Gibson Bass: 60 years of Bass Guitar History

A Gibson bass could have beat everyone to the party if the company had caught the vision when one of their engineers proposed they manufacture a bass guitar in 1924.

 But at that time the idea was ahead of its time.

Gibson considered the idea again in about 1938, just before the Second World War, but again the concept was abandoned almost before it began.

Gibson didn't rejuvenate the idea again until 1953 when they produced the Electric Bass, or EB-1 as it was later named. Even then, only a few hundred were produced.

It wasn't until 1958 that a modern Gibson bass was produced. It was called the EB-2, and was a semi-hollow body bass built to look like the famous ES-335 six-string electric guitar.

Later they produced a Gibson bass that looked similar to their SG series six-string guitars. For whatever reason they numbered it EB-0.

Gibson went on to build many basses that looked similar to their line of six-strings.

I have never owned a Gibson bass myself, although I've had opportunity to play a few.

One interesting Gibson bass that belonged to a friend of mine was called a Grabber G1. 

It had a moveable pickup that could be slid to position it closer or farther from the bridge to change the sound. It was a pretty nice bass.

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