EBS

The company was founded by current CEO Bo Engberg and Technical Director Mats Kristoffersson. EBS launched its first product, the EBS-1 rack mounted bass preamp, in 1988. This marked the advent of this new high-end bass amp manufacturer dedicated to making the best bass equipment available.

The EBS-1 bass preamp saw the light of day in the EBS basement facilities in central Stockholm. Bo and Mats took the preamp to the Frankfurt Musik Messe, in hope of making the music world realize that they were on to something really good for bassists. And luckily enough they ran into an American gentleman in a cowboy hat, Hershel Blankenship, who ran an exclusive business in L.A. working with prominent concert and recording artists on the American West Coast as clients.

Through Blankenship, the first three EBS bass preamps were delivered to three excellent bassists: Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Jimmy Earl (Chick Corea Band), and Billy Talbot (Neil Young & Crazy Horse). Some start, right…? Several well known Nordic bassists soon joined the EBS roster: John Leven of US chart toppers Europe (“The Final Countdown”), emerging fusion star Jonas Hellborg, where among the most well-known to the international public in the beginning. In 1990 EBS added power amps and speaker cabinets and the company continued to grow. The first EBS pedal, the OctaBass, was launched in 1993 and has now become a classic effect pedal for bass. It is still a top seller in EBS product program after more than 20 years on the market!

The steadily increasing line of effects pedals has made new groups of performers aware of the EBS products – guitarists and keyboard players now go for the EBS sound too. Since then EBS has added several new products to the line: cabinets, amp heads, combo amps, and pedals – and the Stanley Clarke and Billy Sheehansignature effects pedals. Today, EBS still has Bo and Mats at the helm. Bo remains the talkative, extrovert leader of the organization while Mats seems to be more happy pondering new designs and thinking over technical or electronic problems to solve. EBS has its modest but adequate headquarters on the outskirts of Stockholm, manned by Bo and Mats and a small staff of dedicated employees – all of them musicians, of course! This is where all the design and development of new products still are performed, as well as quality check before being shipped to distributors in more than 40 countries all over the world. Assembling is outsourced to vendors in Sweden and Asia these days.

The current list of EBS artist endorsers is as long as your arm and covers styles from hit list pop to progressive, from straight ahead jazz to death metal, from recently discovered talents to seasoned veterans. Visit the Artist section to view the current roster and get the stories about EBS artists from all over the world.

Awards

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