Epiphone Viola Electric Bass Guitar, Vintage Sunburst


Customer Rating :
Rating: 4.5

List Price : $499.00 Price : $299.00
Epiphone Viola Electric Bass Guitar, Vintage Sunburst

Product Description

This veteran from the British Invasion is back, but without the vintage price tag! Mod looks and warm, bass tone come together as a result of its hollow laminated Maple body with a short-scale 30.5" neck, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, posh Flame Maple top. The Epiphone Viola Bass is voiced by two bass Mini-humbucker pickups and comes with Chrome hardware.


  • Laminate Maple body
  • NYT Bass Mini-Humbucker pickups
  • Rosewood fretboard
  • 30.5 scale


Epiphone Viola Electric Bass Guitar, Vintage Sunburst Reviews


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6 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
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 (1)
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best Of Both Worlds - A Beatle Bass That Plays & Sounds Great!, December 5, 2008
This review is from: Epiphone Viola Electric Bass Guitar, Vintage Sunburst (Electronics)
For years, if you wanted to play the electric bass that Paul played in The Beatles, you had to fork over around $2,000.00 for a Hofner bass. Yes, they are made a lot better today than when Paul bought his first one for about $175.00 in 1961. But most folks can't afford that. A cost effective alternative in the same style has always been the Epiphone Viola bass.

For about a quarter of the cost of a new Hofner 500-1, you can have the look and sound close to that of the original, with some differences and caveats. The Hofner is a hollow body bass, which means that there is an open space inside the body of the guitar. This is one of the main contributors to it's original sound, which is more subdued, and mellow than more modern solid body basses, which have no chamber.

The Viola is also of the hollow body design. Though the electronics on the Viola are radically different from a Hofner, with the two humbucking pickups, a set of tape wrapped Hofner style... Read more
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars HOFNYET, January 13, 2010
By 
NOM DE PLUME (NOVATO, CA. United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Epiphone Viola Electric Bass Guitar, Vintage Sunburst (Electronics)
The Epiphone Viola Bass is a well made bass....finished nicely with decent action.....but while this instrument resembles the fabled 500/1 Hofner Beatle Bass in appearance, it does not remotely resemble the Hofner sonically.....the Epiphone generates a decent enough generic bass sound, but the Hofner posesses the punchiest and cleanest bass tone on the planet, with a very unique timbre.....in fact, the Hofners i have owned were buzz free in the studio, and their tone was like a punch in the gut....
however, all of that said, i would recommend this Epiphone over the new Hofner lower priced basses....and while many Epiphones these days are cheaply built and finished, this instrument is very servicable and a great value for the money.....but, if you ever muster up the dough to buy the real deal, do yourself a favor and get a new (don't buy a vintage one, the necks warp and they are not easily repaired) top of the line Hofner...there is nothing like it....
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Husband's Bass: Can't put it down, September 5, 2010
This review is from: Epiphone Viola Electric Bass Guitar, Vintage Sunburst (Electronics)
Her husband (me) bought the Viola about 2-1/2 years ago. I hadn't seriously played bass since the early '70's and was looking to take it up again. I had been playing mostly Piedmont Blues & some old time, and was looking for something that would go with that, but still let me wander into Rock.
I tried a bunch of solid bodies, and saw the Viola hanging in a corner. I was attracted by it's looks, but once I picked it up, I was blown away! It sounded crisp and clear, even with roundwounds, and was a lot lighter than it looked. The fit and finish was very impressive.
I don't jump into things, so I went over to another store that happened to have a Hofner, the first, and only Hofner I ever played. It might have been an Icon, but it was priced more than twice the Viola. It wasn't as punchy, I couldn't get much difference out of the two pups, and frankly, looked cheap (the controls cover plate was loose, and there was something else buzzing). I wouldn't have payed the Viola... Read more
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