old gibson and old dude

[noelpclark]

Trying to find the value of my Gibson Trojan.  Looks like a good forum site.

[slimt]

Is it In nice condition.   ?  Look at Gruhns, Elderly   Or even gbase or reverb. It will give a idea.  I had one 10 years ago. Got 15.  And it was a decent guitar. 

Edited June 21, 2019 by slimt

[tpbiii]

Well .... a question in one of the most confused area of vintage guitars -- maybe in history.

I have had a serious interest in this question ever since I learned years ago that my late wife and I owned the only Trojan documented by FON -- 960-12.  Here she is.

The name emerged when Lynn Wheelright publish an article that found the name mentioned 39 times in the Gibson shipping ledgers in late 1936.  What the name actually was was the internal project name for the Jumbo35 -- ie, the first J-35s.

The early J-35s -- the ones referred to internally as TROJANS -- were really dumbed down Jumbos -- mostly the same with less decoration.  At the same time, Gibson introduced the Advanced Jumbo -- which had the more modern "advanced" body.  Over time, the features of the J-35 evolved -- with a variety of decoration changes and eventually in the mid 1937 time frame even adopting the "advanced" body shape.

So what is a Trojan?

1. There is only one -- ours.  (Not a lot of people buy that.)

2. J-35s from the first few batches in 1936 with identical features to ours (a small number of batches).

3. All J-35s with the Jumbo body dimensions (pretty common).
So since the market is polluted by historic hyperbole, there probably is no real answer to your question.  The market peak IMO was maybe 2007 -- fairly soft sense.  EXC all original asking price might be $12K+.  A good average sale price would be $10K+  Since I am neither buying selling, these are just guesses.

Best,

-Tom

Edited June 21, 2019 by tpbiii

[slimt]

50 minutes ago, tpbiii said:

Well .... a question in one of the most confused area of vintage guitars -- maybe in history.

I have had a serious interest in this question ever since I learned years ago that my late wife and I owned the only Trojan documented by FON -- 960-12.  Here she is.

The name emerged when Lynn Wheelright publish an article that found the name mentioned 39 times in the Gibson shipping ledgers in late 1936.  What the name actually was was the internal project name for the Jumbo35 -- ie, the first J-35s.

The early J-35s -- the ones referred to internally as TROJANS -- were really dumbed down Jumbos -- mostly the same with less decoration.  At the same time, Gibson introduced the Advanced Jumbo -- which had the more modern "advanced" body.  Over time, the features of the J-35 evolved -- with a variety of decoration changes and eventually in the mid 1937 time frame even adopting the "advanced" body shape.

So what is a Trojan?

1. There is only one -- ours.  (Not a lot of people buy that.)

2. J-35s from the first few batches in 1936 with identical features to ours (a small number of batches).

3. All J-35s with the Jumbo body dimensions (pretty common).
So since the market is polluted by historic hyperbole, there probably is no real answer to your question.  The market peak IMO was maybe 2007 -- fairly soft sense.  EXC all original asking price might be $12K+.  A good average sale price would be $10K+  Since I am neither buying selling, these are just guesses.

Best,

-Tom

Mine was a burst very similar to yours.  Odd yours would be the only documented one.  You know your Gibson well.    I was always under the impression j35s were blonde.  trojans were burst.    That was the info I recieved at king of Prussia burnetts guitat show.  

[noelpclark]

23 hours ago, slimt said:

Is it In nice condition.   ?  Look at Gruhns, Elderly   Or even gbase or reverb. It will give a idea.  I had one 10 years ago. Got 15.  And it was a decent guitar. 

Yes it is.  Nicks and such. Sounds awesome.