NGD: A Gibson By Any Other Name

[PrairieDog]

God help us… A week after the Lucille,  this fell into our laps (well okay, we had to drive an hour yesterday to catch it before it hit the floor.)  

Cromwell  c1935-1938/39.  One of the house brands made by Gibson in Kala.  Sitka/maple, solid mahogany neck that tapers to a vee, RW fretboard, abalone markers but celluoid skunk stripe.  Adjustable bridge 

Been researching the heck out of it but can’t find any comps.  It’s at least a G6, because of the upgraded markers, but with the fancier abalone headstock inlays, and the one reference I found for one made with maple, it is moving into G-8 territory. It appears to have a real carved top, since I think I can feel a bevel moving towards the edge. The back is arched too, but I think that was pressed? It seems mighty uniform, but solid wood.  However, the fret board is attached to the body, which is common to 4s? or maybe 6s.  

While Gruhn’s doesn’t give Cromwell any love, I don’t think he played this one… It’s warm and loud, Gibsony sounding with a nice bluesy plunk if you handle it right. I’d love to get my hands on some period Grossman’s catalogues to figure out what it is.  

We think this is towards the end of production because the 6s and 8s originally had fancier checkerboard perfling, and were mahogany.  Speculating maybe later into the Depression, importing mahogany was getting to be too pricey. Maple was cheap and local.  They sure took advantage with that softer burst.  Most images have super dark bursts, probably to camo the cost effective woods used in these guitars.  

Any knowledge you guitar encyclopedias could provide we’d love to hear.  

In any case, it will probably get even better when we get the strings swapped and that gross fingerboard cleaned up. But that will be a weekend project.  

Came with a cool  prewar tone bar, and a temp nut to convert to slide in the alligator cardboard case.  

Edited April 15 by PrairieDog

[Buc McMaster]

Looks very nice...........the pick guard alone is worth the price of admission!  Enjoy!

[Sgt. Pepper]

Nice inlays and unusual headstock.

You’re on a roll.

Congrats

Gruhn probably gives it no love cause he can’t charge x3 what it’s worth at his store.

Edited April 15 by Sgt. Pepper

[PrairieDog]

17 minutes ago, Sgt. Pepper said:

Nice inlays and unusual headstock.

You’re on a roll.

Congrats

Gruhn probably gives it no love cause he can’t charge x3 what it’s worth at his store.

Nod, probably.  I wish there were other references out there that weren’t so “resale” motivated.  I’m not buying guitars to pad my 401k, I just want to know about them cause “history is kewl.” 😄 And yeah, it was well below our imposed price limit.  Less than a new electrified entry level Gibson G-series, but already lightly “Murphy labbed” 😆

[Buc McMaster]

From what I've been able to dig up the tops on these were solid wood but pressed instead of carved.  This makes sense............it was a budget guitar line.....carved tops are not a budget instrument feature.

[Larsongs]

Really great condition & a real Beauty! I love those old Archtops! Congrats & Enjoy!

Edited April 15 by Larsongs

[PrairieDog]

26 minutes ago, Buc McMaster said:

From what I've been able to dig up the tops on these were solid wood but pressed instead of carved.  This makes sense............it was a budget guitar line.....carved tops are not a budget instrument feature.

Nod, there are a couple mentions that higher end models actually had a carved top.  The extra inlay points to it being a “better budget” model.  Folks could order these from department stores, and Cromwell is mentioned as being the “best” appointed of the hidden Gibson brands, so I could see, kinda like what happens with Epiphone, somebody would maybe up-order a budget model Cromwell, to be more in line with a mid-level Gibson.  Interesting the Gibson L-10 specs for 1936 sports very similar but larger triangle inlays, and the checkerboard binding of the Cromwells 6s for that year. So I could see this being a “higher end” Cromwell built on the chassis of a maybe a toned down L-10.  A couple sites mention Cromwell FONS appearing to have the same batch number as Gibsons.  So it seems they were built in mixed batches.  I could see if a SO for a  Cromwell came in, it could  get a carved top, but dumbed down appointments, like smaller inlays and the attached fretboard, to cut the cost.  In any case, it’s a surprisingly great sounding guitar. I’d really like to compare it to a same period Gibson.  

Edited April 15 by PrairieDog

[ksdaddy]

I once played a Kalamazoo archtop from this era. It was a smaller bodied one, 14-1/2” or so, kinda odd shaped. I think the L-30 and ES-100 might have shared the same body mold. What I do remember is that the F holes looked exactly like the ones on this Cromwell, which is exactly like the F holes on virtually every 15” Kay archtop in existence. (Even some 17” Kays, but more rare) Makes me wonder, in the mishmash of “sorta Gibsons” that have been made in the 30s and 40s, could Gibson have just bought pre-pressed and stamped tops from Kay in Chicago?

[ksdaddy]

Addendum: I stand by what I said about the Kay f holes but those are NOT Kay rims. Too rounded at the shoulder. 

[PrairieDog]

5 minutes ago, ksdaddy said:

I once played a Kalamazoo archtop from this era. It was a smaller bodied on, 14-1/2” or so, kinda odd shaped. I think the L-30 and ES-100 might have shared the same body mold. What I do remember is that the F holes looked exactly like the ones on this Cromwell, which is exactly like the F holes on virtually every 15” Kay archtop in existence. (Even some 17” Kays, but more rare) Makes me wonder, in the mishmash of “sorta Gibsons” that have been made in the 30s and 40s, could Gibson have just bought pre-pressed and stamped tops from Kay in Chicago?

Hmmmm, okay that is very interesting… I see what you are saying after a quick google. Or, was there an “f-hole” die being sold that the manufacturers were using?  Or is the whole Cromwell/Gibson thing a canard, and Kay was actually jobbing for Gibson, who was just wholesaling them under the Gibson distributorship.  In fact I just found a Kay with nearly an identical burst, just a birch build and slightly different binding.  Hmmmmmm again. 

[ksdaddy]

As it pertains to “contract” stuff like the Cromwell, Recording King, etc, and the high probability that some or most would have pressed tops, I wonder, did Gibson even have the equipment to produce pressed tops? Obviously they did later on, what with the huge number of ES models produced, but in the 30s, did they have the equipment? Or for the purposes of producing pressed guitars, might it have been easier to just buy them from Kay? Sometimes more questions are produced than answers.