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ES175 on Ebay - not for the faint of heart!


Jayyj

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About 10 years ago there was a RASH of sawed Gibsons that someone stole out of the dumpsters at Gibson and glued back together. They typically went for a few hundred dollars....which I never understood because Gibson sawed them in half because they were no good! The people who bid on them didn't seem to GET that.

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http://www.ebay.com/itm/1988-GIBSON-ES-175-D-IVORY-W-GOLD-HARDWARE-PROJECT-ARCHTOP-FREE-US-SHIPPING-/111563991511?pt=Guitar&hash=item19f9bb69d7

 

Spent a good few seconds looking at the photos before reading the description... actually an admirably good save on the part of whoever glued it back together!

Well, not really.

 

As silly as it is to even attempt it without starting over (As in, separation the top and back, etc..) NONE of the pieces line up. Visually, they never will regardless of what color and how one would finish it.

 

See above post: IF saving a guitar because it was made by Gibson who obviously wanted it destryed (and really, it was) could be called admirable....

 

But would really stress, this guitar was not "saved" by any definition. It's still destroyed, no matter what one would do from here.

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What is surprising, is the guy actually thinks 1400 bucks? even close?

 

If you take any "devaluation" for a Gibson, say, broken headstock, refin, bad repair work...anything, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, "devalues" a Gibson more than having been cut up by Gibson. It's the most reverse value something that says Gibson can have, being a guitar Gibson would have destroyed rather than fixed.

 

So..even if a competent luther would put this together (he wouldn't) and it was fixed "right" (it couldn't be), what would the cash value be? It would actually be somewhere in the neighborhood of a copy, which would be literally, a couple hundred or less, provided one could live with the bad mojo.

 

As for being able to fix a hollow body such as this, it literally couldn't be done properly or even half assed, because for one, you don't just glue pieces together. It would require supports and/or splices, it would always have some sort of structural issues, and visually, there would be no way of hiding the joints.

 

As for parts, you have to KNOW it didn't leave the dumpster with parts on it. So whatever the parts are....lets just at least say you would be a fool to assume they were stock or genuine to the guitar, let alone Gibson or 1988.

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I wasn't thinking it was a flawless save, but hey, they got it to look like a guitar again!

 

I remember going on a factory visit some years ago when we went through the Q.C. department the guy showing us round showed us a model that was top of the line for the manufacturer and pointed out the b/w/b lines of the purfling didn't quite line up at the centre join - a tiny thing we all had to look closely even to see. He put it back on the rack and then, as we left the department there was a shriek from a band saw and we turned back to see an employee casually feeding the guitar we were just looking at into the blade. Looking back I wonder if it was a set up - the tour party was made up of dealers and they were probably making a deliberate point about quality control - but I'll never forget the sound of that bandsaw when it hit the guitar!

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I was going to say - a Gibson reject isn't really junk. The things they saw a guitar for are so superficial that Gibson really has no right to complain about wood shortages. In the old days, they sold them as factory seconds at a reduced price, but Gibson has been trying to push a prestigious image in recent years, so this is a no-go. Nevermind that the 'prestige' is purely artificial - given that we're talking production-line factory guitars - but people eat it up, because it makes them feel important, so whatever. The bubble will burst eventually.

 

My ES-125 was a factory second when it was new in 1966. it is an absolutely wonderful guitar that is perfect in every way... and it would have been destroyed today. If someone's gluing these guitars - which are usually thrown to the saw for a finish blemish - back together and giving them a second lease on life, well, good. But the inflated price is silly!

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I was going to say - a Gibson reject isn't really junk. The things they saw a guitar for are so superficial that Gibson really has no right to complain about wood shortages. In the old days, they sold them as factory seconds at a reduced price, but Gibson has been trying to push a prestigious image in recent years, so this is a no-go. Nevermind that the 'prestige' is purely artificial - given that we're talking production-line factory guitars - but people eat it up, because it makes them feel important, so whatever. The bubble will burst eventually.

 

My ES-125 was a factory second when it was new in 1966. it is an absolutely wonderful guitar that is perfect in every way... and it would have been destroyed today. If someone's gluing these guitars - which are usually thrown to the saw for a finish blemish - back together and giving them a second lease on life, well, good. But the inflated price is silly!

I don't have first-hand knowledge of when and why a Gibson gets cut up, but I can imagine, there are a LOT of things that can go wrong on a Gibby besides a finish blemish.

 

2 points: One, if it is a reject, we don't really know why it is do we? It could be a bad truss rod, crooked neck/body, warped wood, a little bad or really bad.

 

Second point: Gibson didn't want it being sold. Just that should be enough.

 

But lastly, and most important, a guitar that has been cut up and glued back together IS junk, regardless of what is was before it got the saw.

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To me.. I think its a big waste of fine wood cutting it all up because of a blemish. back a while ago.. here there were photos of the Gibsons that were soggy from being in a flood. all piled in a dumpster.. to me just a pure waste..

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