> Ok, I have this great old Gibson EBO short-scale bass that I am very
> comfortable with, played for years, except the dang thing doesn't tune
> very well and it has that short-scale kind of "thump" sound instead of a
> long sustain and high end like a P-Bass. Has anybody ever successfully
> fixed a short scale Gibson so it will tune?
Not that I know of. I played an EB3 for about 5 years and gave up.
> And secondly, if I do decide to get a P-Bass or copy thereof, which ones
> are good and which ones suck? Mexican P-Basses any good? Peavey? Yamaha?
The Mexican Precisions are, IMO, as good as or better than anyone else's
knockoffs at that price range ($300 or less); the biggest gotcha I've heard
about with them is that the pickups and routing for them are slightly
different than the old Ps and the new American Standards and up, so that you
might have a problem putting in aftermarket replacements (it's apparently
not impossible, but it might be more complicated than you would want to
DIY). Still, I know a bunch of folks who play them, and have yet to hear of
any problems. Personally, I love my '96 American Standard, which when I
bought it new ran around $650. Quality workmanship, you can go
string-thru-body, and most germane to the tuning issue, and most importantly
in terms of your EB0 complaint, it has a graphite reinforcement in the neck
that makes it rilly solid. The only time I have to retune the durn thing is
if someone (like, for instance, me) bumps into one of the tuning machines; I
have taken it from a frigid, dry, air-conditioned room out into 90+ temps w/
high humidity without having to retune, and have gone literally weeks at a
time without its going out.
Anyhow, I'm not one of those "gotta be a Fender" types, especially once you
get more exotic than a Precision, but for a basic bass, the P is awfully
hard to beat, and you really can spend about as little - or as much - as you
want.
> Might as well do this off-list, I'm sure this is ultra boring to
> non-players.
Yeah, right, it's not of general interest, like vintage cereals <g>.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
