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johnzappa

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  1. Hello my fellow Gibson lovers. Great to be here finally. My name is JT. Live in Denver, grew up in Michigan. I am on a quest to discover the origins of a very special Gibson guitar that has been in my family for a really long time. Any advice is greatly appreciated! My grandfather Ed Weston was an employee of Gibson Kalamazoo, MI and Elgin, IL from the years 1965-1973. From gathering family history of this extraordinary man from relatives, he managed the string department in KZoo and was plant manager in Elgin! Amazing! Enough about family, although it is an important part of my story. The guitar in question, J-200, was originally told to me as a teenager learning the instrument as a 1968. That's all I've ever known. Until I started doing some research... The clues I've gathered have led me on a chase to figure out what and where this amazing instrument is and came from. Please see attached pictures and let's begin. Start with the obvious, the serial number: A114368 it is unregistered which matches family history as back then Gibson QC was strict. This guitar was a reject that I believe was gifted to my grandfather for hard work which he repaired in his bad *** wood shop at home. According to Gibson, this serial number decodes the guitar a 1963 or 1967. Apparently, their sales were so good back then they ran out of serial numbers and had to use duplicates! Although, 1963 doesn't really follow family timelines so we'll stick with 1967 for now. There is also a stamp above the serial number BGN, which I've been told stands for Bargain. Meaning it wasn't allowed to be sold at an authorized Gibson dealer because of the defect. Still need some verification on this. There is a Made In the USA stamp below the serial number. I believe this clue tells us Gibson started doing this around 1970. So, either the neck is different from the body, or the serial number isn't authentic, or grandpa stamped that **** in there himself? The mystery has begun. Next clue. The sticker in the sound hole. It has a white border around an orange logo. Apparently, this change happened around 1972? So, there's another discrepancy. This sticker could have come at a later time since the guitar was a reject, maybe? Next clue. The headstock emblem. Gibson without the dot on the i. This tells another story. Post 1968? 1968-1972ish? Another friend told me to post an image of the decoration around the sound hole. It's beautiful, however, I haven't found any info about this. He also had a comment regarding the neck and headstock being 3 pieces of wood glued together, not sure what this means either. This is a special instrument, not only to me of course but just stunning and beautiful. Every time I pick it up music flows through me and into it. All these years and it still stays in tune, looks great [minus the obvious bumps, scars and bruises] and rings like a pro. All of these clues are puzzling me. There are some discrepancies but the timeline fits a certain era. Any advice is really appreciated. Hopefully, a kick *** crazy Gibson freak will dig into this post and help out. Stay healthy, play your guitars, rock out. PS, Hey Gibson, can you please open up the image upload size to more than this weasly 500k? Come on! I'll add more photos as needed I guess, jeez. JT
  2. Hello my fellow Gibson lovers. Great to be here finally. My name is JT. Live in Denver, grew up in Michigan. I am on a quest to discover the origins of a very special Gibson guitar that has been in my family for a really long time. Any advice is greatly appreciated! My grandfather Ed Weston was an employee of Gibson Kalamazoo, MI and Elgin, IL from the years 1965-1973. From gathering family history of this extraordinary man from relatives, he managed the string department in KZoo and was plant manager in Elgin! Amazing! Enough about family, although it is an important part of my story. The guitar in question, J-200, was originally told to me as a teenager learning the instrument as a 1968. That's all I've ever known. Until I started doing some research... The clues I've gathered have led me on a chase to figure out what and where this amazing instrument is and came from. Please see attached pictures and let's begin. Start with the obvious, the serial number: A114368 it is unregistered which matches family history as back then Gibson QC was strict. This guitar was a reject that I believe was gifted to my grandfather for hard work which he repaired in his bad *** wood shop at home. According to Gibson, this serial number decodes the guitar a 1963 or 1967. Apparently, their sales were so good back then they ran out of serial numbers and had to use duplicates! Although, 1963 doesn't really follow family timelines so We'll stick with 1967 for now. There is also a stamp above the serial number BGN, which I've been told stands for Bargain. Meaning it wasn't allowed to be sold at an authorized Gibson dealer because of the defect. Still need some verification on this. There is a Made In the USA stamp below the serial number. I believe this clue tells us Gibson started doing this around 1970. So, either the neck is different from the body, or the serial number isn't authentic, or grandpa stamped that **** in there himself? The mystery has begun. Next clue. The sticker in the sound hole. It has a white border around an orange logo. Apparently, this change happened around 1972? So, there's another discrepancy. This sticker could have come at a later time since the guitar was a reject, maybe? Next clue. The headstock emblem. Gibson without the dot on the i. This tells another story. Post 1968? 1968-1972ish? Another friend told me to post an image of the decoration around the sound hole. It's beautiful, however, I haven't found any info about this. He also had a comment regarding the neck and headstock being 3 pieces of wood glued together, not sure what this means either. This is a special instrument, not only to me of course but just stunning and beautiful. Every time I pick it up music flows through me and into it. All these years and it still stays in tune, looks great [minus the obvious bumps, scars and bruises] and rings like a pro. All of these clues are puzzling me. There are some discrepancies but the timeline fits a certain era. Any advice is really super appreciated. Hopefully, a kick *** crazy Gibson freak will dig into this post and help out. Stay healthy, play your guitars, rock out. PS, Hey Gibson, can you please open up the image upload size to more than this weasly 500k? Come on! I'll add more photos as needed I guess, jeez. JT
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