1966 AMPEG AUB-1 "SCROLL BASS" | FRETLESS | SERIAL #30 | FIRST YEAR PRODUCTION

Serial number 30. Let that settle for a moment.

Approximately 400 AUB-1 fretless Scroll Basses were built in total, with serial numbers starting at #001. The instrument you are looking at is the 30th fretless Scroll Bass Ampeg ever made — produced within weeks of the model's public debut, by a small crew of luthiers in Ampeg's Linden, New Jersey factory, at a moment when no one yet knew whether this radical, visionary instrument would change the world or disappear quietly. It did not disappear.

THE STORY BEHIND THE INSTRUMENT

The AEB-1 and AUB-1 were the first horizontal electric basses of Ampeg's own design. They were launched at the NAMM show in July 1966 and produced through early 1968 — a total of approximately 1,150 instruments across both models, all hand-built by a small crew of luthiers in Ampeg's Linden, New Jersey factory.

The man behind the concept was Everett Hull, Ampeg's founder — a purist who considered the upright bass the only legitimate low-end instrument and was deeply skeptical of what Fender had started. Hull was trying to create an electric bass for upright jazz players, convinced that fretted basses with metal strings were a passing fad. He was wrong about the fad — but he was absolutely right that there was a market for something more sophisticated, more tonal, and more connected to the jazz tradition than anything Fender was building.

The result was the "mystery pickup" — Ampeg's own name for it — buried in the body underneath the bridge. The bridge itself is mounted on a thin steel diaphragm plate overtop of two large magnetic coils cast into an epoxy block. It is not a piezo pickup. It is something Ampeg invented specifically for this instrument, designed to read the physical vibration of the strings rather than their magnetic field, which allowed the bass to accept gut strings and produce a tone closer to a genuine upright bass than anything else available in an electric horizontal format.

The market noticed immediately. The Ampeg Scroll Bass became so visually and tonally distinctive that Britain's legendary Top of the Pops television programme actually required all bass players appearing on the show to use an Ampeg Scroll Bass — keeping one backstage for common use. When the most important music television show in the United Kingdom mandates your instrument by name, you have made something that transcends product and becomes cultural artifact.

THIS SPECIFIC INSTRUMENT

The neck is maple with an ebony fingerboard — fretless, as the model designation demands. The body is three-piece maple with a birch plywood back, and the massive through-body F-holes give it an unmistakable visual presence that no other bass in history replicates. The large black pickguard wraps around those F-holes across most of the instrument's face. The tailpiece hangs off the body on two steel posts — a signature detail that, combined with the violin-derived scroll headstock, makes this bass identifiable from across any room without a second glance.

These Ampeg Scroll Basses have frequently fallen into disrepair or been heavily modified over the past sixty years — the mystery pickup in particular is temperamental and commonly replaced. Finding a well-preserved, mechanically sound, electronically original example from early production is genuinely uncommon. This example, serial #30, is in excellent mechanical and electronic condition with good cosmetic condition. The finish carries the honest patina of a working instrument from 1966 — dings and character marks entirely consistent with its age — but no significant damage. It plays and functions exactly as it should.

THE SPECIFICATIONS

Model: AUB-1 — Ampeg Unfretted Bass No. 1 Year: 1966 — First year of production Serial Number: #30 — Among the earliest 30 fretless examples ever built Configuration: Fretless Body: Three-piece maple with birch plywood back, through-body F-holes Neck: Maple, set neck Fingerboard: Ebony, fretless Headstock: Signature Ampeg scroll with molded plastic center scroll inlay Pickup: "Mystery Pickup" — vibration-activated magnetic coils mounted beneath bridge diaphragm Scale Length: 34.5 inches Strings: Requires Ampeg-length strings approximately 3 inches longer than standard Fender length — accepts LaBella flatwound or tapewound Case: Hardshell case, appears original Condition: Excellent mechanical and electronic / Good cosmetic

WHY SERIAL #30 MATTERS

The fretless fingerboard combined with the mystery pickup's unique response can produce a convincingly authentic electric upright sound — precisely what Everett Hull envisioned when he designed this instrument for the jazz world. But serial #30 is not merely an AUB-1. It is a first-months-of-production artifact from one of the most visually arresting and historically distinctive bass designs in American instrument history — built when the model was brand new, the factory was still refining its process, and every bass coming off the line was essentially a handmade statement of creative intent.

Collectors pursuing the Ampeg Scroll Bass specifically seek early serial numbers. This is as early as it gets outside of single digits.

Available exclusively from the professionally curated, internationally renowned Richard Davis Collection — accompanied by Certificate of Authenticity and Title of Ownership issued by the International Musical Instrument Registry (IMIR).