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BASSES > EB0 | EB3 | EB6

Gibson EB3 overview | EB3 variations | Sound clips | Technical info | Pricing and publicity | EB3 forum posts

1969 EB3 | 1971 EB3 | 1971 EB3L | 1972 EB3
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1971 EB3 in walnut

Gibson EB3 publicity, shipping and pricing information

Shipping figures

A total of 14655 EB3s were shipped.

From 1961-1970 shipping figures did not differentiate between finish, handedness or scale (though its unclear whether any EB3Ls were shipped in 1970) - just total numbers shipped

 1961196219631964196519661967196819691970 total
EB3132273214277339467631565171619406554

The rest of the seventies saw each EB3/EB3L variant listed separately

 197119721973197419751976197719781979total
EB3 - cherry 973 530 1160 395 86 195 125 89 33 3586
EB3 - ebony     10             10
EB3 - natural 25   24             49
EB3 - walnut 706 354 572 255 138 110 78 57 20 2290
EB3 - walnut left hand         1 1 4 3   9
EB3 - white           10 11 31 17 69
EB3L - cherry 331 268 478 105 43 59 13 4 5 1306
EB3L - walnut 279 204 177 61 48 8 5     782
Total 2314 1355 2421 816 316 383 236 184 75 8101

Pricing

June 1961
September 1961
1962
July 1963
September 1964
June 1965
June 1968
September 1969
September 1970
October 1972
$285 [1]
$310 [2]
$
$330
$350
$337.50 [3]
$365
$390
$410
$450
June 1973
May 1974
January 1975
June 1975
November 1975
June 1976
January 1977
May 1978
January 1979
$465
$515
$499 [4]
$449 [5]
$469
$499 / $529 [6]
$539 / $569
$589
$629

[1] June '61 letter to dealers announces the new 'Les Paul' (SG) basses, prices are $285 and $195 for the EB3 and EB0 respectively
[2] The first pricelist to feature the EB3 had just three basses - EB0 - $210, EB3 - $310 and EB6 - $325
[3] In mid 1965 the price of the EB3 dropped slightly, with this price being held for a further three years. Sales had been relatively weak up to this point. Around this time the control cavity route of the EB3 and EB0 were redesigned to be uniform - perhaps this change reduced production costs enough to allow this price cut
[4] Sales in 1974 had dropped to a third of the 1973 values - initiating this price drop, although sales were still dropping, forcing another drop [5] later that year
[6] In late 1975 and 1976, white EB3s were priced at $30 above cherry instruments

Catalogue Appearances

The Gibson EB3 appeared in seven Gibson catalogues

1962 Gibson full line catalogue 1963 Gibson guitar and bass catalogue 1966 Gibson bass catalogue 1970 Gibson bass catalogue
1962 full line catalogue 1963 guitar and bass 1966 full line catalogue 1970 bass catalogue
1972 Gibson bass catalogue 1975 Gibson bass catalogue 1978 Gibson catalogue  
1972 bass catalogue 1975 bass catalogue 1978 Gibson catalogue  

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Jack Bruce basses his sound on Gibson - 1972
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