Such beauty... EB-6 content

[amptech]

Anybody seen this before?


http://www.vintageandrare.com/showroom/product/Gibson-EB-6-Prototype-Hank-Garland-Owned-1958-Sunburst-913

Ok, so I love EB-6 both sg and es shape. But this is just too beautiful! I usually never lust for things out of my price range, like first year EB-3's and EB-6's in general. But this is too much, couldn't sleep last night! It's soooooo nice!

[uwe]

Outside my price range too. My 335 shape EB-6 is already my costliest bass with a 10.000 Dollar price tag at the time (it's the most expensive bass I own by a stretch), I dare not imagine what this here will want to fetch.

Fascinating piece though! A long scale bass from the 50ies made by Gibson, who'd have thought?! And then with six strings. 

[Basvarken]

Just ask Uwe. You never know.
The recession is barely over. Prices haven't climbed back yet...




Plus I need you to have it for Ze Book   

[Dave W]

Uwe, were you even aware of this one? I hadn't heard of its existence.

As Rob said, ask. If nothing else, you need to satisfy your curiosity.

[slinkp]

Wow.  It has an Elvis connection too.  The price will be beyond belief.

[dadagoboi]

"The neck is 4 1/2 inches longer"...THAN WHAT?





Certainly NOT longer than an EB-2...a Gibson guitar neck quite possibly.  The bridge location proves it.  That's my '67 scaled and superimposed  @ 60% transparency on the left and 100% on right on the bottom picture.
A friend of mine owned one of these, completely mint with a  PAF, a single one IIRC. Ebayed it a few years ago after debating whether to remove the PAF first.  Neck was a banana, we didn't dare try to straighten it out.  Maybe the one for sale has, "a lot of technical design" his didn't have.

I'm from Brooklyn, anybody want to buy a bridge?

[Granny Gremlin]

Yeah, I thought it didn't look right for a long scale (and also wouldn't be confident that they w/could have made a stable hollow body w 34" scale neck).  Even short scale I doubt you could put proper (full guage) bass strings on this thing (even if they did fit in the bridge/machine holes).  Gibson wasn't interested in long scale basses until it became painfully obvious that Fender was 'winning.'

[uwe]

I have sent an email, but I believe the price will be mindblowing, and, really, how often do I play the 6-stringers I have? Because they have essentially the feel of a baritone guitar, they demand a totally different approach in playing them. Much lighter attack and such. I would probably have to sit down with one for a couple of weeks to break it in (or, more correctly, have it break me in!).

That neck doesn't look like a short scale one to me, but the comparison with a regular EB-2 has me doubting now ... If it's just a short scale 6 string, then in essence the only dif to a reg EB-6 is a second pup (though I'm not entirely sure whether some EB-6s did not creep out with an additional bridge pup, it probably wasn't too dificult to ask for one at the time).

If this thing is long (or even medium) scale, then it's another world wonder. I asked in my email to the seller. And no, Dave, I wasn't aware of its existence.

The Elvis connection - though I like Elvis - means nothing to me (I wouldn't pay more for a Ritchie Blackmore pre-owned bass either). I saw his 4-/6-string EB doubleneck bass (i.e. both halves are basses!) exhibited at Graceland though, that think looked impressive in real life.

[dadagoboi]

Yeah, I thought it didn't look right for a long scale (and also wouldn't be confident that they w/could have made a stable hollow body w 34" scale neck).  Even short scale I doubt you could put proper (full guage) bass strings on this thing (even if they did fit in the bridge/machine holes).  Gibson wasn't interested in long scale basses until it became painfully obvious that Fender was 'winning.'

My friend's EB6 had a set of in the wrapper vintage original Gibson strings in the case when he bought it in the early oughts.  We put them on, they were very light.  Baritone guitar strings really.  And that's all these things are IMO, bari guitars.  I feel the same way about Fender VI "basses".  Odd ducks suitable for Duane Eddy and tic tac bass.

[uwe]

The EB-6s don't have issues with stronger gauge strings  - if you can get them through the tuners and their ballends aren't too large for the bar bridge that is!!!  It's a hassle getting the appropriate sets - Fender VI-strings for instance have way too large ballends to still have the bridge lowered to a playable level (unless you want the ballends to gnaw nastily into the wood). You need bass strings with guitar size ballends and those are incredibly hard to get, and if you get them they always have girlie gauges, but it's not like the necks (regular EB-2 necks) couldn't take the - after all only short scale - pull of 100 or 105 strings.

In my experience, long scale basses have more issues with the pull from five or more strings if their necks are just laid out for four strings.

[westen44]

My friend's EB6 had a set of in the wrapper vintage original Gibson strings in the case when he bought it in the early oughts.  We put them on, they were very light.  Baritone guitar strings really.  And that's all these things are IMO, bari guitars.  I feel the same way about Fender VI "basses".  Odd ducks suitable for Duane Eddy and tic tac bass.

That's a Fender VI that Jack Bruce is playing on the "Fresh Cream" album, though.  Not that that's exactly Cream's best album, because it isn't. 

[amptech]

"The neck is 4 1/2 inches longer"...THAN WHAT?

I think he mean 4 1/2" longer than a ES335 guitar.

[Dave W]

I think he mean 4 1/2" longer than a ES335 guitar.

I saw that and skimmed over it, figuring it was a long scale prototype. But you and Carlo are right, it's almost surely an EB-6 prototype with the same short scale as the production model.

[uwe]

That - luckily - diminishes collectability for me!

[amptech]

That - luckily - diminishes collectability for me!

Good! One less bidder to compete with