1965 Gibson EB-6D
This custom-ordered oddball is an electric bass with six strings and two pickups
“Several features make this example unique. Firstly, there’s the colour, because I’ve never seen asunburst one before. It’s like atwo-tone tobacco sunburst; I’ve had aLes Paul SG that was the same colour. It had to be custom-ordered and that’s why there’s a ‘custom’ engraving on the truss rod cover. Then there’s the ebony fingerboard with genuine mother-of-pearl block markers. Every other EB-6D I’ve seen had arosewood fingerboard with ‘mother of toilet seat’ celluloid dot markers, but this is more like aLes Paul Custom board, minus the binding.
“There’s apearl plug where the jack socket would normally be. The original owner, who must have ordered this specially, requested that the jack socket be mounted on the control coverplate. They must have done this to prevent the wood from tearing out in the event of someone hitting or standing on the plug.
“Gibson intended players to use rightangled jack plugs with front-mounted sockets, but most didn’t and damage in this area is fairly common. Iassume the thinking was that the plug would simply pull out from the back if anything happened. And if the plastic plate got damaged, the owner could easily order areplacement. In order to accommodate the socket, Gibson had to customise the control cavity rout, but there are no other structural differences.
“Both pickups are ‘Patent Number’ humbuckers identical to the ones Gibson was fitting to regular six-string guitars. Being a 1965 model, the hardware is abit of amixture, with nickel-plated pickup covers and achrome-plated coverplate. The bridge is the same as the one Gibson used for the four-string basses, but they cut six rather than four slots and made six little stringgrooves on the saddle.
“EB-6s sell quickly and are usually gone straight after I put them on the website. I’m surprised at the number of people who want them because I don’t think they sound as good as a Fender VI and they’re not as versatile. I think the EB-6 can sound a little mushy with the humbuckers, although these pickups have a lot more clarity and tonal range than the earlier ‘mudbucker’ pickups that Gibson fitted to the EB-0.
“This one comes with its original hardshell black Tolex case. EB-6D cases had to be longer because the headstock is enormous; it’s almost like Gibson’s 12-string headstock but a little wider. The neck is full, but it’s not a giant like the late-50s ones or thin like an early 60s neck. It most closely resembles the type of neck you’d find on a ’63 or ’64 ES-335. It’
