Did Gibson ever sell off the Tobias name? I know squat about Tobias but just realized how similar the shape is to the new EB. Guess thats what the T stands for?
The T stands for Traditional (no G-Force or zero fret nut)
Gibson still makes Tobias, in China, in the Epiphone factory. You'll find them on Epiphone's site, like
this one. IMHO the new Gibson EB doesn't look much like a Tobias.
I don't hate it but there is nothing iconic looking about it. It looks like an amalgamation of many modern basses that, frankly, have little market share. Even at 1K, I think this will be another failed Gibson experiment with no resale value.
Gibson on the headstock will be iconic enough for some Gibson fans.
Gibson has failed using shapes that are different than the usual, they can hardly do worse with a shape like this. But unless they promote it, it will probably go the way of other failed models.
I haven't noticed Gibson basses having poorer than average resale value. Harder to sell than more popular brands, true, and most vintage models don't bring as much as vintage Fenders, but aside from Rickenbacker, the bass resale market isn't all that good for anyone.
