Of all the Gibsons you've owned...

[DanvillRob]

I have never got rid of any of my Gibsons.... still have my first one which I got over 50 years ago.

It's special to me because it went through my "lean years" (if you know what I mean)   1969 Jubilee.

My 1979 Dove is special because my beautiful wife scraped the money to buy it for me as a present when we "...didn't have a window to throw it out of".

The 2006 Doves In Flight is the best sounding guitar I ever owned....got it specifically for my first grandkid.

Got my 2011 Hummingbird KOA for my first granddaughter....I sure hope she plays!

The 2010 Hummingbird 12-String I got from a Forum member....it's such a wonderful player, I've grown to love it....it'll go to my second grandson.

And the 1975 J-50 was given to me by my staff when I retired.... it was my practice guitar until bursitis forced me to return to the Jubilee, (smaller body).

I don't plan to ever get rid of one of them....nor do I plan to acquire another one.

Edited February 20 by DanvillRob

[Phil OKeefe]

On 2/19/2024 at 10:03 AM, Sgt. Pepper said:

It was my first Gibson and it was a student guitar at best. I don't think I have ever seen one gigged. Heavy chunk of Walnut or what ever it was made of.  There is a reason they were only made for a bout 5 years. Why they reissued them I will never know? Wait I just remembered its these - $$$$$$.

Since you seem to be in the know. What does Gibson do with guitars that do not sell?

 

The Paul I had was a Firebrand, so it was one of the slightly later mahogany models, not one of the earliest walnut ones. I played both at the store I worked at, and preferred the sound of the mahogany model. I played a lot of gigs with it. The model most similar to it (outside of the walnut reissues that were done a few years ago), is the Les Paul Modern Lite. I'm really tempted to buy one of them in the Gibson-exclusive TV Pelham Blue. They both have similar mahogany bodies (both thinner than a regular Les Paul Standard), both have the belly cuts, similar controls (although the Modern Lite has the pickup selector on the upper bout and The Pauls had them down by the volume and tone controls), both have similar neck profiles, etc. However, the Modern Lite has a satin nitrocellulose finish vs the natural finishes on most of The Pauls.  I also (a few years later) had a The Paul with a kind of burnt orange colored finish - I don't recall what the official name for that color was.  I gigged that one a lot, too. 

 

As far as I know, these days (as opposed to the days of things like the Firebird X) we sell all the guitars we make, outside of playable factory seconds, which I believe are usually donated to music charity programs via Gibson's charitable foundation, Gibson Gives. 

[Phil OKeefe]

3 hours ago, DanvillRob said:

 

The 2006 Doves In Flight is the best sounding guitar I ever owned....got it specifically for my first grandkid.

 

The Doves In Flight is a dream guitar for me. I hope to have one someday!

My only grandson is bound to wind up with a lot of my guitars eventually. He won't be three until July, and he already has his own drum kit (a Ludwig Questlove Pocket Kit), and still wants to play on my drum kit whenever he comes over to visit. He's also fascinated by my guitars, keyboards, and anything else that makes noise. Considering all the people in his family who are musicians (his great-grandfather was a guitarist, his mom is a session singer, his grandmother/my wife is a former RCA artist, and I'm a recording engineer and multi-instrumentalist), he's got it in his blood.  

[DanvillRob]

4 minutes ago, Phil OKeefe said:

The Doves In Flight is a dream guitar for me. I hope to have one someday!

My only grandson is bound to wind up with a lot of my guitars eventually. He won't be three until July, and he already has his own drum kit (a Ludwig Questlove Pocket Kit), and still wants to play on my drum kit whenever he comes over to visit. He's also fascinated by my guitars, keyboards, and anything else that makes noise. Considering all the people in his family who are musicians (his great-grandfather was a guitarist, his mom is a session singer, his grandmother/my wife is a former RCA artist, and I'm a recording engineer and multi-instrumentalist), he's got it in his blood.  

Well, good luck with that…..I wanted my son to play, but he never was interested, even though his dad (me) played all his life, his uncles, grandfather and several friends all played.   His kids, (my grandkids) are only 6, 4 and 2.     I’m hoping one or all of them play.   

[jvi]

the best sounding guitar Ive ever owned or played was an early 90s AJ reissue,  the only git of hundreds Ive owned I regret selling but the kids were growing and I used the cash for needed stuff ...so maybe regret isnt the right word. (one of HJs best moves was his reintroduction of this and other classics.-)

[Larsongs]

16 hours ago, vacamartin said:

And so it goes.....i'm still hoping for that pawn shop miracle find!🍺

I think those days are long gone….. For deals anyway…

After I got home from Vietnam I needed an Electric Guitar.. I had about $75.00… There was nothing new for that kind of money.. So we went to all the Pawn Shops in Wash. D.C. I was about to give up when one of my buddies spotted a Guitar in the back of the Pawn shop high on a shelf. It was almost completely blocked by stuff with only the headstock sticking out..

I said, what’s that.. The guy said, it’s an old Guitar & was pretty rough.. I asked if I could see it.. He brought it down.. 

It was dinged & had lots of scratches. Ugly brown color. Only one Pickup, one Volume & one Tone control.. I thought not much of a Guitar but it played ok.

I asked, how much? The guy said, how much you got? I said, $75.00.. He said, that’s exactly how much it is! Wow, did I sucker for that.. LOL..

Turned out to be a mid to late 50’s Les Paul Jr.. It was a fantastic Guitar & sounded amazing. The Lead Player in our Band, kept bugging me to buy it.. When a really cool Vox Phantom became available I sold to him for $75.00 & bought the Vox.. Which later was stolen…

I should never have sold that Guitar!

[jt]

I've owned a lot of lovely Gibsons. I still do. My current Gibsons include a 1930 Nick Lucas, 5 Banner/WWII-era Gibson, and a 1904 A Mandolin and 1936 A-Century mandolin.

A few years ago I sold about a dozen 1920s and 1930s Gibsons (every version of the L-body: L-00, L-0, L-1, L-2, L-Century). I don't miss them. They went to good homes to great people (mainly in Japan).

One I sometimes miss? (Which sold to a collector in Japan within minutes of me posting it for sale.) This Robert Johnson-era, 1928 L-1:

[BluesKing777]

2 hours ago, Larsongs said:

I think those days are long gone….. For deals anyway…

After I got home from Vietnam I needed an Electric Guitar.. I had about $75.00… There was nothing new for that kind of money.. So we went to all the Pawn Shops in Wash. D.C. I was about to give up when one of my buddies spotted a Guitar in the back of the Pawn shop high on a shelf. It was almost completely blocked by stuff with only the headstock sticking out..

I said, what’s that.. The guy said, it’s an old Guitar & was pretty rough.. I asked if I could see it.. He brought it down.. 

It was dinged & had lots of scratches. Ugly brown color. Only one Pickup, one Volume & one Tone control.. I thought not much of a Guitar but it played ok.

I asked, how much? The guy said, how much you got? I said, $75.00.. He said, that’s exactly how much it is! Wow, did I sucker for that.. LOL..

Turned out to be a mid to late 50’s Les Paul Jr.. It was a fantastic Guitar & sounded amazing. The Lead Player in our Band, kept bugging me to buy it.. When a really cool Vox Phantom became available I sold to him for $75.00 & bought the Vox.. Which later was stolen…

I should never have sold that Guitar!

 

 

 

Yeah, like I said earlier, they know everything price wise at the pawn shops these days - but people are people and people run out of cash and their guitar lands at the pawn shop if they are in a hurry for that cash and can't wait for a sale.....

These days, a lot of the pawn shops list their offerings online - a search online is much easier in some ways that searching the whole pawn shop in person! I search - Latest or Gibson or Martin or Maton.....no good, search Latest.

I get the ones I buy fixed by my luthier, with some great results! They are always disgustingly dirty, bad strings, awful setup, nut, saddle.....

Latest pawn shop buy was my 1968 Ramirez Estudio I posted somewhere earlier.....this has NOT been 'serviced' as yet......and the luthier is so busy........wait. But wow, I have been playing lots of nylon string classical and instrumentals.

So, last buy was a 2005/6 Martin Eric Clapton 000-28EC - horrible before luthier.

Before that was my 2002 Gibson J50 custom shop orange label - also horrible before luthier.

Before that - 2005/6 Gibson Dove Cherry Burst custom shop orange label - with full Baggs Anthem - also horris before luthier...

Back a ways, different pawn shop - 1993 Lowden S35 that someone had got signed by Tommy Emmanuel - on the top! No luthier needed - guitar was a life changing incredible instrument!

Back even further - 1952 Gibson ES 125 - have not done anything to it. Also don't play it anymore.

Here is a photo of the Dove - the luthier got the writing off! And touched up a few spots wrecked by a guitar stand...and a new bone nut, saddle and of course a wonderful setup! If someone played it, they would offer gold....not the current used price......it is that good:

 

 

BluesKing777.

 

Edited February 20 by BluesKing777

[vacamartin]

1 hour ago, jt said:

I've owned a lot of lovely Gibsons. I still do

One I sometimes miss? (Which sold to a collector in Japan within minutes of me posting it for sale.) This Robert Johnson-era, 1928 L-1:

now that is a Gibson I would like to try!

[rbpicker]

My first, a new 62 J45 cherry sunburst.  I bought it new and later went into the Air Force.  Stationed at Eglin AFB, Florida.  Married with a young wife and not making much money so I took it to a pawn shop and the guy paid me $60 US dollars for it.  He saw me coming, but that bought some baloney and rice for a few weeks back then.

Live and learn is the moral of that story.

Roger

[BluesKing777]

11 hours ago, rbpicker said:

My first, a new 62 J45 cherry sunburst.  I bought it new and later went into the Air Force.  Stationed at Eglin AFB, Florida.  Married with a young wife and not making much money so I took it to a pawn shop and the guy paid me $60 US dollars for it.  He saw me coming, but that bought some baloney and rice for a few weeks back then.

Live and learn is the moral of that story.

Roger

 

There was a J45 cherry sunburst at that pawn shop I haunt, long gone now......I decided I prefer the wider nut of my 2005 Dove cherry burst, pic above....

 

BluesKing777.

 

[DanvillRob]

12 hours ago, rbpicker said:

My first, a new 62 J45 cherry sunburst.  I bought it new and later went into the Air Force.  Stationed at Eglin AFB, Florida.  Married with a young wife and not making much money so I took it to a pawn shop and the guy paid me $60 US dollars for it.  He saw me coming, but that bought some baloney and rice for a few weeks back then.

Live and learn is the moral of that story.

Roger

Isn't it a shame that our gubment pays its soldiers  so little they often need to go on welfare to make ends meet?

Maybe if they started drafting illegals into the service...

[Sgt. Pepper]

20 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

Isn't it a shame that our gubment pays its soldiers  so little they often need to go on welfare to make ends meet?

Maybe if they started drafting illegals into the service...

Do you not remember the saying from all branches of the military - It takes a college education to break it, and a high school education to fix it.

Does Space Force have a boot camp if if so where is it at, the Moon?

Now back to guitars you pine for that got away.

Edited February 21 by Sgt. Pepper

[DanvillRob]

46 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Do you not remember the saying from all branches of the military - It takes a college education to break it, and a high school education to fix it.

Does Space Force have a boot camp if if so where is it at, the Moon?

Now back to guitars you pine for that got away.

Only guitar I pine for is my old Jag.... gave it to my brother over 50 years ago.....told him I'd buy it back  maybe 10 years ago....he said he sold it already.....sumb!tch!

 

Edited February 21 by DanvillRob

[Sgt. Pepper]

16 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

Only guitar I pine for is my old Jag.... gave it to my brother over 50 years ago.....told him I'd buy it back  maybe 10 years ago....he said he sold it already.....sumb!tch!

 

Brothers who needs 'em.

[DanvillRob]

12 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Brothers who needs 'em.

My brother is a total hermit..... has some land outside Reno....  can't get him to leave for any reason.

I'm going to take the motor home up there later this year for a few days...haven't seen him since my mother died, (2008).

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Just now, DanvillRob said:

My brother is a total hermit..... has some land outside Reno....  can't get him to leave for any reason.

I'm going to take the motor home up there later this year for a few days...haven't seen him since my mother died, (2008).

 

Haven't been to Reno since about 2008.

[DanvillRob]

Just now, Sgt. Pepper said:

Haven't been to Reno since about 2008.

We used to show dogs there sometimes...and my brother would drive over to where we were (for a free meal).

He has a couple of friends in Auburn....he'll go there every once in a blue moon.

[PrairieDog]

2 hours ago, DanvillRob said:

Only guitar I pine for is my old Jag.... gave it to my brother over 50 years ago.....told him I'd buy it back  maybe 10 years ago....he said he sold it already.....sumb!tch!

 

Not pining for a guitar but a piano…

When I was a kid, my grandmother bequeathed her 19th century Steinway parlor-grand piano to me. I was a bit of a promising prodigy, and she was my main encouragement.  

At first it was at my house, but I couldn’t practice when my mom was around, since she found the needed repetition annoying, and she finally had it moved to my dad’s house until I had a place I could move it into.

When the time came, and I had bought a house specifically because it had space to keep it in, he kept finding excuses to keep it at his house. Usually some music program graduate student was living with them who needed to use it.  I was annoyed, but in the interest of keeping the rocky peace, I just figured it would get to me at some point. Even if it was through the will.  

To my horror and outrage, when he was closing up the house, he announced he was giving my piano to a graduate student he particularly liked, screaming at me in a bizarre, uncharacteristic outburst of rage, “You don’t DESERVE the piano!” I was floored, stunned.

It turned out all these years he had been bogarting it, I had been the brunt of a cruel and almost Shakespearean betrayal by another party, without my father ever approaching me, or asking me if any of it were true.  He just believed outright lies, and nothing I could say now dissuaded him from his conviction I turned out to be utterly worthless.  

The graduate student didn’t even want it. She wasn’t even a piano major, and had no place for it and would have to pay to store it.  She understood what a blow this was to me. She begged me in a panic to talk him out of it. He would have none of it.

He always had some bug up his butt about me, nothing I did met his approval, and it turned out this was the ultimate and cruelest dig he could deliver.  He even made sure through a ruse that I happened to be there when the movers came to take it away to put it in her storage.  

A decade or so later, I was looking into buying it back from the grad student, but it turned out she had gutted the beautiful old thing and put the “modern” heavy-action style keys in it.  Once I heard that, I was resigned, it was never going to be “my” piano again.  

 

Edited February 21 by PrairieDog

[DanvillRob]

21 minutes ago, PrairieDog said:

Not pining for a guitar but a piano…

When I was a kid, my grandmother bequeathed her 19th century Steinway parlor-grand piano to me. I was a bit of a promising prodigy, and she was my main encouragement.  

At first it was at my house, but I couldn’t practice when my mom was around, since she found the needed repetition annoying, and she finally had it moved to my dad’s house until I had a place I could move it into.

When the time came, and I had bought a house specifically because it had space to keep it in, he kept finding excuses to keep it at his house. Usually some music program graduate student was living with them who needed to use it.  I was annoyed, but in the interest of keeping the rocky peace, I just figured it would get to me at some point. Even if it was through the will.  

To my horror and outrage, when he was closing up the house, he announced he was giving my piano to a graduate student he particularly liked, screaming at me in a bizarre, uncharacteristic outburst of rage, “You don’t DESERVE the piano!” I was floored, stunned.

It turned out all these years he had been bogarting it, I had been the brunt of a cruel and almost Shakespearean betrayal by another party, without my father ever approaching me, or asking me if any of it were true.  He just believed outright lies, and nothing I could say now dissuaded him from his conviction I turned out to be utterly worthless.  

The graduate student didn’t even want it. She wasn’t even a piano major, and had no place for it and would have to pay to store it.  She understood what a blow this was to me. She begged me in a panic to talk him out of it. He would have none of it.

He always had some bug up his butt about me, nothing I did met his approval, and it turned out this was the ultimate and cruelest dig he could deliver.  He even made sure through a ruse that I happened to be there when the movers came to take it away to put it in her storage.  The 

A decade or so later, I was looking into buying it back from the grad student, but it turned out she had gutted the beautiful old thing and put the “modern” heavy style keys in it.  Once I heard that, I was resigned, it was never going to be “my” piano again.  

 

OMG!  That's the most outrageous and horrendous story I've ever heard!

Makes my story very tame in comparison!

That's, of course, one of the problems with pianos...many (most) people have no place for them.

I have 2 pianos in my house.... my old 1871 Carl Ronisch and my 1971 Schafer & Sons Baby Grand.... pretty sure my son will keep the old antique piano, but he might sell off the baby grand.... too bad.... it's been sitting in the same room for 30 years....

[Sgt. Pepper]

We have a Steinway Grand Piano in the lobby of the theater I work at (The Carolina Opry). I heard ages ago someone possibly spilled a drink in it, and now it is basically a place for the customers to use as a coaster for their drinks. I have seen the serial numbers and can't figure out how old or new it is. It must be way to much to  restore or why would you not do it to a piano of that stature.

Edited February 21 by Sgt. Pepper

[DanvillRob]

7 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

We have a Steinway Grand Piano in the lobby of the theater I work at (The Carolina Opry). I heard ages ago someone possibly spilled a drink in it, and now it is basically a place for the customers to use as a coaster for their drinks. I have seen the serial numbers and can't figure out how old or new it is. It must be way to much to  restore or why would you not do it to a piano of that stature.

There are data bases for determining the age of pianos based on the serial number....that's how I found out my of Carl Ronisch was made in 1871.

[Sgt. Pepper]

4 minutes ago, DanvillRob said:

There are data bases for determining the age of pianos based on the serial number....that's how I found out my of Carl Ronisch was made in 1871.

I looked and it confused me just like Gibson does.

[E-minor7]

Never sold a guitar that appealed so much to me it seemed like a keeper, so no regrets.

Hard to pick a spezial No 1. But my 1980 Gibson-re-topped, 2012 re-necked now long-scale 1966 Country Western is irreplaceable. There's simply nothing or no one  like it on earth.  

On 2/20/2024 at 1:14 AM, BluesKing777 said:

Les Paul to the pawn shop not long after. BOING. 

Pretty sure George Harrison played one like mine in the newer Get Back movie.

The Harrison Les Paul is unique. Was originally a goldtop with PAF pups. It was refinished by Gibson in approx 1966, SG style.  

I plus band too was booked to play for H.A. many many years ago - by the director of a film about them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  A week before the premiere they gunned down a man or 2 and I thereafter withdrew. A move also never regretted.

[PrairieDog]

2 hours ago, DanvillRob said:

OMG!  That's the most outrageous and horrendous story I've ever heard!

Makes my story very tame in comparison!

That's, of course, one of the problems with pianos...many (most) people have no place for them.

I have 2 pianos in my house.... my old 1871 Carl Ronisch and my 1971 Schafer & Sons Baby Grand.... pretty sure my son will keep the old antique piano, but he might sell off the baby grand.... too bad.... it's been sitting in the same room for 30 years....

Nah, yours is hard too.  The sting of losing something one cares about is the same, no matter the circumstances. I have a lot of horror stories, I don’t share them often, but when I do, I try to make clear grief/pain is not a competition, it is all just a shared path.  

Nice to have those pianos, I hope your son comes to cherishes them both.  Like guitars, no two are really the same.