I've never messed enough with Gibson basses (I know that's near-heresy here) to even know that they used chokes. I only knew that EB-0 had a bad cap because the tech at the store where it was had the plate off and showed me. He had planned on changing it, but I asked to play it first. They were selling it for $250 which was a steal even then (10-15 years ago).
I went to the ATM, but by the time I got back, it had already been sold... to George Gruhn, who had stopped by on his way back from a purchasing trip to Asheville. He knew the owners of the place, and they would always cherry-pick the best stuff for him and ocassionally give him a super deal like that EB-0 because he would come back and pay huge amounts of money for other stuff.
At that same store, in rural East Tennessee, I have played a 50's Esquire and Nocaster, tons of 50's Tele's, and lots of weird basses and amps. I got my first SVT there, along with my Traynor. Us hill people horde stuff, but unfortunately, when a lot of the old players die, their families don't know what the instruments are worth and they sell them for nothing. The music store is also a pawn shop, so they get a LOT of traffic that a traditional music store, expecially one in this area, would never see. EBay has pretty much killed off most of that now, though.
