Jump to content
Gibson Brands Forums

Documenting collections


uncle fester

Recommended Posts

Hi, this is a spin-off of z-woofs ‘old school cool’ thread - which was a post of a p’up w all original wires, papers etc...

 

This lead me to think again of all the cool stuff people have in their collections - do any of you collectors document what you have in a share-able format. Collecting the stuff is fun, but sharing what you collected has to be part of the fun?

 

Do folks have opinions on documenting and sharing collections- any one have a collection to share?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't "collect" guitars, I buy them to play. The only "documentation" I do is take a bunch of pictures. And if I change anything, like tuners, I keep all the original parts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am not a collector but an accumulator. About all I may do is add my guitars to the various registries out there such as the NYC-Made Epiphone and Gibson Banner so it might help others looking for information. Not saying there would be no value to it. Common wisdom, as example, holds that the various versions of the Dearmond pickups were issued chronologically with the five pole Dearmond RHC replacing the six pole Model 210 in 1956. The date on the sales receipt I have though is 1951. If you look at the sales slip, the store was even still using older receipts which had "194_" pre-printed on them. This would mean the RHC version apparently did not initially replace the older version but was being sold at the same time as the Model 210. Why anybody other than me and a few others would care though is beyond me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Boyd and Z-woof (btw - my kids now call one of the dogs Z-woof, sorry... the dog loves blues if that makes up for it at all)

 

Anyways, my thoughts on documenting a collection is solely meant as a means to share what someone has, and then ignite reasons to talk about them. Also heard several times - 'no problem with the question - I look for reasons to talk about my guitars'. I feel documenting things in the past was not an easy task, but now inserting a picture into a doc and adding a few lines of text is pretty easy (especially if you have access to teenagers). Hence the question.

 

I understand if it's not of interest, but if anyone would like to put one together but would like help figuring out how to do it - send me a PM and we can see what we can figure out.

 

Rgds - billroy

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Boyd and Z-woof (btw - my kids now call one of the dogs Z-woof, sorry... the dog loves blues if that makes up for it at all)

 

 

 

That was actually the name of one of my dogs. She was a street dog who had managed to allude animal control for quite a while. She started coming into the back yard (she could climb fences) when I fed the other dogs so I started to feed her and she eventually just moved in. The zombywoof moniker, of course, comes from a Frank Zappa song.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'29 Uke1

 

'40's Banner J45

 

'50's Gibson Uke1

 

'53 ES 150

 

'94 Centennial 1934 Jumbo RI

 

'94 1933 Century of Progress

 

'04 Chet Atkins CG

 

'04 Dwight Yoakam Honky Tonk Duece

 

'07 J200 CUSTOM KOA

 

'07 CJ165 RW

 

'10 J45 Legend

 

'10 Jackson Browne

 

'11 Kristofferson SJ

 

'12 J200 Custom RW

 

'13 ES 175

 

'13 J185 Wildwood Modern Vintage

 

'13 LG-2 Banner RI (All Hog)

 

'14 F5L Fern Mandolin

 

'14 Stage Deluxe LTD

 

'14 1932 L00 RI

 

'14 Les Paul Std

 

'14 L5 Premier

 

'15 Stage Deluxe RW

 

'16 Nick Lucas Mystic Rosewood

 

'18 L1 F-hole

 

C1 Classical

 

C400 Classical

 

Martin

 

HD28 Brazilian

 

D40MS

 

000-28 EC SB

 

'08 D28 Elvis Presley

 

'11 Martin D41 Special

 

'14 All Koa Custom

 

OMCPA1 Plus

 

Martin 12-string

 

'14 5K UKULELE KOA

 

'65 Gretsch Country Gentleman

 

'07 Gretsch Round Up

 

814CE Taylor

 

Ovation '70 Tornado

 

'61 Kay 6-string

 

'12 Fender Tele Select Viola

 

'07 TELE STD

 

Plus a group of off brand ukes and mandolins

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just buy them and play them. I register my Gibsons if they're new, but beyond that I just play them and keep them safe. The nearest thing to documentation is pics I have of me playing them at gigs and a few I've taken at home. The rest of my guitars, ukes, mandolins, banjos, and other oddball instruments are wherever I put them after I play them. ...........My only major worry in this "life thing" is that if I die before my wife, she'll sell my Gibbys and my model trains for what I told her I paid for them. [cursing]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I guess it is fair to say we have a collection of instruments. For us (wife and I) -- other than profession and family -- music has been the dominant avocation of our lives. We just had our 50th anniversary , and we played music together in night we met in 1967. So it has sort of always been there.

 

Our musical activities are very broad and complex, and now that we are retired, they pretty much dominate our social life. We jam and/or perform typically several times a week, but for us making money from playing is not a priority. We spend several months each year in Canada, and we are not supposed to make money while there -- they don't mind if we spend lots of money of course.msp_crying.gif So we never take money for ourselves -- only for the "band." We support ourselves from other means. In the US, we take money but it generally does not do much beyond covering expenses. We love to make music with each other and our friends, and we don't want money to get in the way.

 

Our instruments are a major component of our musical life, and we document and study them on a continuing basis -- and have for more then 40 years. I was a acoustics DSP researcher in real life, so it was what my daddy would call a "bus man's holiday," -- whether I wanted it or not, the science was always with me and still is.

 

We only collect old instruments -- because age generally enhances sound in a major way, they naturally appeal to a sound geek. We mix the old instruments into our playing lives like spices in the stew -- in addition to all else that is going on in the music, I am always listening and learning about our instruments. I have a very clear idea in my head how all of them sound -- even though there are well over 100 of them.

 

We document in many way. We have a master spreadsheet that give the basic details -- make, model, type, serial number, FON, year manufactured, year bought, condition, case info, price paid, current value, source, and other details. For example Martin will give you a stamp date, and and final inspection date -- stuff like that.

 

 

We also have a large picture archive. One file -- called individual instruments -- contains a picture file for each instrument. In addition to pictures of the instrument, the file also often contains pictures of the bracing, scanned versions of associated documents, and such.

 

Another file is called "Portrait" -- this contains a high resolution front and back picture of all of our instruments. We spent quite a lot of time perfecting the photo setup -- these are true forensic pictures, where the resolution is good enough to show grain details very well. We also photograph them in front of a green screen -- so we can use chromakey.

 

Here are the Portrait pictures of our 1931 L-2 Gibson.

UhtVzrl.jpg

dr4kRNc.jpg

 

Because of the green screen, we can also use these photos in interesting ways. We also do a lot of sound documentation -- I'll talk about that more later, but here is a demo piece for this guitar that incorporated the portrait pictures. I'll talk about sound documentation in a later post.

 

Let's pick,

-Tom

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...