One of the Very First Gibson EB-2s

One of the very first EB-2 basses. This guitar weighs just 8.10 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just 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, with an output of 6.69k. 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 27810") is on an oval orange label inside the bass f-hole. This extremely rare bass is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition with just a few very small and insignificant surface marks. Housed in the original Gibson brown hardshell case with purple plush lining (8.75).

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).