help with hummingbird

[Desolationrow]

hello guys!i need your help please! i search a hummingbird in the second hand market.i talk with the owner and said me its a 71 model.its a good year for gibson? thanks a lot

http://www.leboncoin.fr/instruments_de_musique/918641951.htm?ca=12_s

[duluthdan]

Gibson guitars built in that era are not particularly admired, in fact they have a general reputation as an era to avoid.

[aliasphobias]

Yes, what Dan said. The block inlays instead of parallelograms say buyer beware. I would want to play it first. There is usually a reason that they look unplayed.

[MorrisrownSal]

Em7 should chime in... He is the authority on Hummingbirds... And has a few old ones from the 60s

[zombywoof]

While I cannot make out the serial number it looks like it beings with a "A" which indicates the guitar was built no earlier than 1973. Then again, I do not think it really matters if it is a '71 or a '73. As those before me have noted, the 1970s are considered Gibson's "lost weekend." The guitars were simply overbuilt. But nobody can pick a guitar for somebody else. If everybody liked the same thing it would get awful boring out there.

[OldCowboy]

I owned an early '70s Hummingbird in the early '70s. Bought it New to "upgrade" from the '66 J-45 I'd been playing that had the infamous skinny neck. Long story short: bad mistake. Took nearly five years to unload the Hummingbird. Still miss the J-45,neck notwithstanding. A neck, if necessary, could have been replaced, but where does one begin to improve an instrument that comes off the line as a total disaster?

[E-minor7]

Em7 should chime in... He is the authority on Hummingbirds... And has a few old ones from the 60s

 

Thanx, Sal - been out searching, trying and buying a bit since the square craze (re)started.

 

For me the first quest began around 1980 and soon got shot down by heavy late 70's construction. Heaven knows I tried.

 

But regarding this round, Zomb actually was the man who sat me on track. He drew the map - then yes, I definitely walked out in the landscape.

 

The guitar above could be very good. Even broken in to a degree where the double X-bracing isn't an issue. It could also be sock-dog.

 

No matter what, it'll be next-generation-Bird - forth generation in fact and you will hear that no matter what.

 

 

 

[Fullmental Alpinist]

The serial number appears to be A001687 and based on that the Guitar Dater Project says:

 

Your guitar was made at the

Kalamazoo or Nashville Plant , USA

approximately in: 1973 - 1975

 

Since it's being offered at approximately $3000 (American) you might be better off buying a recent Bozeman 'Bird.

 

[carsandguitars]

I have a Hummingbird from this era (SN starts with a "B' ). Bought it new and still playing it 40 years later. I've always thought it sounded great and I still love it. I know it's not highly regarded by anyone but me.

[Mafy31]

I would try to save a bit more and get a brand new 2016 hummingbird or a 2015 standard. Did you have a chance to try some in shops around you ?

You will find 2016 for around 3200€ (guitarshop for example since you are in France), and the standard (probably 2015) for about 2600€ which in my opinion is about same besides electronics. Latest models from Bozeman are very nice.

For the same price you get the best build quality and warranty from Gibson... and the addictive smell of brand new nitro

[zombywoof]

Having a Stateside perspective on price tags it is hard for me to relate to what you guys have to lay out. But I am going to agree with others that at the equivalent of $3K I would be looking at a Bozeman-made HB. The early HBs, at least up early 1965 when they still had the 1 11/16" nut and the bracing Gibson had been using since 1955, are fairly expensive. You are also not going to find much of a price break going with a late 1950s Epiphone Frontier which was the proto-type of the H' Bird.

[Fullmental Alpinist]

If this helps:

 

www.everly.net/file/guitars then click on Bert Poyck's Everly Guitar Corner. You'll find a story and picture about a 1972 'Bird that even Em7 probably doesn't know about.

 

[blindboygrunt]

Oh that's lovey

 

Same age as me too

[E-minor7]

www.everly.net/file/guitars then click on Bert Poyck's Everly Guitar Corner. You'll find a story and picture about a 1972 'Bird that even Em7 probably doesn't know about.

 

Thanks for showing the path to this little secret niche. Even the most banal story gets a certain shine as soon as it includes vintage Gibsons.

 

;-)

 

This one however, isn't bad. The mentioned Belgian store had a first year Bird just after it was released and I wonder how many shops in Europe could claim that.

 

Should we say 50, , , or 500. How was big was the market here at that point - impossible to guess.

 

Yes, the audience/customers saw stars play the models on the telly, but was mister and misses McGreene, O'Neil, Dechamps, Müller, Miller, Møller, Albertini, Fàbregas and Svensson able to swing the wallet and bring them home. Would a Bird/Everly-momentum have unfolded other places than in fantasies. Not really sure.

 

And how btw was the percentage between imported Gibsons and Martins and around 1960-70.

 

People who were around at the time should tell about this.

 

Utterly interesting from a historical/cultural point of view. And though straight business, full of poetry when thinking back on the small shops with those rare big guitars surrounded by even bigger dreams.

[zombywoof]

 

Yes, the audience/customers saw stars play the models on the telly, but was mister and misses McGreene, O'Neil, Dechamps, Müller, Miller, Møller, Albertini, Fàbregas and Svensson able to swing the wallet and bring them home. Would a Bird/Everly-momentum have unfolded other places than in fantasies. Not really sure.

 

 

 

Here in the States it was Harmony, Kay and Silvertone, not Gibson or Martin, that launched thousands of musical dreams in which fame and fortune were right around the corner. Nobody except those with a well off and very understanding Mommy could afford them which left most of us to our own devices.

[Fullmental Alpinist]

Oh that's lovey

 

Same age as me too

 

Why, wor BBG is just a bairn, a wee canny lad, he is.

[Fullmental Alpinist]

Utterly interesting from a historical/cultural point of view. And though straight business, full of poetry when thinking back on the small shops with those rare big guitars surrounded by even bigger dreams.

 

Em7, you sir are a wordsmith.

[Fullmental Alpinist]

Here in the States it was Harmony, Kay and Silvertone, not Gibson or Martin, that launched thousands of musical dreams in which fame and fortune were right around the corner. Nobody except those with a well off and very understanding Mommy could afford them which left most of us to our own devices.

 

Or well-meaning and very loving grandparents who shopped for musical instruments at dime stores (God bless them and their good intentions).