ksdaddy

I’ll bet the parts will be fine. The brass saddle likely have clear lacquer on them and some has worn or chipped off. You could give them a bath in lacquer thinner and a good rub with steel wool and re-spray them. Or just let them age uniformly. As to the screws, just work at them with wd40. You’ll be fine. The tuners are probably Gotoh or Ping, if you need to replace them. My guess is once you get your hands dirty you’ll get the good feeling associated with preserving the original hardware. Now that’s assuming it didn’t suck in the first place! Only you can decide that.

I can barely change a light bulb but the first thing I would look at is if the 9 volts is getting to the preamp. Easy enough with a voltmeter. Second, the jack has a switch built into it that kills power once the cord is unplugged. If that connection is dirty or oxidized, there will be nothing. Just shoot some contact cleaner into the jack and poke the plug in and out repeatedly. Personally I use WD-40 to clean contacts but I know the electronics guys will burn me in effigy for saying it. It doesn't work and it's just plain bad....that's why I've used it for almost 40 years lol.

It’s definitely not a fake. It’s typical Epiphone from the second half of the 80s. I wouldn’t put a lot of thought into the serial number. The serialization of import stuff can be hit or miss.

The end of the fingerboard doesn’t look right. Need more pics.

If I had locked this topic a long time ago, you guys would have complained that you were just having a discussion and I was being too heavy handed.

Maybe Grover should come back to the US then.

I've owned a few Gibson from the mid to late 70s with twisted necks. It's something I watch for now. As to any "fix", I've not heard of anything that works. I've heard tall tales. I don't believe any of them. I would not buy any guitar with a twisted neck, period. Having said that, I have a 1998 Seagull that looks like it went through the war and it has a twisted neck. It is obvious. However it still plays fine. I have another S6 neck waiting in the wings if it ever "fails". If you like the guitar, you might overlook the flaw, as long as it plays okay. If not, bail. Even if you lose money. Bail and take the loss, otherwise it will eat your brain.

Yes, there is a good chance it will hold. But again, it’s not something anyone can predict.

Exactly, No guarantees. Any good repairperson can glue that bridge back together and how long it lasts is not something human beings can predict. It could last forever or a week. He knows that. He also knows that a new bridge is not cracked. Looking at it from his point of view, if he glues that bridge and it doesn't hold, word could get out (quite unfairly) that he is a poor repairperson. In addition, you will be bringing it back to him and likely expecting him to repair or replace it for nothing. This is why he wants to replace the bridge. Let him do it.

You might want to post some photos on a hosting site and put the links here. When it comes to Gibsons from the mid 60s to the mid 70s, the serial number can be confusing. However, SGs can be easier to date sometimes based on physical features. And if you suspect it has the original pots, the code stamped on them can help narrow it down.

You might save yourself the frustration of finding the oversized screws if you just fill and re-drill the holes.

Looks real enough to me.

The serial number tells part of the story, as do physical features. One helpful thing is the date codes on the volume and tone pots. Open the cavity and look for stamped numbers beginning with 137 or 304 (typically). The next two digits are the year and the final two digits are the week of that year. That will tell you when that component was made, and know the guitar could have been built a few days, weeks, or months afterwards. In some strange cases, directly attributable to someone ordering too many pots, the same date code can cover several years....

It’s early 70’s.

I would immediately suspect high nut slots. If the nut is too high, you can easily push the strings out of tune at the first position.

That serial number could be 1962,63 or 64.

I've got a '58 C-6 and a '61 C-2 and neither has the name on the headstock. I've seen plenty of C-0s with the decal but I don't know if there is a hard and fast rule and/or dateline.

There are good replacement tuners out there that are likely to fit with no (or almost no) modification. Put a new set on, save the junked ones, put a new set of strings on it and play it. It’ll outlast you, trust me. And good cases abound. Gibson has made 16” archtops since the Dead Sea only had a bad cough. Tons of cases out there and the simplest google search would be “es-175 case”, as that’s how most case sellers market them.

Gibsons were usually made in lots of 40. The first set of numbers is the Factory Order Number and the penciled number is the sequential number. It was #20 of that batch.

Looks like a wartime L-50 to me, simply because of the lack of truss rod. Typically they had a wooden cross bar on the tailpiece but that might have been replaced.

It should be on back of the headstock. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were no label inside, but it’s gotta be on the headstock....

Yes. Trust me, there is only one ksdaddy!

Classical strings don’t reach their tone potential for a while. It will sound better each day.

In 1985 I got my first Les Paul, a wine red 1980 Standard. It was in excellent condition but the finish on the back of the neck was worn through in a “predictable” pattern. It was almost like they had clearcoated it and THEN applied the red.

I'm not a pianist. I sit down to a keyboard and muddle through a handful of chords with one hand and try to connect them with a single note run with the other. I don't read music, never taken lessons, and likely never will. I do enjoy having keyboards around, and true to my nature that is evident in stringed instruments, I have no aversion to dragging more home. I had a 1920 Mendellsohn upright piano given to me in 2012. It was more or less in the way downstairs so I gave it away in 2018. No regrets about that act, as it went to a young teenage girl who fell immediately in love with it. Old pianos are offered to me on a regular basis, so I will have another. Taking it down cellar will be a challenge. But we did it once, we can do it again. I've got a few cheesy keyboards, including a 90s Yamaha, a 90s Casio, and a 1983 Lowery Micro Genie (hardcore cheese right there, complete with puffy silver case that looks like a bowling bag). Last year I did buy a Casio digital piano, which is pretty amazing. It "sorta" feels like a real piano; it's close anyway. And I can move it easily and don't have to tune it, so there's that. A couple days ago I was given a 1967 Hammond J-110, a very basic transistorized organ in tuxedo black, and pristine other than some hardcore oxidation in the key mechanisms. My observation is this: Over the years, I have owned many OTHER keyboards and organs. If I go to a group or forum connected with a certain brand or style of keyboard, the reaction is guaranteed to be exactly the same: How much did they pay you to take it away? You need to haul it to the dump. Pee-yoooo, what's that stink? That model was a POS from Day One and you need to run. Every. Single. Time. It matters not what I buy or LOOK at. I found two old pianos (not free) that were CLEARLY upscale and very expensive units from 1900-1920. These were not junk. I googled them and they were held in high regard by the industry when they were made. But you can already guess the reaction from the piano forums. "Stay away from these old pianos unless you're willing to pay a piano technician a hundred dollars to go to the person's house and assess it, give you a 4 page report with an estimate of what it will take to be on par with Liberace's piano." I 'get' the idea that old pianos can sometimes be a money pit, but according to them, any piano I've stumbled upon is, by default, pure junk because it doesn't say Steinway. What kind of standard are these people using? It would be like us saying the Les Paul Custom is "okay" and the Standard is alright if you are so poor that you are resorting to eating the family pet, and if someone offered you a Studio, you should call the police. Melody Makers are not guitars. They are ad hoc weapons or firewood. Do we do that? Please tell me we don't. I have the view that, even though there is a pecking order in instruments' values and desirability, it would make me a pretty crappy human being if someone came on this board and was happy about buying a used First Act and I told them what a piece of junk it is. I would HOPE I would be more likely to offer little tidbits on how to make the most out of what they bought, as to setup or small improvements they might make. Rule #1, make music with what you have on hand.