1966 Trini Lopez Authentication

[Biker13]

Hi,

 

I'm brand new to the forum. I had visited the Gibson website to assist with an issue of instrument authentication and I was referred to this site. So I'm assuming if Gibson endorses this site I'll be surrounded by some very qualified individuals who will be able to help me out, for which I am grateful.

 

Gibson ES 335's are my new favorite guitar. I bought one last summer and fell in love. Now I own two. And as a means of furthering my love affair I'm interested in buying a particular 1966 Trini Lopez. This is where I need your help. The guitar I'm interested in is apparently a factory custom order and has a very unique Gibson logo on the headstock. It's an odd script that is a variation of the modern Gibson logo and the old banner logo. The owner insists the logo is original and came as part of a custom order from the factory in '66. The workmanship certainly looks to be "factory quality". Nothing about its quality is bootleg but It is bizarre that I've never seen this exact Gibson logo in my entire life. Have any of you ever seen this logo before? I've scoured every pic I could find of Trini's from the mid-'60's and have not found one other example with this logo. Do you think this looks legit or authentic? Do any of you know if there are historians at Gibson that I should consult with?

 

Thank you so much for your help!

 

Ted

[JimR56]

Welcome, Ted. Sorry for the lack of responses so far. The discussions around here have slowed down over the past few years.

 

Thanks for posting this. It is an interesting question. First of all, I might have to disagree with you slightly with regard to the appearance of the logo here. I wouldn't call it a "variation of the modern Gibson logo and the old banner logo". I don't see any elements of the modern logo, and to me it very closely resembles some of the old 1930's era (pre-"Banner") script logos. And for those who may not be aware, the "script" logo evolved and changed and had variations over the decades in which it was used. So there is quite a bit of ambiguity in the term "script logo".

 

For comparison's sake, here's an image of the logo on a 1934 L5. It's not exactly the same, but I'd say it's very similar to the one on the Trini:

 

Now, the question becomes why somebody ordered a 1930's-type script logo for a 1966 Trini Lopez. For that I have no answer, but it certainly seems reasonable enough that somebody would have had a reason to want to do so. In other words, although it seems a bit odd, I wouldn't necessarily assume that it and the guitar were not legit. As you say, the work looks to be of "factory quality".

 

When I began contemplating your post, I have to admit that I had some doubts about the guitar being legit, and I kind of wished you had posted more photos showing the rest of the guitar. If possible, that would still be nice to be able to see...

[Biker13]

Welcome, Ted. Sorry for the lack of responses so far. The discussions around here have slowed down over the past few years.

 

Thanks for posting this. It is an interesting question. First of all, I might have to disagree with you slightly with regard to the appearance of the logo here. I wouldn't call it a "variation of the modern Gibson logo and the old banner logo". I don't see any elements of the modern logo, and to me it very closely resembles some of the old 1930's era (pre-"Banner") script logos. And for those who may not be aware, the "script" logo evolved and changed and had variations over the decades in which it was used. So there is quite a bit of ambiguity in the term "script logo".

 

For comparison's sake, here's an image of the logo on a 1934 L5. It's not exactly the same, but I'd say it's very similar to the one on the Trini:

 

Now, the question becomes why somebody ordered a 1930's-type script logo for a 1966 Trini Lopez. For that I have no answer, but it certainly seems reasonable enough that somebody would have had a reason to want to do so. In other words, although it seems a bit odd, I wouldn't necessarily assume that it and the guitar were not legit. As you say, the work looks to be of "factory quality".

 

When I began contemplating your post, I have to admit that I had some doubts about the guitar being legit, and I kind of wished you had posted more photos showing the rest of the guitar. If possible, that would still be nice to be able to see...

 

Thank you so much for your reply. I realize I was being incredibly "generous" when I suggested some sort of variation of the modern Gibson logo and, in retrospect, should have only made reference to the old banner logo. Putting that aside I will have to say I had never seen a Gibson logo as close to the one on the headstock I had attached as the example you attached. I agree the similarities are striking. Thank you very much - both for responding and enlightening me with the image you provided.

 

I had intended on posting more images of the guitar but learned very quickly that there is a strict cap on overall the file size of the images you post. It appears there's a total of 500k which I considered exceptionally small. I posted a lager size just so the quality of the workmanship of the logo would be evident. It appears I'd have to delete that image and reduce the file size of every other image I have considerably in order to post more pics of the guitar. Perhaps I'll do that to provide more context for the guitar.

 

I agree, its not out of the question that someone could have custom ordered that logo. Anything's possible I suppose. Having never ordered a one-off custom guitar from Gibson I suppose I'd have to know if they'd actually even do that - place any Gibson logo I request on the headstock. I'll try to post additional images of the guitar and tell you more of the story behind the guitar to get more of your input. For starters, at one point it belonged to a luthier and I suggested to the seller that the entire neck had been changed because the neck width was unique to that particular era of Gibson electric guitars. The seller said that's not the case and provided some black light images of the guitar that were semi-convincing but when I asked more questions he decided I had asked one too many and that was the end of the conversation. Not exactly who I want to buy a guitar from but I will admit that the guitar is very unique and I love it so I'm still researching its details to know if its worth pursuing.

 

Thanks again. Hopefully you'll stay tuned for more info. Am I correct that there is a 500K total file size limit to the images you can post? And is there any way to have this forum linked to an email acct so that if there is a response I get an email notification?

 

Bedt,

 

Ted

[JimR56]

Thank you so much for your reply. I realize I was being incredibly "generous" when I suggested some sort of variation of the modern Gibson logo and, in retrospect, should have only made reference to the old banner logo. Putting that aside I will have to say I had never seen a Gibson logo as close to the one on the headstock I had attached as the example you attached. I agree the similarities are striking. Thank you very much - both for responding and enlightening me with the image you provided.

Glad to help. Here is the site where I got the image of the 1930's script logo (lots more Gibson info there): https://reverb.com/news/how-to-date-a-gibson-using-serial-numbers-fons-and-logos

 

Having never ordered a one-off custom guitar from Gibson I suppose I'd have to know if they'd actually even do that - place any Gibson logo I request on the headstock.

I don't have any specific knowledge about this, but I would think that Gibson would do a variety of things for the right price. It might have been even more likely if the person ordering/conceptualizing the guitar either worked at Gibson or had some kind of connections with someone at the company.

 

Hopefully you'll stay tuned for more info.

I will, although I don't always check in every day like I used to when this place was more active.

 

Am I correct that there is a 500K total file size limit to the images you can post?

Hopefully somebody else will chime in here on that question. I used to store my own images on photobucket and post links to them here. I don't recall if I've ever uploaded any photos directly from my computer.

 

And is there any way to have this forum linked to an email acct so that if there is a response I get an email notification?

Haven't done this either, but I think there are ways to set that up in your personal profile/settings. Check the "My Settings" link under your user name at the top of the page. Also, I think there may be tutorial threads in one of the main forums regarding how to upload photos.

 

Cheers-

Jim