"Jack Bruce"

This ultra thin (1 3/8 inches) SG-style bass guitar weighs just 8.00 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. Solid mahogany body with highly contoured edges, 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. Bell-shaped truss-rod cover with the word "Custom" on it. Two-on-a-side Kluson right-angle tuners with large cloverleaf metal buttons. One large metal-cover four-polepiece humbucking pickup in the neck position with an output of 14.40k and one smaller metal-cover four-polepiece mini-humbucker pickup with black plastic surround in the bridge position with an output of 7.41k. Five-layer (black/white/black/white/black) plastic pickguard. With the original ebony finger rest on the pickguard. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus four-way rotary selector switch and jack socket, all on lower treble bout. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs with metal tops. Combined single-saddle bar bridge/tailpiece with adjustable mute. All hardware gold-plated. The pots are dated "137 6344" (November 1963). Inside the control cavity, in addition to the two controls and the four-way switch, is the original transformer, stamped "GA-90-1C." The serial number ("198503") is stamped on the back of the headstock. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition, with a minimal amount of belt buckle wear on the back of the guitar, a few very minor and fairly insignificant surface chips, mainly on the sides, a very small chip on the back of the neck by the heel, and a little bit of playing wear to the bass side of the back of the neck, especially behind the 5th and 7th frets. The top of the guitar and the back of the neck are very slightly faded. The metal hand rest has been removed. There is some nice body checking on the top of the guitar. Housed in the original (?) Gibson imitation snakeskin gray hardshell case with black plush lining (8.50).

This is one of 277 EB-3s made in 1964, out of a total of 2,898 between 1961 and 1968 (in 1969, the model was changed completely). This custom guitar with gold parts must have been a special factory order -- and is the only one we have seen or heard of.

"The EB-3 was originally introduced in 1961 as the successor to the thinline EB-2...Built with the ultra thin SG body-style, it was the first Gibson electric bass equipped with two pickups for added tonal versatility. The EB-3 proved a fairly enduring model and it was eventually discontinued in 1979. Between 1961 and 1965 the model did not undergo any major modification...The EB-3 is equipped with the same pickup as the EB-0 in the neck position and a 4-pole mini-humbucker in the bridge position. The 4-position rotary switch provides the usual two pickup combinations plus a baritone voicing for the front pickup" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics -- The Classic Years, p. 194).

"The best known player of the EB-3, [Jack] Bruce adopted Gibson's distinctive sounding bass while a member of Cream in the 1960s" (Tony Bacon and Barry Moorhouse, The Bass Book, p. 23).