1960s Teisco EB-200 Electric Bass Guitar


Update 2022: I've updated the blog post with new photos, a new video, and updated the description where necessary. I recently received this back in trade... now back to the original post details...

This Teisco EB-200 was originally sent to me for conversion to a baritone guitar. It escaped that fate by way of a different EB-200 being used for conversion instead and I took it in trade and then traded or sold it to my friend Wayne back in 2017. 

Despite its having a Mustang-like 30" short scale, the Jazzmaster-style body plan, giant headstock, and more-central bridge location make this bass just as large as any Fender long-scale bass, though with the more compact comfort of a short-scale instrument and the lovingly-fundamental tone that comes with that.

This was originally a light grey-blue color that's aged to a greenish-grey. The pickguard and control plate are both thick pieces of aluminum that also mean this bass is incredibly well-shielded. It's very quiet on noise in operation.

The Jazzmaster-style body fits like a glove and looks cool, too. It's a solid hunk of some sort of mahogany-family wood. It's also got that fun, giant headstock with an aluminum faceplate. The board is rosewood and has just the lightest amount of radius. Yes, there's a tummy-cut, too.

The original pickup selectors were big rocker switches which were out of order, so unfortunately my replacement 3-way toggle sits a little high. I used a thin brass plate to fill the void where the other switches were, rather than aluminum, to sort-of blend in with the color of the Gibson-style knobs.

The bar-magnet pickups sound rad, by the way. They're a bit microphonic, too, so this bass has a very "lively" body sound that's very satisfying and supplies some "subsonic" harmonic-like sound to the voice.

The adjustable bridge has a single-piece saddle that, after a little tweaking, intonates correctly and is easy to adjust and use. I had to replace a few of the mounting screws that held the bridge down, unfortunately, as the original factory ones were broken and too short to begin with.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, new 3-way selector for the pickups, minor wiring cleanup, replacement knobs, and a setup. Strings are currently 95w-39w D'Addarios and that's about as heavy as I suggest for these old short-scale Teiscos despite the beefy neck profile.


Body wood: mahogany-like

Bridge: adjustable

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany-family

Pickups: 2x original bar-magnet single coils


Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 95w-39w extra lights

Neck shape: medium-big C/V

Board radius: flatter (~14-16")

Truss rod: adjustable but near maxed-out

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-low


Scale length: 30"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Body width: 14"

Body depth: 1 1/4"

Weight: 8 lbs 0 oz


Condition notes: it's all-original save knobs and 3-way selector switch. The tone knob works backwards from normal, so "all the way rolled left" is bright/bypassed. This is really typical on old Teisco instruments. The fretboard extension has mild "ski-jumping" over the body, but I've leveled/dressed the frets to remove its effect from playability. Action is low and fast. The finish is overall in good order but the back shows some rubbed-in areas and some areas that are duller than others. It's also got light usewear throughout.


It comes with: a gigbag.

















Comments

Unknown said…
this was on reverb.com... is it gone?...
Unknown said…
Let me know if you ever sell! - P
Unknown said…
I took the finish off mine and there's a nice, honey colored mahogany body under there that took a yellowed poly pretty well. I removed the original stamped steel bridge and Mark Sandman-ed it into a 2-string slide bass. This was a good application as the neck was twisted. Yours is just missing the model # sticker and the logo on the headstock face. But it looks like a nice example.