zombywoof

Best guess is that Bozeman not being up to full speed just yet was sending guitars out to entice buyers into placing advance orders. Within a year or so they would be able to boast putting together one of the greatest assemblages of guitar building talent ever see under one roof seen in a very long time.

While over the decades I have gotten my hands on pretty much everything from at least early-1960s Epi Frontier on I have never been able to make peace with for lack of a better description Gibson Dreads. Although I make no claims to having dog hearing, I think the reason is precisely what others love about them which is they are voiced more to the upper end than their slope shoulder kin. Then again, I could be on puppy chow.

Bozeman, of course, did not go into full production until 1991. While my memory is not what is once was, if I recall properly a guitar bult up to the end of 1990 or early-1991 will sport a Fullperplast rather than nitro finish. The finish was necessitated by the fact that up to a point Gibson relied on the what the Flatiron plant has been set up to shoot. What might account for your question about the finish is that these tended to develop an orange peel effect. Fullperplast also has the reputation of being tough to repair. A guitar built in 1990 might also still have the paddle neck joint. Depending on who you are talking to, these were either a tough row to hoe when it comes to neck resets or were no problem at all. But there is no way that I know of being able to tell if this is the case or not just by eyeballing the guitar.

Didn't the Waterloo archtop project fall apart after Bill's death? Maybe those now calling the shots did not have the same faith in it Bill did.

While it may be heresy, I have found I prefer Epiphone f-hole archtops. But I do have a definite thing for round soundhole Gibson archtop. In fact, my Capital went in the trade which landed me the 1920 L3. The model though which continues to intrigue the heck out of me is the L50 particularly the last two round soundhole versions which sported narrower waists. I also would love to get some quality time with the very first L1 flattops some of which were supposedly built with leftover arched backs. If they do exist that would truly be something to behold. I have never even saw the Waterloo archtop you are talking about. I just may have to do some poking around on that one.

I love those valve cover tuners. The set my 1942 J50 now sports came off a Regal with those covers. In fact, I bought the guitar just to get the tuners paying a whopping $35 for it. National was also big on them.

I have only owned one Gibson archtop which was a 1936 Capital. I did come within a hair though of buying a 1939 L-12. Hindsight being 100 proof, I probably should have just ponied up the admittedly measly $2800. Gibson bult instruments with the Capital moniker for the Jenkins Music Store chain. What was interesting about this guitar is that it sported the X bracing Gibson went with on archtops from 1936 into 1939. So, just wondering if you have had the chance to compare 1930s Gibson archtops with both X and parallel bracing? I found that I actually cottoned to the parallel braced instruments more.

If there are better strip tuners currently available then the Waverlys, I have not run into them. That does not mean that there aren't any, just that I have not had experience with them. So, best to take this opinion with a grain of salt. I guess the most common modern choice though would be Golden Age Restoration tuners. I believe they still offer both standard and short post versions. That said, when replacing the tuners on my old Harmony Sovereign, I opted for a set of Sta-Tites. They sure worked a lot better than the original Klusons and I like the way they look including the metal buttons on at least that guitar.

I think I will just stick with my 1942 J50.

Lawdy, it is raining 1960s J50s. This serial number also indicates two different build dates, in the case of yours it is 1965 or 1967. If the guitar was built earlier in '65 it would have a 1 11/16" nut. If built later it will also have the skimpier nut width. Wood saddles were common. My 1961 B45-12 sported one. LMI stocks bone ADJ saddles for Gibsons if you have hankering to try something different.

As Gibson started transitioning to 14 fret necks in 1931, 12 fretters are not the easiest of guitars to find anywhere. This '32 though is the only time that haggling got me nowhere. The seller would not budge off his $5K asking price. The only concession I got was he agreed to slap it in a hardshell case which I believe had housed a Dobro. But that remains the most I have ever laid out on a guitar. I generally like the Warterloos. When they first came out it took me over a year to get to play one as every instrument the store which carried them had gotten in was sold before it ever hit the shelves. My take on it though is that Collings actually got closer with their take on the Kel Kroyden. You knew that simply because they warned going with nothing heavier than 11-52 gauge strings. I swear my '32 is so lightly built you barely have to breathe on it to get a tone.

Maybe a new guitar would work. My favorite Gibsons are all older than I am and every time I play them it hits home with all the subtlety of a flying mallet (you get extra points if you can name the guitar player on the LP with that title) that they have held up a lot better than I have. As to feeling poorer, I have always found it best to heed my wife's wisdom when it comes to buying guitars. Her take on it has always been - ahh, just go ahead and buy the thing as six months from now you will never even know you spent the money. Darn if she was not right.

Being well into my 70s I can safely say they do not. And I am coming from the perspective of being privileged to play a 1932 12 fret L1. What they can do though is no matter how old and curmudgeonly you are is to help you get through the bad times while they make the good times great.

Ideas about what? If you are asking about build date that serial number is one of those which can be assigned to two different years. Given the 1 9/16" nut width and I am assuming a 14 degree headstock pitch (it had been 17 degrees) indicates 1967. Other than that, you are on your own as post-1964 Gibson acoustics take me out of my comfort zone.

You have to cut the Carolina Area Friends some slack. When the raffle was held, there was no place to look up an FON or serial number. Unless you had a sales receipt, the best you could do was narrow down a build period by features which, of course, presupposed enough familiarity with the guitar to do that. The best we were able to do with my first Gibson was 1955 to 1959.