[funkytoe]

Hi Everyone,

Just a note to say how much I LOVE my new SG bass. Been playing bass for 29 years now ( and guitar for 7 years before that). The usual suspects -- Fender, Lakland, etc. Last year, for our anniversay, my wife got me a Hofner 500/1. I fell in love with the tone and the ease of the 30.5 inch scale. I liked it so much, I started selling off my other basses - keeping only one classic Jazz bass and the Hofner.

Well, last month for my birthday, my wife surprises me with a new SG bass. (I know, she is great -- why do you think I married her?). Initial thoughts -- the bass looked great, finish was excellent. Sound-wise, the bass lacked clarity. Something I had heard about EB basses in generally, but never experienced myself. As for set-up, the neck had a little too much relief, the bridge was too high and the strings (ernie ball roundwounds re-strung at the music store) were dying if not dead.

So, I set out to see if I could get to the bottom of this clarity issue. First things first -- I adjusted the truss rod and lowered the bridge. Playabilty was much better, but it still lacked clarity in the mids.

I took a look at where the string crosses the bridge saddles and the nut and was really surprised at what I saw. Apparently, Gibson does not cut a slot completely through the nut, but creates a groove in the nut similar to a compensated nut. Because of this, the Ernie Balls that were on it did not sit well in the nut slots and did not vibrate as well as they could. On the other end, I noticed that bridge saddles were so close to the string ends that the string windings were actually crossing the bridge saddles on the E and A strings instead of the strings themselves.

Long and short, I got out my files and recut the nut slots to the proper depth all the way across the face of the nut. I removed the Ernie Ball strings and replaced them with fresh set of Ken Smith short-scale rounds -- these have some of the shortest windings at the bridge and really prominent mids to help with the clarity. Finally, I set the intonation, making sure that the string actually crossed the saddle and not the winding.

Oh My God!!!! This is a different instrument. The sustain and the clarity increased 10 fold. It sounds like all those classic basses from the 60's and 70's. A little dirty, but puchy enough to shine through. It occured to me that I have been playing really clean sounding basses (ala Lakland) through old B-15's to get that classic, dirty sound. This Gibson will give me that same sound through any old solid state amp. The 30.5 inch scale is a dream to play. I just can't put it down. In fact, I love it so much, I sold my last vintage Fender.

The only thing this SG does not do well is slap. And, to tell the truth, its been at least 10 years since I played in a band where I was required to slap. For the gigs I do these days, this SG is just the best.

I LOVE IT. Thanks Gibson. I could not be happier.

[Redbird]

Thats really interesting about the nut.


Congrats, it seems like everyone should own a SG bass.

[santi]

Congrats friend.

In other topic I said that I´m happy with my Money bass. Yes, the Money bass and the SG are very different basses, but it seems that the Gibson quality is present in both.

Good luck.

[barend]

Hey Funkytoe,

I also own an SG RI (surpreme) and I have played on a normal SG RI in a store once. What I noticed on both basses was that the sound of the E string is a little softer although the pickup height is the same.

I only have this problem with the mudbucker pickup.
I partially solved this problem by raising the E string screw and lowering the screws of the other strings of the mudbucker pickup.

For the rest I really like this bass.

How is that on your SG? and on other SG's from forum members here?

[barend]

here is how my pickup is set up right now,

[funkytoe]

Hi. Interesting picture. You really should not have to adjust the screw that high just to balance the volume of your E string. Sounds like your E-string might be experiencing some unintentional "damping" or "muting" due to the very same set-up issues I discuss above. Check how the E string travels across both the nut and the bridge. If the string is not well-seated in the nut or if the string windings are seated in the bridge slot, you could be experiencing an unintentional damping resulting in the loss of volume. Give the bass a good set up (especially on the E string) and see if that solves the volume issue.

[Redbird]

Forgive my stupidity, but I thought the adjusters are just cosmetic?

I know they are on my eb-0

[barend]

The set up of my bass and E string is just fine. The E string is not muted or damped it just has a little less volume. So that is not the problem. No need to adjust it. It sounds good unamplified.

[santi]

Well, I had the same problem. Exactly the same. But it was with a 95 Korean Epi Mudbucker from a Rivoli.

The solution was to change the pickup for an original 67 EB2 Gibson mudbucker.

But, in your case, with a Gibson pickup... It´s strange.

[carlo3874]

I got my SG Oct 2007, made in 01/2007. I got it used from the talkbass classified section. It was in pretty good condition, but still had it set up @ the local shop. Afterwards, that bass is simply the easiet bass I've ever played. It has the lowest action I've ever seen with no buzz. You can anything on it without any effort.

I did swap out the bridge for a Hipshot supertone and that made a huge improvement in tone, sustain, stability. The intonation in dead & the sustain can ring for days with roundwounds ( I've switched to TI flats ). I feel the bridge also give the bass more depth in tone. I am going to a ebony thumbrest in between the neck and bridge PU because my thumb keeps sliding off the bridge PU mount and I'm not comfortable playing on the top of the neck.

I have a Dimarizo Model One lying my office and I'm considering swapping out the neck PU. Is there anyone on this board who could share their experience with PU? Also, I absolutely hate the bridge Pu