EKO B-55 Fretless

I bought this long scale bass back in 1983 for a reasonable price of approx. 400 swiss francs.
It's a four string bass with 20 frets and one split DiMarzio pickup. The electronics are very simple: passive & just volume and tone regulation.
I don't know much about the woods used. The neck is made of three parts and is screwed to the body.
The body has a glossy finish.
The bridge is made of brass, the nut is made of white plastic.
Included was a case.

My main amp is an old SMS combo (150 W). The bass fits very well my style (jazz-rock). The sound can be varied between warm and very bright, but this is rather an amp-feature because the variety of sounds of the bass itself is rather limited by the simple passive electronics.
However, due to its wide distance between the strings the B-55S is very suitable for slapping technique.

I didn't have to change much on the factory setting.
The pickups were adjusted several times based on the sound I wanted to have.

I used the bass on stage without any problems, however usually I would take my fretless Tune Bass Maniac with me as a backup.
The hardware (especially the bridge and the tuning pegs) are oxidised.
During the 26 years I own this bass I just had to readjust the neck once or twice.

I never contacted ECO because it was never necessary. I believe that the warranty was one year, but I'm not sure about that after all these years.

As mentioned before I own & play the bass since 26 years. I own a fretless Tune Bass Maniac, which was much more expensive but is on a much higher level regarding quality.
If my B-55S would be stolen I would be very sad, because I think it wouldn't be easy to find a similar instrument.

I bought this bass new in 1982. The bass was crafted in Italy, probably during the same year. No serial number is indicated.
4 strings, 21 frets, bolt-on neck.
The neck is made of 3 pieces going on also through the Fender-shape headstock: two maple pieces and a central walnut section.
Rosewood fretless fingerboard; dot markers on side of fingerboard.
Pinewood body (4 pieces). The body has a Fender Jazz Bass shape. Amber colour with polyester high gloss finishing. Matching headstock.
Pickup: Di Marzio Precision-style at the bridge (the position is the same of the pickup on Music Man StingRay basses).
Vintage-type open back tuners, Italian made.
Brass bridge Italian made, Fender-vintage-like.
Passive electronics.
Controls: volume, tone.

This bass just sounds incredibly good, despite its simple electronics.
It has an amazing tone. I have to say that this bass sounds far better than many much-more-expensive-instruments I could play in the years. I don't know what it is, but it has something special. And it's not that the wood is now almost 25 years old, because it always sounded beautiful from the beginning.
It must be a exceptional craftsmanship and Di Marzio pickup synergy.

The instrument was decently set up at the factory. It only needed little adjustments due to personal playing style: I like to play with the lower action possible on the fingerboard and I could set a rather low action on this instrument.
Finishing is still good after all these years.
Hardware is unfortunately a little bit oxidised, especially the bridge.

The neck never needed any kind of adjustment in almost 25 years: it's fantastic and incredibly comfortable to play.
I'm not fully satisfied with the bridge: it became a bit oxidised and maybe brass is not sufficiently solid to last forever. Sometimes I thought to replace it with a more solid one, but I haven't done it yet. The bass is still all original and I kind of feel sorry to replace some parts.
I used this instrument as the main bass for a couple of years in any kind of situation, then it became my backup bass. I recently got back to play it much more often: I really love it!

I never needed hardware support.
I only contacted Eko because, as I never saw a bass similar to mine during the years, I thought I owned some kind of prototype instrument and I asked them to give me any kind of information they had on the bass.
They were a little slow in answering to my mails, but they were nice and they gave me all the information I needed.
It turned out that my bass is not a prototype and was produced for a few years during early eighties.

I've been playing bass guitar for more than 24 years. I also own a '94 fretted Status-Graphite bass and another completely different fretless bass: a '84 Ibanez Musician. I'm fully satisfied with all of them, but the Eko B55 is the oldest I have: I'm truly fond of it and I get special feelings when I play it.
I recently could get in touch with another bass player who owns the same model: he told me that despite he owns several hyper-good basses (a Fender Pastorius signature model among others), he thinks that the Eko B55 has the most fabulous "miaow" sound you can get on a fretless.
And I truly agree with him.
I would strongly recommend any fretless bass player to play this bass even once in a lifetime, if they can find one. It's a very particular instrument, trust me.
I'll never sell it. If it were stolen or lost, I would cry and be desperate for years. I don't think I would be able to find another one.