Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3770436357&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

I know (from reading some of the archives) that there are a few fans of these here - what are your opinions? I don't know much of the minutia, only that I've lusted after one of these for awhile (ever since removing the 'wheel' from Led Zep III ;p). I've pretty much resigned myself to eventually getting the late '60's reissue, but you never know (this one has a few minor issues, plus I *do* have lots of room on the CC right now). I know the seller has been a topic of conversation before - the upside for me (being in Canada) is the worldwide shipping, which doesn't always happen for the oddball stuff I like.

Just wondering...
What's in the wheel of LZ III?

Patrick, without detaching the wheel, you can see a shot of JPJ clutching his EB-1 when it lines up with one of the cutouts. I pulled the wheel out thinking there might be more interesting stuff that wouldn't otherwise be visible. For that particular picture, it really isn't necessary, but I had to find out for myself (this was years ago).
BTW, if I actually remember this correctly, JPJ's EB-1 was originally owned by Little Richard's bassist, and makes an appearance in Don't Knock The Rock (or one of those '50's films).

I believe that the bass player for Badfinger, Tom Evans played an EB-1. I don't know of that bass was the one on the recording or not.

It doesn't have the original pickup in it. If I were going to buy one (and I like them) I'd wait until one came along that was all original. Big bucks though. There is a Gibson forum in the Dudepit and I'm sure this bass has been covered in minute detail by now over there.

Yeah Bob, the pickup and the missing rear cavity cover were the main issues. The writeup states that it has a '61 EB-1 pickup, but I thought they'd stopped making EB-1's in the late '50's.

As for an all-original, there was one from the U.K. that was immaculate a few weeks back (a '53). It was listed (twice) at what was essentially $7700+ U.S. ! That's *way* too rich for my blood.

Someone else played one....

.

He was responsible for the late 60's early 70's reissues, I saw Mountain twice, Sunn 2000S amps (lots) and EB-1 bass. He was a great player with a great sound. Actually he was great at just about anything he touched, including writing, singing and producing.

Bob, actually no one has mentioned it yet at the Pit.

Relayer, the original EB-1 was only made through 1958 but this is definitely a 1959-62 era pickup. The original pickup had a brown cover and was single coil and the row of polepieces was at one edge rather than in the center.

This seller is always at the high end of the price scale. Whatever the reserve is, it will be up there. But probably nowhere near $7700.

Thanks Dave. I hadn't worded my thoughts on the pickup properly - what I'd meant was that I recalled the original EB-1 was made only into the late '50's, and so that couldn't be a 61 EB-1 pickup - could be a '61 Gibby 'something else" piece, but not from an EB-1. For the longest time I could find almost no (good) pictures of these cool basses, but that seems to have gotten a bit better lately, and yeah, now that you've mentioned it, I remember about the correct colour and polepiece placement. Now I gotta imagine that, as scarce as these basses seem to be, finding the proper extra parts such as pickups & cavity covers is gonna be that much tougher, correct?

As for price, that's one of the things I recall hearing about the seller. OTOH, do you agree that $7700 is a bit optimistic for that other one (I assume you'd seen it - if not, it was a beaut, and I think I still have the link if it hasn't expired)? I realize the '50's EB-1 is a rare bird, but that should be balanced out by demand - IMO there aren't nearly as many that lust after those as do the usual pieces that you hear talked about (and even within Gibson circles). Then again, maybe the fact it listed twice at that high price and had no bites answers my question. I technically *could* afford it, but I couldn't justify it, that's for sure.

Yeah Dave I went there right after here and was surprised to see no thread on it. That was the first thing I thought of also Christopher was that it would really be hard to find an original pickup for it.

I didn't see the expired auction you mentioned, but IMHO anything over $4500 would be optimistic, and that's assuming all original -- which the one in the current auction is not. It also doesn't have the original plastic tuner buttons either, but a lot of them deteriorated and were replaced by metal buttons.

Southworth Guitar has had one on gBase listed at $5800, it's all original, but it's been there a long time. He's notoriously high too.

There were 566 original issue EB-1s made plus another 94 brown pickup EB-2s in 1958. It's hard enough to find a black cover EB-series pickup and there were about 2000 of them, I've only ever seen one of those for sale separately on eBay. Never seen the brown cover single coil pup for sale separately.

Just for giggles, here's that expired UK auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4713&item=3765974588&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

No doubt it's a beaut, but like I said, it was listed twice at that price, and ran the full auction timeline with no bites.

I don't have a mind for remembering all those details, so thanks for providing them for me. With those limited numbers, yeah, it'd be tough to come up with the correct parts! If it doesn't get crazy near the end, it might be worth considering it, as they just don't come up all that often regardless of condition. Why do I have to jones for stuff like this?!

BTW - didn't notice the non-orignal tuners until you'd mentioned it - I only looked quickly at the photo for banjo style, and hadn't realized they weren't the plastic buttons (I do realize those deteriorated quite often, but it's funny they didn't mention the changeover :-\).

I might take a look at that Southworth offering as well just to aggrevate myself.

BTW - as for the Chicago Music Exchange offering, I may send a few questions their way (asking about the tuner buttons to see what they say, if there's an OHSC, the extending peg). Anything else I should consider?

Wow, that is a nice EB-1 in Britain, if I had some money to throw away maybe.