Any Gibson Bass Experts here??

J

JasonBird

Average Member
I bought a Gibson SB 450 recently, and i'm trying to find out what year it may have been made. the serial number is 25960 and that seems to date it in the 60's but they never showed up in catalogues until 72. it looks all original, and the tuners look to be older as well, kind of the same style as the EB basses from the early 60's. i can take some pictures of it if that would help. anyone know anythng about them? it plays nice. I'm just curious about it...
thanks in advance

Jasonbird
 
Here's a great resource:
http://gibsonbass.com/

In particular:
http://www.gibsonbass.com/library.php

Look at the section on reading date codes on the pots. My EB-3 has a serial number that doesn't match a number of other characteristics of the bass. I called Gibson, who were happy to help and even look at pictures, but they told me '72 when that contradicted other things I saw on the bass. In the end, I guessed '75 or '76 from the catalogs, and then found the date codes on the pots which told me end of '74, so I'm going with '75.

If you have a consistant date code on all or most of your pots, you can probably go with that if other characteristics make sense.

I've also read that the Kalamazoo plant was notorious for arbitrarily changing serial number sequences, or restarting sequences over. There are documented duplicate ranges of serial numbers and then there the rogue batches as well it seems.

Good luck.

Here's info on yours:
http://www.gibsonbass.com/SB450_1.php
Confirms that they weren't around before '72, like you thought.

How does it sound? With the alder body (going after Fender?) I'm curious what it sounds like. I do love my mahogany EB-3, but it is a bit limited.
 
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thanks

cool, i'll have to pull the control panel off tonight when i get home and see...thanks.

JasonBird
 
hey,

if you're still working on this, let me know- we should be able to knock it out between the style of knobs, the pot codes + gibson logo. Pics would help
but not a must.. I was a GC manager and vintage buyer for a while and I also own a mysterious SG from this era. The serial on mine dates to 64 but is really a 71... friggin gibson :rolleyes:

also- serial (25960) is pressed in wood above "made in USA".....is that possibly a digit short? Also, a small handful of these basses made it as far out as '77/'78 I believe.. if its not a decal we should be able to eliminate '75 and on

-Pete
 
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