O style vintage bass for it, and it was a great trade. The asking price was only $200. The guy didn't know what he had, I think. I'm not much of a bass player, but I can say that if you are looking for a really solid 5-string, you probably won't find a better value. I've never been a fan of Ibanez products, unlike most players, so this was an awesome deal. All the features are really excellent, although the internal hardware wasn't assembled quite to my liking. Overall, probably the best 5-string value I've ever seen.

Overall, the tones are incredible. I have a Warwick and a 1960 Fender P-bass at my disposal in the studio, and I use the Epiphone the majority of the time, with Ashly and SansAmp preamps, run through a bass pod. More gear than I know how to use efficiently. Either way, it sounds good.

Not sure about how well the factory did, as I got this bass used. Pickups will probably need some minor adjusting to taste. All of the finish is really nice. I'm not usually a fan of gold hardware, but it looks good on this bass. The battery supply connector came loose from the circuit board during an important gig, which frustrated me to no end. I just secured the battery connector better, and haven't had a problem since. Great tuners, good action, great look. I also had the transparent red colored bass, and I love it.

Just be careful. I'm not totally 100% positive about the battery connector, since it came loose once. I fixed it myself, and like I said, no problems since. Then again, I play really hard, with lots of jumping and beating up my instrument. If it can withstand me, it can withstand just about anyone. I obviously replaced the strap buttons with locks, because you just have to. Never play without strap locks. I gig with it regularly, and am going to take it on my first summer tour. We'll see how it stands up to 45 + shows.

No need for it.

I'm not much of a bass player, like I said. For someone who knows what I know, it's a great bass. I had an old vintage guild, and this blows it away. If it was lost or stolen, I would seek out this same exact model, honestly. to me, personally, it is as good as the 5-string Warwick I've played, although the pickups aren't quite as good. I may upgrade them someday. If you can find one of these, especially in the 5-string model, BUY IT.

5 strings, alder body, gold hardware, active electronics, 2 pickups, (one precision, one jazz)transparent red finish. Sweet 24 fret neck.

I like passive electronics on my basses, but these active ones are nice on this on! I'm a guitarist, and this is my brother's, and I've been using it to fill in for the bassist in a local punk band that opened for my punk band. BUt I have a lot of bass experience, and I know good bass tone. This tone is very phat, and I keep all four knobs maxed (I do that on Every guitar I own). The neck is super big and very thin and wide. I like it's feel. It has a very controlled sound, with lots of low end. It is NOT a P-Bass, that's for sure, but it is also a 5 string... It can handle all modern heavy metal nicely, all that funky stuff, and punk/ska. I like it for ska very much. I've ran it along most of my guitar effects. I play it into a Fender Bassman head I use my guitar on... It sounds very sweet. I like it with fuzz, wah, chorus, delay, etc. It is a big boy bass, that's for sure!

Beautiful guitar, red transparent finish with gold hardware. Goos strap-buttons, but I always replace strap-buttons with Schaller strap locks. It is very nicely adjusted. I got 100 bucks off -warranty for this because the battery for the active electronics was wired wrong (the soldering came loose) but i had it repaired for 10 bucks, and it has never failed me.

Great. I love it. It has been hit on the wall, and dropped on an 18" Zildjian rock crash, and survived.

It is very very sweet, and cheap, for a 5 string.I use it a lot, now. And my brother loves it. I think it's better in value then a P-Bass, and only marginally weaker in sound. I string it with a REALLY light set (40-120) cause I don't want huge calluses on my hands (I play really light guitar strings too) I really recommend it!