1967 Epiphone Rivoli (Gibson-made) Semihollow Electric Bass Guitar

Well -- how about these apples? This is a customer's lovingly-aged Rivoli from '67 and it's basically a Gibson EB-2 that's rebadged. This one appears original save for the "wrist rest" in the middle. It was playing decently when it got in the shop but had run out of adjustment room for the bridge.

To get it dialed-in further I took a drill to the top of the bridge posts and removed 1/8" of material from the collar -- a cardinal sin, maybe? -- but that let me drop the bridge right to the top on the treble side and get the action setup perfectly on this old slugger for its owner without resorting to a neck reset.

Suffice to say, he's happy, I'm happy, and it's making good music again. If you know these basses, you know that the tone goes from "deep and percussively muddy" to "even more muddy and dark" and that's about it. They make a perfect thump-thump bass in the traditional manner but you definitely don't want to use one of these for modern, mids-and-highs-forward, quick-fingers, athletic playing. These are much more like good old friends that will reliably provide warm, wide, fat-sounding low-end.