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What was your first Gibson????


onewilyfool

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Had a Humingbird back in the mid-80s. Great feel but kinda bland high end on the high end. Let it go and kept a D35 (mistakes happen). I found a 60s J45 in the 90s I Iived with for 6-7 years. It's the one that really showed me what a Gibson could do. Except that it had one of those skinny necks.

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My first Gibson - - a beat up Cardinal Red 1965 Melody Maker I bought in '74. I got a pic of what it would've looked like new -

65MelodyMaker1a.jpg

 

 

I soon modded it and used it a lot for several years. I still have it. A blast to play.

65GibsonMMfront-md.jpg

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J-55 from 1970s. Got that in 1984,

followed by a Gospel from 1980 bought in 1986.

Sold both. Incidentally, they were almost the same guitar

except for wood and finish. Then a 1991 J-185-Should have kept that one.

Then a Koa j-185. Then in 1993 I got 2 J-45s which I still have

and are awesome.

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First Gibson:

 

 

Fuller J-160E 1962 Reissue

 

Still have it and still LOVE IT. (love all 4 of my Gibsons, prolly my SG the least however. If pressed the SG would go 1st. I don't know why I haven't bonded with it. It's a beautiful guitar & great build & workmanship. Nothings at all wrong with it. Maybe I just haven't given it enough of a try? [confused]

 

Aster

 

 

1962J-160EReisue.jpg

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Mine was a 1977 POS Hummingbird. It was pretty but sounded like wet cardboard filled with cotton. No photos but it was like this but with parallelogram markers... very red mahogany B/S but natural top. Kept me from even picking up a Gibson for over 20 years.

 

160262282566-1.jpg

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Had a Humingbird back in the mid-80s. Great feel but kinda bland high end on the high end. Let it go and kept a D35 (mistakes happen). I found a 60s J45 in the 90s I Iived with for 6-7 years. It's the one that really showed me what a Gibson could do. Except that it had one of those skinny necks.

 

 

 

I played a skinny neck Hummer at a shop the other week and I could not believe HOW skinny that neck was!

 

 

My J45 Standard neck would be 3 times the amount of wood. What do you do to play on it, flat chords and bar chords?

 

 

Anyway, someone loved it and bought it, maybe a child?

 

 

BluesKing777.

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My first Gibson - - a beat up Cardinal Red 1965 Melody Maker I bought in '74. I got a pic of what it would've looked like new -

65MelodyMaker1a.jpg

 

 

I soon modded it and used it a lot for several years. I still have it. A blast to play.

65GibsonMMfront-md.jpg

 

 

The big Red has the key ingredient - P90?

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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A 1974 J-50, which was my first acoustic (I had a telecaster back then too). It was purchased new in (I think) Bangor, Maine. Not sure, but I seem to recall a price around $350.

 

This is one of the few things I still have from that time in my life, and I really didn't take good care of it. Sat around the house outside its case and was ignored for many years while kids and pets took their toll on it. Then it sat in the case for many more years and smelled very moldy when I took it out 4 years ago. After some major repairs, it sounds and plays great today. I am surprised by how dark the finish has gotten, and that did not happen until much later in its life. I actually believe most of the darkening happened while it was in the case.

 

But as much as I like it, I really prefer my 2008 J-50 today. :)

 

j50.jpg

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Yep, single coil.

 

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So, like Keef, if the neck was playable, that geetar would be all you need, plus grunty amp.

 

 

If I played in a band again, I would have something like that plus one of those National Reso electrics for slide! No more mucking about with delicate Fender stuff

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

Sorry to hijack the thread, OWF.

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A 1974 J-50, which was my first acoustic (I had a telecaster back then too). It was purchased new in (I think) Bangor, Maine. Not sure, but I seem to recall a price around $350.

 

Must have been from Viner's.

 

Here is the '55 ES-295 I mentioned. I refinished it in the fall of '84.

 

2hno080.jpg

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My first Gibson was a 1963 J50 , black plastic bridge and all !

It was an outstanding guitar and really the only guitar, of the dozens that I have sold, that I wish I still had.

Sold it at a guitar show in 1998.

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I'm not techy enough to do the picture thing but I grew up a martin guy and for some strange reason I thought I wanted a Gibson and bought a 1997 CL-20 SP a couple of years ago and just recently bought a 1993 J45 and have never held a guitar in my hands that come even close to the way these guitars feel and the J45 is the best of the two, the neck is like it was custom made for me. and the sound?.....come on, they're Gibsons...

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My first Gibson was a mid to late 60s es-335. My music instructor told me I needed to learn a rhythm instrument. It had the skinny neck and the neck was broke at the head. I got it cheap and had it fixed. My second was a "68" j-160. Traded that in a few years ago and got a j45 mc. Sorry no pics.

 

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Took me a while to run down this photo; c. 1970 with a cherry sunburst J-45. I have no idea the year of the guitar, but it wasn't new when I got it. It was my first Gibson, and my first "good" steel string guitar; traded a Ramirez classical for it as I recall. I really don't remember if it was a good guitar or not, but I thought it was at the time, and I loved it. It's one of those I wish I had back, maybe not for the quality of the guitar, but for the nostalgia...

 

J45_zps48c9eac0.jpg

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