Originally called the NB-4, this fancy-looking EB-200 specimen certainly has lots of visual pizazz. With its alternating polished and frosted stripes, the metal pickguard is a real eye-catcher, and it’s perfectly topped off with the matching elongated triangle on the headstock. This gives the “sideways scroll” shape an even more exaggerated look, like a collision between a Flying V and a Fender. The rosewood fingerboard has cool Gretsch-like fret markers and very small frets. The tobacco finish is nicely done and shows off the wood grain (especially on the back), and the slight bevel on the top horn is a nice touch. The tomahawk-shaped chrome tuners are compact enough to fit in a small space, and still work pretty smoothly.
Sound-wise, this thing has some serious cojones, especially for a short-scale bass. The two “ultra high sensitive” pickups have simple on/off switches, but you can actually get a lot of tonal variations out of this bass by fiddling with the switches to find the in-between spots. If you dig in with your right hand, there is an inherent distortion in the basic sound of this bass that is accentuated as you play harder. It can sound really nasty— in the best possible way! As I put my right hand in different places to pluck, I was surprised at the depth of the low end. Playing softly with my thumb and fingers while palm-muting gave a huge reggae/dub type tone, especially with the tone rolled off. Speaking of which, one interesting quirk is that the tone control is wired opposite the norm, as if 10 was 1 and 1 was 10. Sounds like a Jimi Hendrix tune . . . .
However, this bass still has a little ways to go to get back to its former glory. The bridge is a mess. The shiny cover is long gone, and the remaining metal looks like it was dredged up from the Titanic, with a protruding stalk in the middle between the A and D strings. The one-piece metal saddle is barely adjustable and fairly unstable. The neck and trussrod could also use some tweaking—but this thing is solidly built and should come back to life with a little TLC.
The history of the electric bass guitar has been made a lot richer by the contributions of companies like Teisco, who made it possible for everyday folks to afford an instrument. Even in its present shape, this bass is still a lot of fun to play, and could fit in a number of different musical settings. It’s a throwback to another time, but it’s still got something to say. All for a list price of $150—you’ve gotta love that!
DAVE POMEROY
Dave Pomeroy has released nine solo and band projects on Earwave Records. His latest CD is Three Ring Circle, an instrumental trio with Rob Ickes on dobro and Andy Leftwich on mandolin. It’s available at www.davepomeroy.com.