cunningham26

If you come in hot with roaring complaints and then ghost when a conversation gets started and questions get asked, i wouldn't say there's an attack of the fanboys happening. Those with a LOT of knowledge of Gibson products, including those that have bought guitars made alongside the OPs, rightfully scratched their heads and asked for more pictures and info because they agreed this was such a glaring failure on gibsons part. If people are here and post with some frequency, they are well aware of Gibson's consistency for inconsistency. Tom posted his original 36 to show that even that one had a few little things happening with it. I don't really understand the mentality of walking into a virtual group of enthusiasts complaining and then get upset and leave when they as you to clarify your point instead of sheepishly breaking out the torches and pitchforks with you and march to bozeman.

...and then disappeared! Guess they sold it and moved onto greener pastures when people started giving them heat

Hi Don a little late responding but feel like i can add a bit to the other response: - definitely a 70s gibson professional - if you take the pickguard off, there should be a cavity for the neck pickup. the pickguard is a replacement - the white bridge pickup is a replacement p90 - knobs have been replaced - bridge has been replaced - tuners have been replaced. Now, about the neck. Neck breaks just like that are really common on gibson electrics, and it looks like your uncle fixed it himself, spray painting the crack to make it look better. if it has had strings on it for a long time and they've been at tension, it could be stable. It is worth having a professional confirm. any luthier that has been working on electric guitars for a while has definitely seen this before. Right now it is not worth much of anything to anyone but you- if it is special because of your family connection, it is worth keeping. If you replace parts, you will probably not get your money back if you try to sell it. But it could be fun to have all fixed up and ready to play! Good luck- here is one in original condition

late 80s s-300, not all that much.

I hear you! I've been keeping an eye on the 125td market for about ten years and they've gone up the same way pretty much everything else has. Word is definitely out, they're great. If you're after a thinline hollowbody, epiphone did their sorrento reissue a few years back with two mini hums and a royal tan olivey finish. i played a few and they were hit or miss. My sights are set for the 90s sorrento reissue with two P90s. The most common answer an most easily available/affordable would be the Godin 5th Avenue. great guitars!

People buy for different reasons and there's a reason why some love their boring looking but reliable Taylors and Seagulls and some others chose gibson-looking, epi-sounding boxes. i respect the former but totally understand the latter too

i think us enthusiasts definitely have that perspective, but the majority of Epi shoppers are probably in the camp of buying something within their budget that looks the part and sounds good enough. Everything these days are good enough to be gigable and prob be fine on some recording demos etc. Now more than ever it's a fantasy for most people with a modest budget (stretching to $900 from the EJs that were around $500) to hear "just save up for the real thing!" that is 5x the cost. My first acoustic was an epi hummingbird that totally did the job especially after a couple hundred hours of play time. Did it sound like a perfectly miked j200 in a studio? Nope. Did it make acoustic guitar sounds that 99% of listeners would say sounds like an acoustic guitar? Sure did. With the solid spruce top it even had a decent thump. I've been really lucky to score a couple Gibsons including my j45 for under $1000 and yea they sound better and im prob fortunate enough that i won't have to go back now that i've heard the dulcet tones of Gibson, but im not quick to forget the times when scratching $400 together was a big thing for a hobby, and how to my ears at that time the epi sounded beautiful.

The thing is that people shop with their eyes as much as their ears. If I was on that budget and able to get something that looked 100% like the guitar that my music heroes play and sounded decent enough, i'd rather that than something that sounded better with no distinguishable character

Agree 100%. I watched on my TV with pretty good speakers and the sound replicated what I've always heard when playing an epi version of a gibson. Their comment about it being a bunch of little things that make all the difference couldn't be more spot-on. As someone that has wanted a J200 most of my life and always disappointed in the laminate top EJ series, I'm really happy that people with a budget get a solid version of the gibson counterpart, but I'll still hold out for the real deal.

Thanks for sharing Tom, they sound really great and I'd love to hear and see more!

honestly didnt know this- thought they were slope cloes of the j45 with fancier appointments. is it just mahogany vs maple that differentiates them from hummingbirds of the same era? the square shoulders screamed norlin to me when looking at it as a j45/50 from the transition era, not considering the inlays or volute. definitely an oddball and probably generous to say it's a second, probably more like a third in terms of relation to something standard!

the headstock and square shoulders scream norlin to me, and they started using the thin pickguards as well on the early 70s models. this may be more like a '69-70 that got a trap inlay neck lying around or as others have speculated, some kind of oddball setup Gibson is notorious for. I'd want to see what the stamp says on the back brace, and definitely wonder whether it's single or double braced. either way if you like it, you like it. I swapped the adj RW bridge on my '68 j45 to this bone one from philly luthier supply. drop in mod, cnc machined bone and really brought mine to life.

yea looks fine to me- if you're gonna try to make a buck copying gibsons, you're not gonna pick a songwriter to copy!

I never got into the boss before hearing Nebraska- having been obsessed with Dylan's acoustic days and his first album, it felt like such an extension of stuff like The Ballad of Hollis Brown, North Country Blues, Kingsport Town, all of those little vignettes about the... darkness at the edge of [a small] town. I'm reading his autobiography Born To Run and listening through all the albums in order, I highly recommend the book to anyone. It reads really easily (written the way he presents in his broadway special, also great) and tells his story both professionally and personally in a wonderful way.

Hi Shane, To my eye, looking at your photos, that looks to be a very modified silvertone or Kay archtop made by the Kay company. the headstock is just a little wide at the top to be Gibson and a full laminate body that that faux tigerstriping wouldn't be something they would do in that era, definitely signature Kay though. The logo was always screenprinted quite uniformly- yours appears as though someone tried to free-hand the logo from the '30s and kind of jumbled it halfway through. Cool guitar, love the hb size p90 in the neck, but not a Gibson.

The uptown will probably do the job- the first two albums were mostly noel on an epi les paul and his MIJ 80s riviera. he pretty quickly moved up into gibson LPs at that same time (famously damaging a 1960 given to him by Johnny Marr) and eventually to the 355 and USA sheraton. I wouldn't say he has all that unique a sound- any humbucker solid body or semi-hollow along with a marshall and a tubescreamer should do the trick. his use of the tape echo is probably the most unique thing. I'd say the best thing you can do would be to do as the band themselves did- don't overthink it.

Seems like this poster never came back, but Jim you're right on the money- I'd say 1966 or early 69 before the norlin takeover- more than likely '66. eyeballing the second photo it looks like the narrow nut synonymous with the late 60s. I had the epiphone caballero version, nice little guitars. They've gone up in value in the last few years as they've been identified as a budget way to get a gibson. factory plastic bridge still on there, only thing swapped out appears to be the tuners, i'd put this one between 600-800 pricetag, would sell for 500-700 as it looks like it's been taken care of even for being a low-end model

I dig this a lot! with the repairs and a pickguard it will look great and sound great. If it really bothered you all that much, you could probably repair the headstock pretty easily since it's just cosmetic. i would definitely replace those tuners with these- they're true to what would have been on them originally. I have them on my '46 L48 and they're amazing, definitely the best tuning machines i have on a guitar (including old vintage ones). good luck! If it sounds great and for $500-1000 you have an awesome, structurally sounds vintage guitar, that's a pretty great buy.

I totally agree that you should get what you want having paid that kind of coin for it, and agree with others that Gibson can easily remedy this and you should stay on them. Otherwise it's clear that it's under your skin and will bother you when you go to play it. that said, i'd love to see a pic of your headstock from the distance of that olivia's vintage pic and see how it looks

As someone with no desire to partake, it's interesting you're replying to most posts in this thread. no need for self-flagellation my friend it's a big forum. As Nick said, the idea is that it's looking like a 60yo guitar- if you've ever seen gibsons from that era even in pristine condition, they weren't matching martin in terms of consistency and quality assurance. The only consistent thing was inconsistency, so here were are again with a TRC that looks a little funky...the Gibson way. I dont think this needs to devolve into sh*tposting about relic jobs, that's not what this is.

Instead of seeing this as a negative, maybe it's an opportunity to make it your own. It's such a small piece that's so easily modifiable/removed (not like a fretboard inlay or something) I'd find someone to do something special like on this '38

Folkway all the way. Mark is the single most knowledgeable vintage luthier i've ever seen.

Bumping this thread to see if anyone would like my copy of Kalamazoo Gals. It was a great read and John did a really wonderful job telling the story- would love to drop it in the mail and pass it along to someone stateside that may be interested in it. DM me if that may be you!

Grandma had excellent taste- those '46 transitional ones are every bit as good as the banner ones from wwii, best Gibson ever made!

Looks like a 90's Korean 2nd- probably because the neck didn't match the body well enough. It wouldn't be faded underneath poly, and the MIC casinos are very dark black and very bumblebee yellow. the pickguard E is facing the wrong way so has fallen off and been reglued or was put on wrong. Probably something that was a cast off that founds its way into your hands. seemed to happen back in the late 90s- ive had a couple stamped USED on the back of the headstock. not so much a thing anymore.