The
Gibson EB-3 is an
electricAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as...
bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
model, produced by the
Gibson Guitar CorporationThe Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its...
.
Introduced in 1961, the EB-3 was one of the bass guitar equivalents of the popular
Gibson SGThe Gibson SG is a popular model of solid-bodied electric guitar that was introduced in the early 1960s.-Origins:In 1960, Gibson Les Paul sales were significantly lower than they had been in previous years, so in 1961 the model was given a completely new body style that was thinner and had two...
. It featured a slim SG-style body, a 30.5" scale, and two pickups (one large
humbuckingA conventional humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have high output since both coils are in series and the magnetic circuit is low loss...
pickup in the neck position and one
mini-humbuckerThe mini-humbucker is a smaller variation of the full size PAF humbucker pickup created by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. It has a thinner, less powerful sound than the full-size version and is frequently used in jazz guitars, mounted under the fingerboard or on the pickguard...
pickup in the bridge position). The electronics consisted of a 4-way switch and associated volume and tone knobs for each pickup.
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The
Gibson EB-3 is an
electricAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses pickups to convert the vibration of its steel-cored strings into an electrical current, which is made louder with an instrument amplifier and a speaker. The signal that comes from the guitar is sometimes electronically altered with guitar effects such as...
bass guitarThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
model, produced by the
Gibson Guitar CorporationThe Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its...
.
Introduced in 1961, the EB-3 was one of the bass guitar equivalents of the popular
Gibson SGThe Gibson SG is a popular model of solid-bodied electric guitar that was introduced in the early 1960s.-Origins:In 1960, Gibson Les Paul sales were significantly lower than they had been in previous years, so in 1961 the model was given a completely new body style that was thinner and had two...
. It featured a slim SG-style body, a 30.5" scale, and two pickups (one large
humbuckingA conventional humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have high output since both coils are in series and the magnetic circuit is low loss...
pickup in the neck position and one
mini-humbuckerThe mini-humbucker is a smaller variation of the full size PAF humbucker pickup created by the Gibson Guitar Corporation. It has a thinner, less powerful sound than the full-size version and is frequently used in jazz guitars, mounted under the fingerboard or on the pickguard...
pickup in the bridge position). The electronics consisted of a 4-way switch and associated volume and tone knobs for each pickup. The standard finish was cherry red (like the SG guitar models), though EB-3s were also produced in other finishes such as Polaris White, Pelham Blue, and ebony.
The design of the bass guitar changed several times during the 1960s. In 1962, the black plastic cover on the neck pickup was replaced by a metal one. Around 1964/5, nickel plated hardware was replaced by chrome plated. Around 1966/7 the neck was replaced with a thinner one; the unadjustable bar bridge was replaced by a fully adjustable one with a nylon saddle for each string; the string guard was removed; a bridge guard was introduced and the knobs were replaced with the witch-hat design. In 1969 and 1970, the headstock was replaced with a slotted one(similar to those on most classical guitars), with tuning keys mounted at ninety degrees downwards behind the head. In the 1970s, the position of the pickups on the body was changed and moved closer to the bridge, and different materials were used for the body and the neck. In addition to the Gibson EB-3, a long-scale (34") model, called the EB-3L, was introduced for players who preferred the longer 34" scale as featured on most Fender bass models). The design of this bass, as with its lead guitar relative, has been criticised for the tendency of the guitar's neck to lean toward the ground because of the small body and large headstock.
The EB-3 was discontinued in the late-1970s. It is currently being produced by the
Gibson Guitar CorporationThe Gibson Guitar Corporation, of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, is a manufacturer of acoustic and electric guitars. Gibson also owns and makes guitars under such brands as Epiphone, Kramer, Valley Arts, Tobias, Steinberger, and Kalamazoo. In addition to guitars, the company makes pianos through its...
as the "Gibson SG Bass"; this model is similar to the early-60s EB-3, except for the lack of a varitone switch and 3 knobs instead of 4.
EpiphoneThe Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Music Company in 1957 who also had owned Gibson Guitar Corporation. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
produces both a long-scale and a short-scale EB-3, which are similar to the original EB-3s.
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