TYPE
Electric Solid Body Bass guitar
FEATURES
Solid mahogany body, mahogany neck
Rosewood fretboard
One pickup
INFORMATION
Gibson’s Electric Bass was introduced in 1953 and was the company’s first electric bass. As the Les Paul was marketed in response to Leo Fender’s Telecaster, the Electric Bass was designed to compete with Fender Precision Bass.
The Electric Bass had the appearance of a vertical acoustic bass and the body had painted f-holes for decoration. This instrument was designed to play horizontally like a regular guitar and vertically like a bass instrument.
The single coil element was attached close to the neck, creating a deeper bass sound. As a result, however, the instrument did not have the clear sound that could be produced on the Fender Precision. The Electric Bass, later to be known as the EB-1, was not popular. No more than 546 units were built and the model was discontinued in 1958.
