Mine isn't as
Terr-ific (hey, it was "only" 5,000 bucks at the time!), but Herr Pappalardi had it refinned in a nice cherry, allegedly it's a 53 (but sans serial number which never existed or was sanded off over time you can't tell for sure):
That pic was before the Schaller mount. Pappalardi wasn't obsessive about keeping it original either: The tone knob is notched and works different in the first half of the turn than in the second. In the first half it cuts the mids and emulates a mudbuckish sound with the singlecoil (though sans the mudbucker's archaic might), bit like the filter on EB-2s, in the second half it cuts what treble there is. I heard from the seller (Mark Discordia, a Pappalardi-
and Nintendo/Super Mario-nut, with a Mountain website at the time) that that was a speciality of Pappalardi on all his EB-1s. Mark (who had an uncle work at Gibson in the fifties and had some background knowledge from there too) at one point must have bought three or four EB basses from the Pappalardi estate (after the "gun accident"): a 69 RI, a 55 (Pappalardi's main playing bass which he also had in Woodstock with him, and which now graces the Toronto Hardrock Café, I've seen it there behind glass, you have to pass it when you go to the loo, Mark sold it for 20,000 US bucks to them he said) and the cherry refin 1953 (?) that is now mine. There might have been another one, I'm not sure.
Here's my Pappasomething and 69 RI side by side.
And to confuse everyone a bit:
My 69 is much lighter than my 53, the wood on it sounds a lot more porous when doing the recommended "knock test". In comparison, the 53 sounds thick and dense, almost as if it were a chunk of maple (it isn't).
Ironically, the 69 also feels a lot more vintage. The neck is worn off to the sheer maho all over with only a few islands of residue fin remaining and the body has crazing like hell, it's a real relic (though surprisingly few bumps and scratches, it just peels like an old reptile!), but totally playable and even more subwoofish than a slothead EB-0 or -3 would be. The 53's refin is still pristine otoh and it feels like a well-kept 15 year-or-so bass though I've bumped it a couple of times already. Yup, I play them. Would be no good to have them if I didn't.
Actually, this thread has now inspired me to take both EBs out tonight for the rehearsal (together with my Sting P Bass and the Dimebag Darrel "assless chaps"
extra-longscale monster Dean Razorback Flying V for some variety).
