[zambiland]

I've got an EB0 on the way which will get mods to get into the Phil 71 ballpark. Anyone done this or have any good suggestions? I'm going to use a pair of Dark Stars and a Hipshot direct replacement bridge (it's a two point bridge with no individual adjustments, rather than the square one Phil had with the plastic saddles. I'm thinking the bass is pre-1967 or so). I'll probably get around to a brass nut at sometime. My biggest open question is how to wire it. Active buffers? Filters?

Probably no crazy paint job. It doesn't need to look like Phil's just be able to sound like his. Somewhat.

On another note, I'm also about to upgrade my '67 Showman with a beefed up Mercury Magnetics multi-tap output transformer. More headroom, better bass and selectable impedance!

[Rusty the Scoob]

Be careful which Hipshot direct replacement you get, I've tried two and neither one fits my 1967 EB0.

There are some good threads here on the electronics mods that were done to Phil's, much of it over my head electronically. In a nutshell, there were buffers attached right to his pickups, which I think effectively turns them into a primitive type of active-style, low-impedance pickup (I think... electronics gurus please correct me if I'm wrong). I believe he had separate outputs for each pickup but other than that, little is known of what the controls were. It looks like he had the four standard gibson pots (his was an EB3 from the factory, they're identical other than the routing for the bridge pickup and extra tone/volume controls - although some years of EB0 did get smaller electronics cavities) plus pots where the tone-selector and output jack originally were. What these extra pots did is a mystery and probably changed a few times over the year or two that he played it anyway.

[zambiland]

Thanks for checking in! I got the bridge from ebay and it fits this hulking shell of a Gibson body I've got lying around just perfectly, which appears to have had the same bridge. So, fingers crossed.

I'll try to track down those threads. I'm almost thinking a couple of stratoblaster circuits ought to do it. I've tried to do this before, but it didn't sound right. I wonder if the buffer right on the pickups is what made the difference.

The extra knobs could have been pickup selector and master volume, since they became standard on Series II bases and were also on Guild Starfire IIs. Or not!

[Rusty the Scoob]

Correction, mine's a 1969. It originally came with the two-post "ever-tilt" bridge with adjustable plastic (!) saddle pieces. if I could find a replacement or an original that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, i'd be in business.

Here's the best and maybe only thread I had going: forum/viewtopic.php?f=421&t=7559&p=7514 ... air#p75149

[Haman03]

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