NBD: 'Gibson' Orphan/Amputee...WARNING - images may be disturbing!

So I'm cruising through the local CL, looking for something to help me part with some of my 'bass money' envelope, when I clicked on this...



Intrigued, I texted the dude and agreed to meet him after he got off work. Well, I left his house with this super lightweight, but sad, mutilated, little short scale bass that I think was worth the money. After all, anything playable for $50 is a good deal...right?

There are no obvious marks of identification on it, other than the 'Gibson' decal on the headstock, and whether it is what the seller says it is, I really don't know. It definitely needs some work: the action is too high even for me; the volume pot distorts past 6; and both the pickguard and cavity cover are warped like crazy. Who knows what else I'll find when I start digging into it. I'm thinking I'll just do the best I can with setting it up and bring it to the firehouse as a fretless practice bass, but I'm half-tempted to strip it, amputate it's other side, and refinish it...just for fun and experience.

 

I got a few hours on it last night, and aside from the ridiculously high action (which is onl a neck adjustment and a lower-profile bridge away), it either needs the side dots removed or the neck refretted.

My real fretless has the dots at the proper postition, and this obviously has it "between the frets" I dealt with it, but it messed me up, too. I think I'll just wait wa week or two and proceess all of the thoughts and ideas before I decide what to do...though the idea of a prosthetic bottom horn is very interesting, considering I have a fully equipped shop...

Keep the ideas coming!!

 

Funny thing is...I don't know a damn thing about this bass, beyond what I can observe. I'm more of a Fender guy, so I'm not even sure it's a real Gibson or a Chinese knock-off, although it certainly seems old enough. The story I got from the seller was that the bass was given to him by a guitarist friend of his who had it for years (but wasn't the one who mutilated it) in his closet. The seller only rarely used it himself, so now that he's out of work, he's liquidating everything that isn' a necessity. I don't know about the holes on the back, or the ones that are on the fingerboard, around the 19th and 20th 'fret'. The finish is also a super-ameteurish gloss. It wasn't even sanded down, buffed, or anything!

Yeagh, I don't think the BadAss-I was the stock bridge on these. I bet I could clean that BadAss up and get $50 for it, then see if I can find a more original-looking bridge...like one of these - for $65

It looks to be - with the tight grain and featherweight, but I'd have to get busy with a sander to get through all the finish.

From Wikipedia:

Manufacturer: Gibson
Period: 1959 — 1979
Body type: Solid
Neck joint: Set
Scale: 30.5"
Body: Mahogany
Neck: Mahogany/Maple
Fretboard: Rosewood
Pickup: 1 double-coil humbucker
Colors available: Initially only cherry red. Walnut finish was offered starting in 1972. Black was offered between 1972 and 1975. A natural finish was offered starting in 1973.

History: The EB-0 was first marketed in 1959 in response to the declining sales of Gibson's EB-1. The body was styled after the Les Paul Junior, but retained the mahogany neck and body and 30.5" scale length of the EB-1. It was available only in cherry red. This version of the EB-0 remained in production until 1961, after which the body was redesigned to resemble the Gibson SG. In 1972, the EB-0 saw another, less dramatic revision. It received a larger body, a maple neck, and its pickup was moved further from the base of the neck. Despite these revisions, sales dropped significantly in the subsequent years and production was gradually phased out. The last EB-0 was made in 1979. Epiphone currently produces an EB-0 which is similar to the 1972 version of the Gibson EB-0.