One of the Very First Gibson EB-2s

One of the very first EB-2 basses. This guitar weighs just 8.20 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of slightly over 1 11/16 inches and a nice, short scale length of 30 1/2 inches. Laminated maple body, one-piece mahogany neck, and rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Two-on-a-side banjo-style tuners with Keystone plastic tulip-shaped buttons. Single-coil pickup with the polepieces at the bridge end, black plastic cover, and a huge output of 19.70k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on the lower treble bout. Combination bar bridge/stud tailpiece. The serial number ("A 27843") is on an oval orange label inside the bass f-hole. Two of the retaining screws on the banjo-style tuner buttons have been replaced. There are a couple of very small marks on the back of the neck and some wear on the bass side of the edge of the fretboard on the 3rd and 4th frets, otherwise this extremely rare bass is in near mint (9.25) condition. Housed in the original Gibson brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (9.00). Complete with the original hang tag, strap, and lead.

One of only 90 Sunburst EB-2s (there were also 6 in Natural) made in the first year of 1958, and one of the very earliest examples (before the pushbutton "baritone" control was added) with the single-coil pickup with the polepieces at the bridge end.

The original price in 1958 was $267.50, and the case was $49.50. According to factory ledgers, the earliest EB-2s were registered on 27th June 1958 (serial numbers A 27809/810/811) and a Super 400 (A 27816) was registered on 1st July 1958.

"Gibson's second electric bass model established a pattern that would hold true for almost all of the company's basses from that date forward. The EB-2 of 1958 was a 'partner' to a similar guitar model -- in this case, the semi-hollow ES-335. The EB-2 was, in effect, an electric bass neck (complete with banjo-style tuners) glued onto the double-cutaway, 'thinline' body of the ES-335. The earliest model had a single-coil pickup with a black-plastic cover, but this was soon replaced by a large humbucker with a black-plastic cover...A pushbutton 'baritone' (i.e., bass-cut) control was added in 1959, and conventional right-angle tuners replaced the banjo tuners in 1960...The original EB-2 was dropped in 1961 and reintroduced, with a metal pickup cover, in 1964. A double-pickup version, the EB-2D, joined the line in 1966...Both models were discontinued in 1972. Although not commercially successful, Gibson's short-scale, semi-hollow basses -- and such similar models as the Epiphone Rivoli and Guild Starfire Bass -- were popular with many '60s rock bands because they were easy to play and offered different tonal possibilities than Fender basses" (Jim Roberts, American Basses, pp. 73-74).