Help please! Discovering the Origins of a Family Heirloom Guitar!

[johnzappa]

Hello my fellow Gibson lovers. Great to be here finally.

My name is JT. Live in Denver, grew up in Michigan.  I am on a quest to discover the origins of a very special Gibson guitar that has been in my family for a really long time. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

My grandfather Ed Weston was an employee of Gibson Kalamazoo, MI and Elgin, IL from the years 1965-1973.  From gathering family history of this extraordinary man from relatives, he managed the string department in KZoo and was plant manager in Elgin! Amazing! 

Enough about family, although it is an important part of my story.

The guitar in question, J-200, was originally told to me as a teenager learning the instrument as a 1968. That's all I've ever known. Until I started doing some research...

The clues I've gathered have led me on a chase to figure out what and where this amazing instrument is  and came from.

Please see attached pictures and let's begin.

Start with the obvious, the serial number:  A114368 it is unregistered which matches family history as back then Gibson QC was strict. This guitar was a reject that I believe was gifted to my grandfather for hard work which he repaired in his bad *** wood shop at home. According to Gibson, this serial number decodes the guitar a 1963 or 1967. Apparently, their sales were so good back then they ran out of serial numbers and had to use duplicates! Although, 1963 doesn't really follow family timelines so We'll stick with 1967 for now. There is also a stamp above the serial number BGN, which I've been told stands for Bargain. Meaning it wasn't allowed to be sold at an authorized Gibson dealer because of the defect. Still need some verification on this. 

There is a Made In the USA stamp below the serial number. I believe this clue tells us Gibson started doing this around 1970. So, either the neck is different from the body, or the serial number isn't authentic, or grandpa stamped that **** in there himself? The mystery has begun.

Next clue. The sticker in the sound hole. It has a white border around an orange logo. Apparently, this change happened around 1972?  So, there's another discrepancy. This sticker could have come at a later time since the guitar was a reject, maybe?

Next clue. The headstock emblem. Gibson without the dot on the i. This tells another story.  Post 1968? 1968-1972ish?  

Another friend told me to post an image of the decoration around the sound hole. It's beautiful, however, I haven't found any info about this.  He also had a comment regarding the neck and headstock being 3 pieces of wood glued together, not sure what this means either.

This is a special instrument, not only to me of course but just stunning and beautiful.  Every time I pick it up music flows through me and into it.  All these years and it still stays in tune, looks great [minus the obvious bumps, scars and bruises] and rings like a pro.

All of these clues are puzzling me. There are some discrepancies but the timeline fits a certain era.  Any advice is really super appreciated.  Hopefully, a kick *** crazy Gibson freak will dig into this post and help out.

Stay healthy, play your guitars, rock out.

PS, Hey Gibson, can you please open up the image upload size to more than this weasly 500k? Come on!  I'll add more photos as needed I guess, jeez.

JT

[tx-ogre]

Welcome aboard JT.  You probably want to post this to the Gibson Acoustics forum.  There will most likely be someone who can help you out.  Good luck.

[sparquelito]

Welcome, JT. 

I'm not much help with vintage acoustic instruments, but I can say that it's a nice old guitar, and if it still sings to you, it's a great one. 

Make sure you put it in your Last Will & Testament, so that it won't go into the wrong hands when you pass on. 

I have had friends and family dropping like flies lately, so that's on my mind quite a bit. 

😐

[ksdaddy]

"A" followed by six digits is definitely early 70s. I was once told it was "1973 only" but I have since found that it could be 1970-75.

This has the "J200 Artist" style bridge, which was first used around 1971 and continued until the early 80s.

"Made in USA" would indicate 1970 or later.

The three screw truss rod cover was used occasionally in the mid 1970s.

The shading of the sunburst is commonly seen on c.1972 instruments.

"BGN" does indeed mean "bargain" and they were usually made available to employees only. Could have been either sold or gifted.

[zombywoof]

I looked up the serial number and it places the guitar at 1973-1975.  As ksdaddy has noted those years match the fetaures of the instrument.  It is also possible that your grandfather bought the guiitar as employees were allowed to buy instruments direct from the factory at a discount.  

To fill you in on a bit of Gibson history relating to your grandfather at the time he was hired the string department had been moved from the original 224 Parsons Street Plant to another building Gibson had purchased in Portage  which was Kalamazoo's sister city and only a couple miles away.  Gibson stopped manufacturing strings and began outsourcing them some time in 1972  which would explain his  tenure with Gibson ending the following year.

Now here is the cool part.  As your grandfather started with  Gibson in 1965 he initiially worked under Gibson President Ted McCarty.  The guy is a legend.  Staring in 1950 he retooled and reorganized Gibson bringing it kicking and screaming into the 20th century while  his shop gave us the  Hummingbird, J160E, and B45-12 as well as the Epiphone Frontier, Texan and Excellente and  electrics such as the Les Paul, Explorer, ES 335 and many more.    The problem was in 1965 Gibson's parent company CMI came under new leadership who determined that McCarty's way of building guitars was costing the company too much so in 1966 they forced him out.

Edited February 17, 2021 by zombywoof

[75 Hummingbird]

Hi JT ,welcome .

Your beautiful Gibson J 200 has a lot of 1970`s appointment , i am leaning towards 1975 because of serial number and the  3 screw truss nut cover .

 

 

[zombywoof]

13 hours ago, 75 Hummingbird said:

Hi JT ,welcome .

Your beautiful Gibson J 200 has a lot of 1970`s appointment , i am leaning towards 1975 because of serial number and the  3 screw truss nut cover .

 

 

The three screw TRC first pops up in 1973.  As Gibson did not change specs at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, you will find both styles of TRC during the transition period.