This unusual EB3 is owned by Jim Corio of New Jersey, USA, who sent these pictures to us in January 2006. Jim explains I picked this bass up at a local flea market about 3 years ago. The headstock was broken and I had it professionally repaired. It also came with the original hardshell case. As can be seen it is a truly gorgeous bass, however on closer inspection it has some very unusual 'features'. Photographs courtesy of Jim Corio.
On the surface, other than the finish, this is a regular early sixties EB3 bass. It has all the correct features for a bass of this vintage: Gibson EB humbucker at the neck position, with 'wide' nickel cover; bridge pickup with silvered plastic surround, early (type 1) nickel bar bridge and above-center headstock crown inlay.
This bass has serial number 114865. This dates it to 1962 by Ian Bishops book Gibson Guitar from 1950 or 1963 by the Blue Book Gibson serialization on the Gibson website - and by our observation these are both potentially correct; this bass was most likely shipped very late in 1962 or very early in '63 (more details about Gibson bass serial numbers here). Potentiometer date codes may be useful in calculating 'not before' dates, however in these images no pot codes are visible - the earliest Gibson basses had their codes on the side of each pot. Jim was unwilling to remove the loom to check this.
Refin?
Whilst Gibson is famous for it's sunburst guitars, the finish seen here does not conform to that of Gibson sunbursts in general; not that it is not done well - just that it does not seem at all typical for a 1960s Gibson. Such vibrant yellow was typically the result when clear coats were applied over light coloured woods; often maple. When darker woods, such as mahogany are used the burst is significantly browner - as is the case with the Thunderbird. As can be seen in the control cavity, the yellow colour is produced by opaque yellow lacquer. The finish is checked, with little, if any, fading under the scratchplate.
The bridge pickup has a sticker with Pat. No. 2737842 on the reverse
The electrical circuits look correct. Compare them to another (in this case 1961) EB3.
Anomalies
- The pot spacing is 'wrong'. The two top pots are too near the bottom pots.
- The control cavity is the 'wrong' shape.
- The pickup wires both come from the same hole within the cavity
Look at the 3 images above. A 1961 EB3, the custom sunburst 1963 'EB3' and a 1964 EB0. The stock EB0 and EB3 routes are typical of the period 1961-1964 solid-body EB basses. Notice the difference in spacing between the output jacks and the pots. The EB0 output is further away. As can be seen the smaller EB0 profile fits this bass completely (blue outline), as does the larger EB3 profile (green outline). This custom bass would appear to be a sum of the two routes. Furthermore look at the sizes of the 'wavy walls'; the custom sunburst again seems to be a sum of the two routes. (enlarge the image to see this)
The sunburst finish extends into the control cavity, so the wood was clearly routed before finishing. 'EB3s' with incorrectly spaced pots are usually considered to be converted EB0s. However why would someone create a control cavity with the rounded 'pot' holes, and then NOT put the pots in them. The worksmanship seems to be very accurate for something as ridiculous as to put the pots in the wrong place.
Theories as to the nature of this bass....
- This is a Gibson custom order EB3; the customer requiring closer pot spacing (perhaps as well as the custom finish). Perhaps the holes for pots in a standard EB3 are already drilled when creating the body, and in order to have different holes it is necessary to either start from scratch, or convert an EB0 blank? The pot spacing was reduced soon after this time anyway, so perhaps dissatisfaction with the spacing was acknowledged.
- Someone sent their EB0 to Gibson for repair and/or upgrade to an EB3. This makes some sense as hardware and routing all look like Gibson's work. With such work being carried out, a refinish perhaps was also applied - though not necessarily this one! If Gibson performed this work, it would most likely have occurred prior to 1965 Did Gibson perform conversions?
- Something went wrong during manufacture, and this bass was 'rescued', perhaps by an employee, who may or may not have finished off the instrument.
- The bass has been damaged and the control area repaired and then redrilled, requiring an opaque finish to hide the work.
There are probably many more possibilities with varying probability... I don't know the answer to this question, and part of the reason for going into such detail here is to try and get an answer. I do feel Gibson probably carried out the work; I can't see any reason for someone to got to such lengths to route something so accurately, knowing full well the end result would not bear any resemblance to a stock instrument.
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