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Hummingbird 1964 ~ oooohh. .


E-minor7

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Arrived on the Tube the day before yesterday - couldn't resist setting it up here. The old flier sounds magnificent and is all you'ld want from a first wave Bird. 

He should demo it some more - fingerpick, flat-ditto and further so we can hear that glaze drip , , , but he's a seller not a player, ok. . 

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14 minutes ago, E-minor7 said:

Arrived on the Tube the day before yesterday - couldn't resist setting it up here. The old flier sounds magnificent and is all you'ld want from a first wave Bird. 

He should demo it some more - fingerpick, flat-ditto and further so we can hear that glaze drip , , , but he's a seller not a player, ok. . 

Wow!   I thought a 1964 'Bird would have rectangle fret markers, not split Parallelograms...but what do I know!

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50 minutes ago, E-minor7 said:

Or rather 6. . 

Wasn't the first Hummingbird built in 1960?

I honestly don't know when they added the split parallelograms. 

But I know you're FAR more knowledgeable about this stuff than me!

Edited by DanvillRob
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26 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

Wasn't the first Hummingbird built in 1960?

I honestly don't know when they added the split parallelograms. 

Yes, 1960 - and the splits were there from the start. Approx 10 years later, as the so called Norlin era began, the marks were simplified and went rectangular. 

                                            The Bird above is a Bird-Bird. 

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Just now, E-minor7 said:

Yes, 1960 - and the splits were there from the start. Approx 10 years later, as the so called Norlin era began, the marks were simplified and went rectangular. 

                                            The Bird above is a Bird-Bird. 

Oh.....so I was early!   Thanks....I learned something today!

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2 hours ago, E-minor7 said:

Arrived on the Tube the day before yesterday - couldn't resist setting it up here. The old flier sounds magnificent and is all you'ld want from a first wave Bird. 

He should demo it some more - fingerpick, flat-ditto and further so we can hear that glaze drip , , , but he's a seller not a player, ok. . 

Now THAT's what a faded cherryburst should look like!

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Thanks for posting this EM-7! Amazing! Almost everyone puts down the old Hummingbird and Gibsons adjustable saddles, saying they dull the tone and volume etc etc. Mick Jagger didn't think so. The Rolling Stones and other artists of the day didn't think so, neither do I. In fact most guitarists would kill to have a Hummingbird that sounds like this one. And you can bet it sounded just about as good back in the day before it was even aged or broken in! In fact, the adjustable saddles seems to carry a unique sound that was considered magic in the day.  And still sounds magic today  over half a century later. This Hummingbird just sounds extraordinary!  ❤️

Edited by ALD323
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We just recently had a thread about adjustable saddles & plastic bridges, complete with luthier-bashing video.  I’ve been hearing the exact same generalized stuff from luthiers & self-described experts since the ‘70s.  Now we have the internet to spread  an identical one-size-fits-all assessment of this bridge system.

I quickly discovered back in the day that I loved the slightly metallic tone of my Kalamazoo-made 1964 Epiphone Cortez (FT-45n) - goofy adjustable plastic bridge & all.  If a guitar is satisfying to your ears, it’s all that matters - ideal construction techniques be damned.

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Cool back story.  The guy who built the prototype for the Hummingbird was the head of the Gibson's repair department.  He specifically recalled being directed by the Chief Engineer to make a copy of a Martin.  What seemed to give him the most trouble was re-adjusting the bender to shape the rim.  When the guitar was finished it went off to the pattern makers and then the wood shop to start the production process.

The one Gibson though I have never been able to hook up with has been an HB.  I have had several in my hands dating from between 1963 and 1967 but did not have the where with all to snag them at the time.  But those times when I was flush and could snag one, I could not find an HB to save my life.  But as I tend to be fatalistic about guitars, I figured it was just not meant to be. 

Edited by zombywoof
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1 hour ago, bobouz said:

We just recently had a thread about adjustable saddles & plastic bridges, complete with luthier-bashing video.  I’ve been hearing the exact same generalized stuff from luthiers & self-described experts since the ‘70s.  Now we have the internet to spread  an identical one-size-fits-all assessment of this bridge system.

I quickly discovered back in the day that I loved the slightly metallic tone of my Kalamazoo-made 1964 Epiphone Cortez (FT-45n) - goofy adjustable plastic bridge & all.  If a guitar is satisfying to your ears, it’s all that matters - ideal construction techniques be damned.

 Inspired by that other thread, I actually have done a bit of pondering regarding the whole plastic bridge thing.  While it would seem easy to dismiss it as a change which was unencumbered by thinking. Ted McCarty was still calling the shots at Gibson.  Not only was he a great president but a really good engineer who knew how to build guitars.  It is entirely possible that in 1963 McCarty, to paraphrase a line from "the Graduate," believed the future is plastics and put his mind to how he could adopt the technology to acoustic guitars.  

 

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