An Original Cherry Red Slab-Bodied EB-0 Bass

This original slab-bodied EB-0 bass weighs just 8.10 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 30 1/2 inches. Solid mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck, and unbound rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl crown inlay. Black plastic truss-rod cover. Two-on-a-side Kluson banjo-style tuners with rear-facing Keystone plastic keys. Serial number ("0 0491") stamped on the back of the headstock in black ink. One large bass humbucking pickup with black plastic cover and four adjustable polepieces (mounted across the middle of the pickup) and an output of 33.30k. Black plastic pickguard. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on lower treble bout. Black plastic bonnet-shaped knobs with white markings. Side-mounted jack socket on a square of black/white/black laminated plastic. Black plastic control panel cover on the back of the guitar. Combination "wrap-over" bar bridge/tailpiece. The pots are dated "137 5929" (July 1959) and "137 5943" (October 1959). All hardware nickel-plated. A couple of tiny marks on the body and the neck are all that prevent this bass from being near mint. A spectacular and totally original example. Housed in the original (?) Gibson black hardshell case with brown plush lining (9.25).

"Soon after the original EB-1 was dropped, Gibson introduced another solidbody model: the EB-0. Its double-cutaway mahogany body had the same shape as that of the recently revised Les Paul Jr. guitar, and the neck was the same one used on the EB-1 and EB-2. The pickup and other features were, unsurprisingly, the same as those found on Gibson's other basses. In 1961, the EB-0's body changed to the pointed-horn 'SG-style' shape -- once again, in lockstep with changes in the company's guitar line. This single-pickup 4-string and its double-pickup brother, the EB-3 (with 4-position 'Varitone' switch), were Gibson's most popular models for the ensuing decade" (Jim Roberts, American Basses, p. 74).

This is one of 342 EB-0s made in 1960, out of a total of 465 made between 1959 and 1960.