"The House of the Rising Sun"

This wonderful lightweight bass weighs 9.50 lbs. and has the earlier and far more desirable nut width of just over 1 11/16 inches (this was changed soon after in 1965 to a rather skinny 1 1/2 inches). Single-bound laminated maple top, back, and sides. One-piece mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard with 20 jumbo frets and inlaid pearloid dot position markers and a short scale length of 30 1/2 inches. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Epiphone" logo and vertical oval pearl inlay. Two-on-a-side Kluson right-angle tuners with large cloverleaf metal buttons. Single multi-magnet, double-coil humbucking pickup with four polepieces and a huge output of 15.80k. Tortoiseshell pickguard with silver Epiphone "E" logo. Two controls (one volume, one tone), a two-way metal bass/baritone switch, and jack socket, all on body. Gold plastic bell-shaped knobs. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6431" (CTS August 1964). Combination bar bridge/stud tailpiece with adjustable mute. Original chrome-plated hand-rest (all of the other hardware is nickel-plated). Inside the bass f-hole is an Epiphone (Kalamazoo, Michigan) rectangular blue label with "Rivoli" and "EBV-232N" typed in black and the serial number ("307188") written in blue ink. The serial number also impressed in blind on the back of the headstock. Apart from some very light finish checking and a tiny scratch on the top (between the two controls) this is a near fine (9.25) example of this extremely rare 'blond' bass guitar - as played by Chas Chandler of The Animals. Housed in its original Epiphone black softshell case with orange plush lining (9.25). This is the very best looking and sounding Rivoli that we have ever seen - and it is just like the one that I played in the mid-late sixties…

"Epi's first electric bass, the Rivoli, debuted in 1959, and it was the equivlent of Gibson's EB-2, a semi-hollowbody archtop modeled after the Gibson ES-335 and Epi Sheraton." (Walter Carter. Epiphone The Complete History, p.68.)

"The New York-based Epiphone company was bought by Gibson in 1957. One of the first so-called 'Gibson Epiphone' products was the Rivoli Bass of 1959, virtually identical to Gibson's EB-2. At first it was offered in natural or sunburst, later in cherry, and a two-pickup version was issued in 1970...The Rivoli proved especially popular with 1960s British bassists such as The Animals' Chas Chandler" (Tony Bacon and Barry Moorhouse, The Bass Book, p. 19).

"The U.S.-made Epiphone line from the '60s included the solidbody Newport and Embassy Deluxe basses, but the best known Epiphone 4-string of that era was the semi-hollow, short-scale (30 1/2") Rivoli. Only the shape of its headstock and the big "E" on the pickguard distinguished it from the Gibson EB-2." (Jim Roberts, American Basses, p.49).