The most remarkable aspect of Gibson’s first doublenecks was the body, of course. It was hollow, with a top carved spruce top, like Gibson’s acoustic archtops. It was unique in that it had no soundholes – a design that had only been used on two electric basses made by Gibson in the pre-World War II years.

Within a few years, Gibson decided that the subtle tonal differences of the spruce top and hollow design were not as important as bringing the cost within the range of more guitar buyers, and by 1962, the EDS-1275 had become a solidbody based on the design of Gibson’s SG series.