- Gibson, you put the pickup in the wrong place!

The big Sidewinder (or Mud bucker) pickup on the Gibson EB basses is placed at the neck. In later revisons (70s) of the EB basses it was placed between neck and bridge (like a P-bass). If you instead put it all the way down at the bridge you get a wonderful cutting yet full tone. In this video I'm using a router to cut out a bridge pickup cavity on an EB0 Bass.

[ronty]

Johan, now that Marshall has been sold to a Swedish company, maybe you can apply and join as a consultant to help make them manufacture great amps again?!😆

[Funkybassuk]

In 2005 Jack Bruce had a Warwick-made EB3-like bass with 2 mudbuckers in the neck and bridge. He didn’t end up playing it during the Cream reunion gigs sadly and stuck with a vintage Gibson EB - but a violin model - with the mudbucker in the neck position.

[chrispile]

Darn right, Johan. Back in the 70's I put a mudbucker in the bridge position of my P-bass copy and it sounded great! No mud there, just great tone.

[jcoulter]

I like it! Freehand routering in the middle of your living room. Frankenstein Johan has returned 😁 Sounded great after the mod. God bless and router on my friend 🎸👍

[darrellminx]

Always liked the sound of a Gibson bass in the right song. Very muddy mids but is essential for some of the greatest songs of all time. Thanks for another great video.
Cheers from Hawaii

[GuajoloteGonzales]

That japanese EB style basses had a single coil instead of a true sidewinder/mudbucker, they sound very much like a 50's p-bass/60's telecaster bass.

[sergioserramusic]

Great! Now we want the comparison with the pickup at the neck vs the pickup at the bridge! :)

[thenameless]

From all of the photos and info I've read over the years, Jack Bruce typically used the bridge pickup on his EB3. There are also some photos (but no audio) of him using an EB0 during his solo adventures in the 1970s. We do know for a fact that he was once gifted an EB0 from Felix Pappalardi.

The real secret to Jack's tone (in my opinion anyways) are flatwound strings going into an old Marshall. You'll need a rather flat, bassy sound as well. Gibson basses do that kind of thing on their own, but it can be done on Fender basses as well if you set the tones and EQ right.

Nice experiment by the way! As much as I love the look and history of SG basses, and the mudbucker, they really aren't all that versatile. Moving the pickup back will give you a lot more options!

If you're looking for more bass modifications, and you want to continue down the Jack Bruce route, maybe look into the diode Dan Armstrong installed in one of his EB3s in an attempt to give him a fuzzier tone without a full-up Marshall. Sort of like the EB0F.

Thanks again, for the videos and for reading this monologue!

[killingmasheen]

It's the same reason Fender bridge pickups are angled to make them brighter. We're held hostage to the conventional wisdom of 1950s because everyone's terrified to do it any different. I applaud your bravery in doing the logical thing!

[matuloco]

Great idea. One in the middle position or two at the same time (neck+bridge) would be an interesting continuation of the experiment.

[dennisperusse]

Honestly they should experiment with taking the Eb3’s small bridge pickup and put three in place. One at the Bridge, one in the center and one for the neck. Have a switch to cycle between them like a guitar. Keeps it from being too muddy in my humble opinion plus aesthetically pleasing to look at.

[RockStarOscarStern]

The SG Bass is nicely balanced too. Neck dive is a common problem with SG Guitars but the SG Bass solves that problem by making the body heavier than the neck.

[CausingLewis]

I have a 60’s ebo and that neck position only pickup has a sound. Definitely leaves some versatility on the table, but it does that one sound really well

[realdocloco]

I don't agree - it turns a unique-sounding bass into one more commonplace bass. Listen to FREE and tell me the Gibson EB doesn't sound great 😉

[byronlaird]

!! Hahaha !! Johan, that was/is really funny & awesome to watch. Skål !! Pretty brave of U to free-hand the new cavity-routing job, but it worked out OK, so 👍. Backing track was cool too.

[marzed]

Hey Johan, I have a 70s Japan EB bass too. I wound up putting a capacitor in series with the mudbucker. This calmed down some of the really deep bass coming out of it. Much more usable that way, for me. No routing required! I also added a goldfoil pickup in the bridge position, so two really different tones for me.

[mr.anderson]

Nice to see you plunging into pickup placement. Tell us you freehanded the cut depth also. 🤘

[DMSProduktions]

Joh, you got mentioned in an article in Feb's GUITARIST magazine in the UK!

[aronhallam]

I suppose bass playing has changed a lot over the years. For 12 bar rnr or jazz you want muffled thud, not another electric guitar like Duff, lemmy, gene.

[danielktdoranie]

That route man! Oh god!

I have a Gibson SG bass that has a factory bridge pickup