A Near Mint Cherry Rivoli Bass

This wonderful lightweight bass weighs 9.00 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 1/2 inches and a short scale length of 30 1/2 inches. Single-bound laminated maple top, back, and sides. One-piece mahogany neck with a medium-to-thick profile and a rosewood fretboard with 20 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Epiphone" logo and vertical oval pearl inlay. Two-on-a-side Kluson right-angle tuners with large cloverleaf metal buttons. Serial number ("860990") impressed into the back of the headstock. Single multi-magnet, double-coil humbucking pickup with four polepieces and a huge output of 14.73k. 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. Black plastic bell-shaped knobs. Inside the bass f-hole is an Epiphone (Kalamazoo, Michigan) rectangular blue label with "Rivoli" and "EBV-232-C" and the serial number ("860990") stamped in black. Some light finish checking and the absolute bare minimum of belt-buckle rash on the back are all that prevent this stunning bass from having a near mint (9.25) rating. Very similar to the bass played by Chas Chandler of The Animals. The back of the headstock has a "2" stamped above the serial number, although we cannot see any visible flaws in the grain, which is the usual reason for the factory designating a guitar as a "second." Housed in its original Epiphone black hardshell case with orange plush lining (8.75).

"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...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).