The Last Bass Outpost

I certainly do not wish to be argumentative as I hate that kind of thing.  I will just explain how I came to be fairly certain that plastic nuts and multiple piece bodies have been used on many Gibson guitars for a long time now.

At the bottom of this post is the last spec sheet I had for the Faded series.  Note that it lists a plastic nut.  My spec sheet for the Special series doesn't denote the nut material at all.  When the Special came out it was largely just a renamed Faded model with a few different finish color options.  I assumed that the plastic nut carried over to the Special, but it may be that Gibson found it simpler to stay with one nut for all their models, I dunno.  The guys I know at the factory say small changes like this drive them crazy and that it would not be out of character at all for Gibson to have continued using plastic nuts on the early Specials until they ran out of them before switching to Corian.  I don't know for a fact that happened but I'm just saying nobody should be surprised if it did.  I can ask if it proves to be a burning question.

There is no question in my mind that plastic nuts were used on many of the cheaper Gibson models.  I know for a fact my 2008 Faded SG bass had a plastic nut that I replaced with a bone nut.

Additionally, the 2007 STD SG bass that I later bought has a 2-piece body (and Corian nut).  Multiple pieces have been used for over 20 years now.  One of the engineers I know that used to work at Gibson told me that finding large slabs of Mahogany was getting harder and harder as fewer old-growth Mahogany trees were available.  He also said large scrap pieces that used to be discarded were now being used for the cheaper model bodies.

As to Dave's comment about the number of pieces, I wasn't saying that the Special necessarily had to have 4-piece bodies, only that they might contain up to four pieces.  Not necessarily unusual to find 2-piece bodies but also not unusual to find 4-piece bodies on the cheaper models.  Or 3-piece bodies for that matter.  I suspect (without knowing for sure) that's one of the reasons that the burst version of the Special came out; the burst would better hide the number of pieces in the body.

The above is what I think I know.  I'm happy to be corrected if I have erred in any detail.

The info below came directly from Gibson's web site from about 4 years ago


FEATURES FOR GIBSON SG BASS GUITARS - Faded Models   

    Pickups: Neck: Vintage-style TB Plus bass humbucker
    Bridge: Bass Mini-humbucker
    Hardware: Chrome
    Fingerboard: Rosewood
    Scale: 30-1/2"
    Nut Width: 1-1/2"
    Nut: Molded plastic
    Bridge: 3-way adjustable
    Neck Material: Mahogany, rounded
    Body Material: Mahogany
    Controls: 2 volume,1 tone
    Includes Gibson gig bag

Leftybass:

Loosen your strings and check the tuner hex nuts on the front of the headstock and the retaining wood screws on the back.  Mine were loose as a goose.  It appears slight wood shrinkage has caused the headstock to lose a bit of thickness.  Nothing a wrench and a phillips screwdriver won't quickly fix but I think this problem is common to most of the recent 2013 NOS EB close-outs.  YMMV.

Oh yeah, for maximum cosmetic effect snug the hex nut first and make sure you have the tuner key shafts aligned all nice and parallel before final tightening.

Thank you kindly for the confirmation, Dave.

I'm right there with you, Dave.  I don't understand why my '07 SG bass isn't properly classified as an EB bass but the new EB bass (which has nothing in common with the old EB series) gets an EB moniker.  Not to mention that Epiphone ended up with the EB0 and EB3 names.  Just makes it more confusing for old guys like myself that grew up in the EB-1, 2, & 3 era.

The 2014 Gibson EB's are currently on sale and I am tempted.  There seems to be a fair amount of owners on other forums who had electronics and controls issues with theirs (loose barrel jacks, wonky pots, etc.)

It would comfort my very liver if any of you guys with an EB could comment on your experiences, both good and bad.

-Bob

Well, you guys are correct about it being basically a P-bass.  And, the Hondo is a solid body long-scale bass whereas most of the Longhorns are hollow body short scales.   

That being said, the Hondo has its aficionados.  Tom Comet, the bass player for Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks uses one frequently with an Orange amp and gets a very nice tone out of it.  He used to use the Hondo as a backup to his Fender Precision, but now the Hondo usually gets the nod and the Precision sits in the backup stand.

I agree that one should not expect a Hondo to sound anything like a Longhorn but there are many worse choices than a Hondo.  Just my $.02...

I can find 4-48 screws, but so far only in quantity, and most companies have a minimum order which is probably greater than you want to spend.  Still looking and hope to find you something, maybe by tomorrow.  In the meantime, here's a chart showing you how many head sizes are available:

http://kmac-distribution.com/machine-screws/threads/4-48.htm#.U00MyKKLjFw

All good info here.  Thanks.  There's more professional EB0 players than I imagined. 

I have an old '68 EB0 that I break out once in a while on small nightclub gigs when we're playing '60's tunes, but it's hard to justify doing it, tonally, because all my more modern basses sound so much better.  But that neck.  What a great feeling neck!  Most comfortable bass I've ever played.

Also, I've found that if I run the EB0 through an old Cry Baby Wah pedal I can adjust the tone for room acoustics much better than if I omit it altogether, and can add a bit of treble instantly for solos.