J 185 Prototype

[bobcox]

My J 185, serial 92210009, has the word 'Prototype' stamped inside on the centre strut.

If I decode the serial correctly, it was made in 1990 at Kalamazoo.

I think there was a short production run from 1991 . Presumably mine was a trial run pre-production. can anyone shed any light?

[slimt]

Nice.   Hang onto it.    Should be a Bozeman made guitar.      Get a mirror and look up inside the top for signatures.  You might see names of who built it.  .  

Edited December 28, 2021 by slimt

[slimt]

If Im not mistakin. Ren at Gibson Montana was redefining these to make them better.     I have a AJ Prototype.   Its a cool guitar.  A time frame of fullerplast.       

[Kwlsky]

Pictures?

 

[zombywoof]

1 hour ago, slimt said:

If Im not mistakin. Ren at Gibson Montana was redefining these to make them better.     I have a AJ Prototype.   Its a cool guitar.  A time frame of fullerplast.       

Not only the fullerplast finish but a paddle neck joint.

Not so sure I would phrase it as making "them better" though.  In the 1950s Gibson's Chief Engineer Larry Allers was a scary good designer.   Ren though certainly had a whole lot of advances in guitar building technology to take advantage of. 

While I do not have a hankering for many Bozeman-made guitars sitting at the top of the list are a first run AJ, an AJ-35, and a 2013 reissue Banner LG-1.   According to the Fabulous Fat-Top book, the first two AJs Bozeman produced both went to Gary Burnette.  Not too shabby. 

[slimt]

47 minutes ago, zombywoof said:

Not only the fullerplast finish but a paddle neck joint.

Not so sure I would phrase it as making "them better" though.  In the 1950s Gibson's Chief Engineer Larry Allers was a scary good designer.   Ren though certainly had a whole lot of advances in guitar building technology to take advantage of. 

While I do not have a hankering for many Bozeman-made guitars sitting at the top of the list are a first run AJ, an AJ-35, and a 2013 reissue Banner LG-1.   According to the Fabulous Fat-Top book, the first two AJs Bozeman produced both went to Gary Burnette.  Not too shabby. 

Ya. I meant by making those better. Just from the previous 20 years.    I dont think Gibson had any original guitars to go by.     I met Mr Burnette at the King of Prussia show in the  early 90s. Theres a guy that had some cool guitars. Put on a big show too. 

[zombywoof]

5 hours ago, slimt said:

Ya. I meant by making those better. Just from the previous 20 years.    I dont think Gibson had any original guitars to go by.     I met Mr Burnette at the King of Prussia show in the  early 90s. Theres a guy that had some cool guitars. Put on a big show too. 

Gibson pulled the plug on the J185 after 1959 so you have to go back more than 30 years.  That was also the last year the CF100 and CF100E were produced.  It is almost like they were edgy about having too many higher dollar guitars in the catalog.  

 

[slimt]

8 minutes ago, zombywoof said:

Gibson pulled the plug on the J185 after 1959 so you have to go back more than 30 years.  That was also the last year the CF100 and CF100E were produced.  It is almost like they were edgy about having too many higher dollar guitars in the catalog.  

 

True enough.    

[Jinder]

I’d love to see pics and maybe a video so we can sleuth further…I had a 1990 Hummingbird that was one of the best guitars I’ve ever played, fullerplast, paddle joint neck and all. Absolutely superb guitar. It belongs to my friend Paul Brett now, who is as great a guitarist as the guitar was a guitar!

[bobcox]

Three quick pics follow

[bobcox]

Another

[bobcox]

label

[slimt]

Ive seen that brand   There were a few different styles.  The brand on the back of the headstock.  , not for resale prototype brand. And the print.  Maybe theres more. Proto  A , proto B on the paper tag in some cases. 

 

 

[bobcox]

Just the serial no. on the headstock in this case

[zombywoof]

I recently ran across a 1989 prototype online somewhere. It had a generic white label on which appeared the model name with "Prototype A" and was dated.  

I have only had the opportunity to buy one prototype.  Not a Gibson but a Collings.  Mass Street Music which at the time was 20 minutes down the road got in several of the CJ35 protypes.  They were not labeled prototype but "Custom" something or the other.  I gather these were sent to the store as a return favor as the owner of Mass Street had loaned Bill Collings his 1939 Gibson J35 on which to base his version.

[Willie_B]

Hi.  I'm new to the forum so please forgive if I misstep.  I hope this thread is still "active".   I own a 2021 J185 and just bought a new to me prototype Gibson that looks very much like my J185 except smaller.   I would love to know more about it.  At first, I was suspicious it might have been fake but it is not.  It is called a Les Paul Acoustic from around 2014.  It did not go to production.   Please point me to a thread if you know it might be discussed.  The lower bout is 14.75 inches and the body is about 3  5/8 inches at the butt.  I have some background history on it but am wanting to see what is on this forum. 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Willie_B
added relative size to J185

[J-1854Me]

On 8/9/2022 at 5:17 PM, Willie_B said:

Hi.  I'm new to the forum so please forgive if I misstep.  I hope this thread is still "active".   I own a 2021 J185 and just bought a new to me prototype Gibson that looks very much like my J185 except smaller.   I would love to know more about it.  At first, I was suspicious it might have been fake but it is not.  It is called a Les Paul Acoustic from around 2014.  It did not go to production.   Please point me to a thread if you know it might be discussed.  The lower bout is 14.75 inches and the body is about 3  5/8 inches at the butt.  I have some background history on it but am wanting to see what is on this forum. 

Well, isn't that cute? I've not seen that one, yet!  It looks like the J-165 shape, but hard to tell if that's exactly it or not.

Have you tried it with tuners and strings yet?

Fred

[Murph]

5 hours ago, J-1854Me said:

Well, isn't that cute? I've not seen that one, yet!  It looks like the J-165 shape, but hard to tell if that's exactly it or not.

Have you tried it with tuners and strings yet?

Fred

Cute as a bug.

Somebody was playing it at some point. Wonder why they robbed the gears?

[Willie_B]

Hi.  I'm further along in my research and have figured out a bit more.  The hardware from this guitar got returned back to Gibson by request.  The guitar was in possession of a pre-amp system developer.  There are actually two of these that exist.   They are very much a J-165.  The project never went to production.  The guitar is unused but suffered a little bit of storage banging around.  Zero fret wear and no pick scratching on the guard. When I went to see about putting tuners in, there were no screw holes that secure the tuners from rotating.  I could see a faint outline of where a GForce had been installed.  I know those got bad press but I bought a set off eBay that was unused and put it in.   I got lucky as I am thrilled with the accuracy of this particular one.  It plays like a dream.   I'm really growing fond of the comfort of the small body and it has been my "go to" guitar as of late.   My J185 is Walnut and I'm finding I am partial to the rosewood of this one.  I am working on fittting it with a Fishman Aura I bought for it.   It is smaller than the hole originally cut.

[Willie_B]

I was wondering, the neck seems to be the only thing that may have changed from the production J-165.  Aside from a Les Paul signature on the headstock and the trapezoid shaped markers on the frets, I am wondering if the neck profile was cut similar to a Les Paul electric guitar.  I am not sure how to check for this.  I don't have access to a production J-165 nor the electric at the moment.