Wow. This is veering back and forth.
An original EB is a pleasure to play. We have had several threads on them, but they do differ from the later variant on several key points. They will share a general tonality and output when compared to an early EB2 with the same single coil pup, but none of my early EB2s were the same in terms of the weight and tonality/mass/sustain, etc. My EB(1) was a 56, and the massive chunk of mahogany in the body and the very wide chunky neck ( noticeably different from my Gibson basses from 57, 58, 59 and 60 which gradually thin down the taper to be close to the mid 60s type) was a great feeling bass. The most significant aspect of it that we have talked about before here was the density of the mahogany, which I used a knock test to compare. You take your knuckle and knock on the body and neck, then compare that to your average EB-0 or EB-3. It is a harder, denser wood and has a sharper tone when you give it a knock. We have bandied about the ideas of Cuban mahogany, or just older growth wood that Gibson was using in the 50s. The 60s and up basses tend to have a softer spongier wood. So take that and the idea that the body on these things is just a big massive chunk of tree, and you have a really fun bass. I don't mind the old close enough bridge but I didn't give half a damn on that thing. Even the 50s bridges are different than the later ones - big skull-crushing chunks of cast nickel. While it never was as big a deal as the old Precision, enough people played them back then, with Little Richard's bass player being the biggest in my mind. Of course JPJ and Jack Bruce later on too.
Julia Roberts could deep throat a Packard. That is a honking big mouth. She never did too much for me though, so I would stick with Scarlet, and give Sheryl the nod for the Heinkel dream team.
