Ronnie James Dio

In this video, Dio can be seen playing a modified 1961 Gibson EB-0 with his old band The Prophets.

As a little known fact to many of his fans, Dio actually started his career on Bass Guitar as Ronnie James Padavona in 1957 (taking on the name Dio in 1960). He played Bass only up until 1958 when he began to fill in Vocals duties aswell, he filled this role through many name and line-up changes in the band, until his Bass Guitar position was replaced by Craig Gruber in 1973 leaving Dio to preform Vocals only.

This Bass was later put up for auction in September 13, 2017, the Bass had an estimated value of $8,000-$10,000 and sold for a winning bid of $10,240.

The description for the item read:

A modified 1961 Gibson EB-0 bass guitar used by Ronnie James Dio in his time as bassist for the band Elf. The solid mahogany body has been fitted with two additional pickups, original tuners replaced. Serial number 20067 to back of headstock. Accompanied by the original hardshell case.

Strangly enough, Dio has been seen with a Cherry version and a Walnut version both with the exact same modifications. So it is possible that he had two, or that he sanded the finish down and restained it at some point after 1967.