Epiphone Elitist EB-3

came with factory elite case which is similar to original gibson case. made in Japan. Gotoh tuners, USA made faithful copies of original pickups; body is african mahogany (supposedly bookmatched, but not sure how 3 pieces are "bookmatched"); mahogany neck...

sounds exactly like a real 60's era eb-3

excellent workmanship-as good as originals; great finish; hardware not completely as original models, but okay. hardware made in Japan by Gotoh. setup was good and only needed minor adjusting.

seems to be robust enough. for gigging, i will replace the japanese input jack with a switchcraft , and I've already installed schaler strap locks.

i emailed customer support once and they emailed back the next day.

I'm not sure I'd shell out the money for one new (it's a lot of money), but a good used one is a terrific bass for those interested in the jack Bruce sound, or want a cool short scale bass.

This is the classic 1961 Gibson EB-3 bass (For those who don't know it is the SG shape) reissued by Epiphone and made in Japan.

It's a shortscale bass at 30.5" with 20 frets. The body is mahogany and the fretboard is rosewood and the frets are marked by pearl dots.

It has the Gibson 3 point bridge which is very secure and strong unlike the cheaper epiphones i've tried. The tuners are the "elephant ear" style grovers.

It has passive electronics and the 2 pickups are humbuckers. The first pup is in neck position right next to the fret board and it is truly massive. The second is in the bridge position and it is mounted on black plastic but it is smaller than the first.

I have mine strung with short scale flatwounds to get that warmer sound.

It also has a thumbrest on the pickguard which is not all that useful.

It doesn't fit into a guitar case because of the tuners so it has to go into a standard bass case with a bit of foam at the end which is alright but not ideal. I'm currently trying to find a case but am having difficulty, i'll maybe ask epiphone.

It has a 4 way varitone switch which position:
1= neck humbucker
2= bridge humbucker
3= both pup's but with reduced volume
4= same as 3 but with a choke reducing the high frequencies

It is great for what I play, essentially late 60's early 70's rock- think the Who, Rolling Stones, Peter Greens' FM, Hendrix exp... the list goes on but you guessed its primarily Cream.
I'm using it with an Ashdown Mag 300 +4x10 and 1x15 and its plently loud.
This bass has 2 distinct sounds owing to the very different pups.

With the varitone is position 1 for the neck is very heavy sounding with loads of bass but not much treble (its not called a mudbucker for nothing). Its loud and warm and if you play hard enough or move the screws closer to the strings it begins to distort.

The bridge pickup (position 2) is very different, with it cranked up you can get that nasaly, throaty, farty sound ala Jack Bruce. I found I had to move the pickup further from the strings because it was begining to distort a bit to easily.

The mix of the pickups (p 3) is simply a combination of the low end thump with the throaty highs and with a bit of tweaking you can get a sound thats really 180 degrees away from a fender. It is output at reduced volume which is rather annoying but can be compensated for by turning up the volume on the pickups so it stays level.

The last setting (4) is identical to (3) but you don't get any of the high frequencies, I guess it could be useful in some situations but I don't use it because the sound it produces is a bit dulled down.

You can get this bass to sound like Andy Fraser, Bill Wyman and of course Jack Bruce but bear in mind he did use 2 150 watt marshall bass valve amps so its not going to sound identical is it.

In comparison with the 70's Gibson Eb-3 i've played it sounds very similar but i've been told it is a little different to the 60's eb's because the pickups are more balanced and so its not quite as boom or nasaly but the difference of 750 for a mint 1961 elite epi and 3000 for a mint 1961 gibson= 2250 its up to you to decide it the small difference in sound and a better name on the headstock is worth it.

The bass's action was a bit high for my taste from the factory but the guys at Music Ground did a good job and put some flatwounds on. If you play like a normal person there will be not rattles or fret buzz but if you play as hard as me there will be a lot of rattles but they are not amplified so you can't hear them while playing. Putting heavier gauge strings would help sort the problem but i'm happy with it the way it is.

The neck pickup was fine but I had to lower the bridge one because it was distorting too easily.

The bass was a little damaged on one of the horns it was a small chip but Music Ground did a good repair job. There were a few bangs to the finish from where its hit other guitars so it was all basically shop and transport damage.

The varitone switch was loose in the shop but it was soon tightened and works fine and I don't think theres much chance of it coming loose again..

Its not going to break or wear through playing but you may have problems if you drop it from a height....

Basically I can depend on it to play everytime but finding shortscale bass strings in the uk can be a pain so make sure you take a back up set

I don't know if the bass was under warranty but Music Ground will offer repairs if its a problem due to the guitars workmanship.

Their repair was satisfactory on the chip on the horn and can barely be seen.

This is one of the best basses to have, not only for its good looks but also for its superb tone.

In an ideal world i'd like a vintage gibson but below 3000 they are all battered and beaten up so it was either a mint 1961 epiphone for 750 or a mint gibson for 3000 so its well worth the money. 750 with a bass case, repairs and short scale strings was alright but you could find one for cheaper if you phone around.

If in doubt, buy it and you will be impressed and very happy.

Presumably mine is a 2003--Korean made, but supposedly "polished up" in the USA. The Elitist EB-3, is, from what I can tell, essentially a 1961 Gibson EB-3 with an uglier headstock (maybe). Construction is of book matched mahogany--body and neck--with an ebony-stained rosewood fretboard. Simple pearloid dots serve as markers. The EB-3 is actually a "baritone" guitar with a 30.5" scale/22 frets. As if no one didn't already know, the body is that of an SG--the most genuinely axelike of any guitar. The pickguard is a triple-ply affair, with a handrest (did anyone ever use it?) placed below the fourth string.

Electronics are identical to the 1961 Gibson original, I know this bcause of the infamous VARITONE selector switch (and its counter-intuitve configuration): almost immediately after getting the thing I screwed up the wiring with a less-than sufficiently tight Varitone and my own lunacy. In order to get it resoldered, I needed to e-mail Gibson for a schematic. It hasn't changed in forty-odd years.
There is little wonder that this axe's primary champion, Jack Bruce, had at least one Varitone replaced with a regular toggle (http://twtd.bluemountains.net.au/cream/basses.htm). I suppose for a romantic such as myself, the problematical potentiometer adds to the "authenticity" of the experience. Take my "10" rating in that light.

The pickups themselves are one big-a** humbucker at the neck position, and a strange, thin one at the bridge. I believe it is option "2" on the Varione that offers only one coil from the neck pickup, where "1" is both in full-bore humbucker glory.

The bridge is extremely solid and chromed stop-type with self-adjusting saddles. Tuners are Grovers.

Musically, I am all over the durned place. The band I am in is as is likely to cover British blues (i.e., the Animals)as it is Neil Young. We also play a lot of Memphis Soul. Our original pieces are fairly crunchy (probably because of me). For the British stuff (also throw some Beatles covers in there: Hofners use humbuckers, too) the EB-3 is the thang. I whip out my P-bass for the other stuff. For the original stuff, again, my major influences are bands like Cream (duh!), the Rolling Stones, the GENUINE non-chick Fleetwood Mac (yes, Virginia), so , the EB-3 is still the choice.

The sound, on "1," is as mentioned before, humbucker fury. BOOM! BOOM! With really light strings there is a combination of extreme articulation combined with weight available to the player. Shake the dishes, rattle the windows. Interestingly, I have been playing both of my basses through a 100-watt Ampeg combo, and when I switch from the P-Bass to the EB-3....whoa! That's when one truly discerns the power of two coils built around gigantic pole pieces (and a glued-in neck, no dobut). Of course, the sound is not only loud, but incredibly warm and slightly throaty. If you really need to hear it (plus talent), the best place to get it is on the version of "I'm So Glad" from Cream's "Goodbye" album. That will hep you dig it.

On the bridge settings, one can actually make the EB-3 sound something like a guitar, at least around the twelfth fret. I haven't played around enough with the bridge setting to further comment.

As previously mentioned, the thing came with a loose Varitone which caused me some small grief. Other than that . . .oh, boy! This is one really sweet and beautiful guitar.

As long as you don't drop it from a second-story window, I doubt you could seriously hurt this thing. On the other hand, if you drop it on your foot . . . .ouch!

I had to deal not with Epiphone but directly with Gibson USA down in Nashville to get the wiring schematic. The custoner-service fellow could not have been nicer.

I have been playing rock n' roll or its antecedents in some form for . . .what? . . . 17 years. Mostly I have concentrated on guitar, and only recently (couple of years) have I been playing bass. Is there a difference? Not really, in mi opinion. As mentioned, I have a Fender (Mexican) Precision Bass, and both get played with an Ampeg Combo. My six strings are a Mexican Strat, an Ibanez ES-335 knockoff, the AS-73 (which equally kicks butt), and an Epiphone SJ-15.

Having owned a "genuine" Gibson guitar, I can say that the Epiphone Elitist EB-3 is as good as you can get, and, in fact, the EB-3 is only being produced under the Epiphone name. This is likely the only "Cadillac" bass I will ever have, and it will be enough. If, in the future I consider buying another Gibson design (hope my wife isn't reading this), I'll probably look at Epiphone.