Ernie Ball Earthwood Natural Guitar - Any Intell?

[jessbassdad]

I've recently taken an interest in jumbo and other oversized guitars. Being a big fan of Ernie Ball basses, I did a double-take when I learned of the existence of the Earthwood Natural.

My guess is that not too many Earthwood guitars were made, although the Earthwood bass met with some success and are highly sought after.

The only info I can find is that they appear to be quite deep, spruce top, walnut sides and back, and all-maple neck. Plus a wooden pick guard. Date of manufacture early 70s.

Has anyone played one of these, or heard it being played?

Thanks all.

[Goat Mick]

First I've heard of one of these and they seem pretty scarce but I found one for sale in a Google search at Rumble Seat in Nashville. Here's a link, you'll have to scroll down some.

http://www.rumbleseatmusic.com/acoustics/

[jessbassdad]

Yes that one is also posted on Reverb, which is where I saw it first.

Seems like a pretty rare bird.

[drive-south]

The Earth wood bass started the whole acoustic bass scare. It was followed by the Guild and Washburns. The guitar was less popular.

[Wade Hampton]

Let's post some photos, shall we?:

Ernie Ball Earthwood guitar




Ernie Ball Earthwood bass guitar




Reunited (and it feels so good!)

Jess, to answer your question, over the years I have played a couple of the Earthwood basses, and seen a couple more that were in locked glass cases or otherwise inaccessible at music stores. By comparison, I've never even seen one of the Earthwood six string guitars in real life, much less played one.

Which indicates to me that there were more of the basses made and sold. Which makes sense, given that the Ernie Ball Earthwood acoustic bass guitar (ABG) was one of the first such instruments available on the market (the first being the Harptone ABG made on the East Coast just a brief time earlier.) So there was a market niche available for the Earthwood ABG, however tiny.

But obviously there were lots of other six string acoustics available when the Earthwood guitar came out.

So neither were particularly successful in the marketplace, but the ABG was and is a bit more sought-after.

That said, the Ernie Ball Earthwood ABG is an enormous instrument, and that has limited its popularity. You can get a sense of what a beast the Earthwood ABG's were to wrassle with from this photo:

It's like trying to play music on a refrigerator...

Anyway, as you can tell from the photos, the Earthwood ABG's came either with or without double pickguards. I've seen both styles.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[jessbassdad]

Wade, thanks for the primer.

Man, the Earthwood bass looks like a beluga whale. Reminds me of some Mexican instruments I have seen.

In comparison the Earthwood guitar would likely fall in well within the regular jumbo range. Probably close to J-100 size?

Anyone out there play one of these babies?

[lt20dbl]

I had one for a while. I bought it new around 1973 in Portland, Or. I didn't know too much about guitars back then and had very little money which made me an easy sell. I recall, they were made with bodies of Mahogany, Maple, Rosewood and Walnut. Mine was walnut with spruce top and an all maple neck and headstock. It was as big as a J-200 but not terribly loud for it's size with little sustain or bass rumble. Satin finished throughout, plain and rather crudely made, but it was okay. I traded it for a new Guild at the same store, a couple of years later. I see no reason to own one again. The Price varied according to wood choice with Rosewood being most expensive. Mine was considerably less than $300 new (traded even for my used Gibson Classical and it didn't come with a case but I found a Guild case that fit it. I did meet a street player in Canada who had a maple version but never saw another after that.

[mike530]

I still have my original 1972 Earthwood Guitar, Serial Number T729. Purchased in August 1972. Original sales receipt shows the price was $226.80 + $15.88 Tax = $242.68. I suspect it is worth a little more than that right now.

Does anyone know how many Earthwood guitars were built?

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by mike530

Does anyone know how many Earthwood guitars were built?

Mike, Ernie Ball/Music Man is a family business, and the last time I heard about it the original Ernie Ball's son was running the company. I imagine if you give them a call they might be able to give you an idea of what those production numbers might have been.

https://www.music-man.com/

The telephone number for their San Luis Obispo headquarters is 866-823-2255. When trying to find out information like what you're looking for, I've often found it to be far quicker to call and talk to the folks at the company than to ask folks on guitar forums, who tend to be perfectly happy to speculate but don't actually know the genuine information. It's also faster to call the company than to send an email asking; emails are much easier to ignore.

It seems likely that not a whole lot of these instruments were ever built. But I don't have any production numbers, and won't try to hoorah you into thinking that I do.

So give Ernie Ball/Music Man a call and see what they tell you.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[mike530]

Thanks for Phone Number.
I will give them a call.
-Mike

[Don Lampson]

Originally Posted by jessbassdad

I've recently taken an interest in jumbo and other oversized guitars. Being a big fan of Ernie Ball basses, I did a double-take when I learned of the existence of the Earthwood Natural.

My guess is that not too many Earthwood guitars were made, although the Earthwood bass met with some success and are highly sought after.

The only info I can find is that they appear to be quite deep, spruce top, walnut sides and back, and all-maple neck. Plus a wooden pick guard. Date of manufacture early 70s.

Has anyone played one of these, or heard it being played?

Thanks all.

An old picking pal of mine bought one in the early 70s. His was the mahogany model. I played it a few times, and was surprised at the lack of volume, and bass, considering it's size. He didn't keep it long...

Another pal, who retired from Ernie Ball, used to bring an Earthwood bass to jams from time to time. It didn't have much volume either...

Don

[NotValid]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Let's post some photos, shall we?:


That said, the Ernie Ball Earthwood ABG is an enormous instrument, and that has limited its popularity. You can get a sense of what a beast the Earthwood ABG's were to wrassle with from this photo:

It's like trying to play music on a refrigerator...

Anyway, as you can tell from the photos, the Earthwood ABG's came either with or without double pickguards. I've seen both styles.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

That hurts my shoulder just looking at it.

[mike530]

I sent off an email to "[email protected]" the company that owns Erine Ball / Earthwood. I asked for info on the Earthwood Guitar that I purchased in 1972. Here is the response I received. From the response I have a very early guitar, as I purchased it in August 1972. If I were to guess it is the 29th to be built.


---------------------------------------------------------
We don't have too much information on these unfortunately.

The following is from our archive. There were 2 runs of Earthwood instruments. It originally started in 1972 and then production ended in 1974. It was brought back in 1977 and lasted until about 1985. About 2,000 total basses, guitars, mandolas & baby guitars were produced.

These were in production before the serial number database came about so we don't have production records for them. We were left with one photocopy of a handwritten sheet of serial numbers 801-1052 that just have a hand written date (we believe selling date) and store name (we believe originally shipped to).

T729 is not on there unfortunately.

We are not sure if they started at 0 or at 700.

We are not sure what the prefix letter "T" stands for, but we've heard of some being prefixed with "TB" & "G" as well. The sheet we have does not have prefix letters.

Sorry we don't have more information for you.

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by NotValid

That hurts my shoulder just looking at it.

Mine too. Looks like it should really come with an end pin, to play standing up like a doghouse bass (double bass). Either an end pin or your own private chiropractor on retainer......