Gibson Unveils New EB Bass

Gibson EB Bass with Sunburst finish

In 1953, Gibson took its first step into the electric bass market with the EB-1, eventually releasing several models to follow musical trends. Now, the company has unveiled the EB Bass, a brand new model that they say blends tradition and innovation to create a versatile voice for the modern bassist.

The EB Bass’s body is a derivative of the SG with more curvature. The 34? scale bass is built with a solid ash body with a glued-in maple neck and a rosewood fingerboard holding 20 medium jumbo frets.

Gibson had a new type of pickup designed by Jim DeCola made for the new EB Bass. The DeCola Humbuckers are made with Alnico V rod magnets with proprietary winding methods to offer a more focused tonality. Each of the volume controls for the pickups can be popped up to access a frequency tuned coil tap for a fatter single coil tone and better output balance. Controls also include a Master Tone knob.

The bass is rounded out with a Babicz bridge, a Corian nut, and Grover tuners. It’s finished with a grain-textured nitrocellulose lacquer in Satin Fireburst, Satin Cream, Natural Satin, and Satin Ebony.

The Gibson EB Bass will be available with an MSRP of $1,999. For more info, check out the Gibson website.

Gibson EB Bass Photo Gallery:

Gibson EB Bass Specs:

  • Body: Ash
  • Neck: Maple
  • Construction: Glued-in Neck
  • Fingerboard: Rosewood
  • Frets: 20
  • Fingerboard Radius: 12?
  • Scale: 34?
  • Inlays: Acrylic Dot
  • Nut: Corian
  • Slots: Gibson PLEK System
  • Tuners: Grover 20:1
  • Bridge: Babicz
  • Knobs: Black Top Hats with Inserts
  • Pickguard: Tortoise Shell
  • Pickups: DeCola Humbuckers
  • Controls: 2 Push/Pull Volumes, 1 Tone Control
  • Finish: Nitrocellulose
  • Colors: Satin Fireburst, Satin Cream, Natural Satin, Satin Ebony
  • Case Included

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Leave a Reply to John McKelvy Cancel reply

  1. Oh. Oh my.

    Who the hell is in charge over there at Gibson? The bulk of their new product ideas have been ridiculous beyond satirizing. And who’s writing their copy? “The EB Bass’s body is a derivative of the SG with more curvature”? Does *anybody* look at that goofy thing and see an SG shape in the slighest?

    I almost wonder if there wasn’t going to be a bass component of that aborted Jimi Hendrix line and they thought maybe the dust had cleared enough to release it and try and recoup some losses. Which won’t happen. Jeez, Dark Fire, Dusk Tiger, the Firebird X, the Hendrix debacle…what can’t Gibson get wrong?

  2. another god awful over priced pitiful bass by Gibson. I wouldn’t walk across the street to even look at it.

  3. Think I’d stick with the SG Bass………..this one looks like a mishmash of a bunch of other peoples basses.

  4. I would happy to try one.

  5. 2000 dollars for three pieces of standard wood hunked together in a totally standard quality factory… seems a bit excessive when I think of what other things I can get for 2000 dollars, but I guess that’s the gibson way…

  6. It looks alright but its way overpriced. Id buy a grabber any day over this.

  7. Gibson seem to have the unerring ability to produce basses that look as if they will one day be bought from a pawn shop for a few dollars as they have been discontinued due to poor sales. The people who buy these bargains will then join/form indie bands that will go on to international acclaim and then their fans will hunt down identical instruments and eventually drive the price back up. This is however a problem when you’re trying to shift the new ones right now. Pity as it’s definitely a ‘so ugly it’s cool’ bass, but not for that price. Sorry, Guys, though I stilll love my LP Gold Top.

  8. Looks more Kalamazoo than Gibson.

  9. Pro: 34″ Scale, Coil Splitting, Nitro Finish and Nice Finish Colors.
    Cons: Looks like a Strat, Set Neck, No active electronics and Only 20 frets.

  10. gibson will never beat fender in making basses!

  11. They made a J-bass out of cheese and left it in the microwave too long.

  12. I notice none of you have said you played one. I’ve played bass for 47 years and I think the thing looks just great. The EB-O series it neck heavy and muddy sounding. I used one for 12 years. The T-Birds are also top heavy and look stupid. It’s not going to go for $2000, that’s the MSRP which means nothing. Musicians Friend sells it for $999 which is $400 cheaper than the so called SG bass with exactly the same features and it’s a 34″ scale not 30 1/2. You can take all the powered basses and throw them in a heap. I wouldn’t have one. And for those who lament about only 20 frets, there are only 7 major notes in the bass regester ( not counting the sharps and flats) and it don’t matter where you play them. Yes it’s a mismash of other basses. There is just so much you can do with the shape of a bass and yet, just about every company making guitars makes a copy of the P bass, Jazz bass, and Strat guitar instead of comming up with something original of their own. Now why is that? The have no imagination. Even if you don’t like some of their designs, Gibson at least tries to make their basses distinctive. Personally I’m a Fender guy. I’ve got four P’s. But, I think this bass is going to be a good one, worthy of the name and most of you negatives can’t see it.

    • I have no idea if it’s a good player or not.

      In MY opinion on the looks, (which is entirely subjective) it looks like a Fender copy, but a really, really ugly one. Like they were shooting for “originality” but missed the mark by a mile. But I realize that’s my own opinion. I’m fairly open minded about looks, but this one is neither “classic” nor “innovative” so no dice.

      It may play itself telepathically and cure alzheimers, with a bag of chips thrown in. Awesome. Not interested though.

    • To be clear, they took a Jbass and kept the front half, and just reversed of angle of the offset of the front half. meh.

    • I haven’t played this bass in person, but I have played many higher end basses, most of them have bolt on maple necks for a reason, the notes have more definition! I myself don’t prefer active basses, but most of the other players that I know do. Always having fresh batteries on hand gets expensive (however, I do buy tubes :P ) and many active circuits don’t have good tone IMHO. However, I am more surprised that Gibson wouldn’t put active electronics in a new bass design (Tobias basses excluded). Leo even designed active basses after selling Fender (Music Man & G&L) despite all the success with the design of the P-Bass and J-bass (of which I own both). Obviously, tone is subjective and each bass is unique so you be your own judge.

      Again I haven’t played this bass, so if anyone has that wants to chime in…please do so.

  13. I would buy this at a grabber price. I think it is equal in terms of pure aesthetics to the grabber, but I think this is more punky (so I like it a little more, since that’s where my taste in aesthetics tends to lie). I like idea of the coil tap. I really like the idea of a babicz bridge. I really would like to play one, there’s just no chance ill come up with that kind of cash in the near future.

  14. Gibson needs to make more 5 strings.

  15. Yeah, because Fender never makes questionable design choices – see the Pawn Shop Reverse Jaguar and tell me it looks better than this. Sweetwater has the EB priced at $999, less than an American made P-bass by the way.

  16. You’re basically paying $500 for the bass and $500 for the brand name on the headstock. Gibson and Fender are experts in overpricing their instruments. I can think of 20 basses with more features and quality for half of the price.

  17. I’m a Fender man through and through. I have a 64 P-Bass, an 83 Fullerton 57 Reissue P-Bass, as well as 2010 American Deluxe P-Bass. I can’t imagine that this new Gibson can compete sonically with any of those basses, but I would love to give this Gibson a spin if I can find one. I hate to trash guitars that I haven’t even played. Maybe it’ll be the exception to the Gibson rule (of great guitars and crummy basses).

  18. I own a Gibson RD ARTIST that I love had it 32 years, I played the EB and was bitterly disapointed. Just my opinion. It had no soul.

  19. It’s the player that has the soul and he portrays this in his music. Great bass which I bought in November. A very good alternative to my Fender Jazz bass. Lighter and faster neck than the Jazz they don’t compete they compliment each other. The knockers on here don’t know what they’re talking about!!!