Solid Mahogany body, one-piece mahogany neck with 20-fret, rosewood fretboard. Single humbucking pickup. 30 1/2 inch scale.

A great early Gibson EB0, with chunky neck, nickel hardware, and bakelite pickup cover.

Short scale strings suitable for the EB3 bass Fender 5250XL Short Scale Bass Extra Light Strings (Fender short scale Nickel Steel roundwounds) D'Addario EXL220S Electric Bass Strings XL Nickel Super Light Short Scale (D'Addario EXL220S Nickel Super Light Short Scale) Thomastik-Infeld JF324 Jazz Flatwound Short Scale 4-String Bass (Thomastik-Infeld JF324 Jazz Flatwound Short Scale) Ernie Ball 2837 Slinky Silhouette 6-String Short-Scale Bass Strings (Ernie Ball 2837 Slinky Silhouette 6-String Short-Scale Bass Strings) Rotosound RS77S Jazz Bass Strings Short Scale (Rotosound - Bass Strings - RS77S - Jazz Bass) Rotosound RS88S Trubass Standard Gauge Short Scale Strings (Rotosound - Bass Strings - RS88S - True Bass (Black Nylon)) D'Addario EXL160S XL Regular Short Bass String Set (D'Addario Bass Strings Nickel Wound Short Scale - Regular)

The potentiometers are dated October 1962, and the serial number is either 1962 (Bishop) or very early 1963 (Blue Book). 1962 was the second year that the EB0 bass was manufactured in the SG, or 'new Les Paul' shape, and a total of 815 EB0s were made in that year.

Components

Notice the inlaid Gibson logo and solid headstock with crown inlay situated above centre. In late 1963/early 1964 this crown was repositioned to be more centralised on the headstock. Components are typical for a bass of this era: Nickel two point bar bridge, nickel hand rest, black bakelite-covered EB humbucker directly at the end of the neck. This bass uses Kluson 538 tuning keys.

Wiring

The pictures on the right show two views of the wiring loom for this bass. Both pots are identical; Centralab 500K audio taper, part number BA811-1053. Click the images for larger versions, and a circuit wiring plan.

This bass is typical of the EB0 shown in the 1962 and 1963 Gibson catalogues.

More about the EB0 in general.