Californiaman Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 Papa Neo, tells us again the story how you came to own the only 12-string SG in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoConMan Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 It was built in 1995 on the regular production floor, not the Custom Shop. It has a regular serial number stamped on the back of the headstock. The neck is simply the 12 off an EDS-1275 double neck that never made it into the correct body. Pickups I assume to be 490/498. You've heard be talk and brag about my dealer Bizarre Guitar in Phoenix, eh? www.bizarreguitar.net Well, they sold a boatload of guitars to a certain collector over the years. He specialized in one-off, oddball, prototype and custom pieces. Bought many of them new from "sources" he has. This guy is from New York but had a winter house in Phoenix he decided to sell. So his collection is somewhere in the area of 700 pieces and he doesn't have room for all of them in New York. He called Bob (Bizarre owner) and asked for help in thinning out his collection. Bob usually isn't interested unless the pieces are special in some way but he knew what this guy had. They struck a deal and I was there the day the first of two moving trucks showed up - FULL of guitars. Oh my God. I watched as they went thru a gazillion cases and Bob bought a little over 150 of them. Many were unremarkable other than being very expensive, and new with plastic on them still. All were VERY nice - mostly Fender and Gibsons of every stripe, flavor and shape. I left and came back several days later after the dust had settled and was walking around the store in amazement. Two Custom Shop set neck Telecasters and all sorts of Master Built Fenders. Crazy. Gibsons I never even dreamed of.... Then I noticed something funny about one of the SG's. Twelve string? A twelve string SG? I told Mike (manager) I had NEVER seen such a thing, he smiled and said "Neither have we." Really. Well, I've seen 12 string Les Pauls, Warren Haynes plays one. I've seen 12 string 335's from the seventies, they built a few of them. But it makes no sense to put a 12 neck on an SG. Mike and Bob mentioned the Melody Maker 12 strings from the sixties, but they were not really an SG other than sharing the body shape. I think they mostly had single coils too, I could be wrong. Bob has bought and sold crazy, exotic, vintage and $$$$$ guitars all his life, owned that store for over 30 years. When he said HE had never seen one..... Okay, so I know it's not a fake. Bob wouldn't have bought it if he suspected anything of the sort. I called Gibson with the serial number, it doesn't exist. The guy tells me that it's a legit serial number, he thinks it's one of theirs, but he has no record of it. How can this be? Well, true or not, here's the story I got. I learned that Gibson was going to computers instead of paper files back then, and there was a ton of data lost for different reasons. Paper trails were no longer created for the guitars and when they ran out of computer memory they simply deleted enough files to continue on. Jeez. They recommended I call Gruhn's in Nashville, so I did. Spoke with Walter Carter, and the man knows his stuff. Turns out he's written about vintage guitars, and he worked at Gibson for decades. He has a book or two out, and is regarded as a wealth of Gibson knowledge. I would say the reputation is well deserved.... He did some digging for me in his own archives while I disassembled the SG to take detailed digital pics. I got shots from all angles inside the cavities that showed the pencil markings from construction. I got shots of the neck joint at the body. I got shots from every conceivable vantage point. Mailed them to Walter, he did an assessment and written appraisal for a nominal fee. The best Walter and everybody else can figure is one of two things. 1. It was an employee guitar, a perk of working at the factory is you can build whatever your heart desires - cheap. 2. It was custom made for some celebrity, this was often done on the regular line back then. Records would be sketchy either way, a paper trail is not that important for an endorsement piece or such. So the story tells us more of what it likely was NOT. It was not built for regular shipment from the factory. It was likely not paid for by, or distributed to dealer. It wouldn't have a lifetime warranty since it was a gimme or oddball piece. (I'm not the original owner, so....) It was likely not shipped out of the factory, but carried out by an employee. If it was built for somebody special, it was likely delivered by Gibson folks personally. Much of this is sheer conjecture, I have good info backed up by many broad assumptions to fill in the blanks. Somebody out there knows more about it than I do, but I've heard nothing in the three years I've owned it. There are a few 12 string SG's out there, but they all appear to be Custom Shop pieces. They are also built very differently, appears they have a basic SG body with a specially made 22 fret neck. The neck on mine appears to be identical to my EDS-1275 in the photo beside it, the body is the odd piece. The neck has only 20 frets and joins the body at fret 15, so it's much shorter than a regular SG. To preserve scale length, the bridge is set much further back into the body. To do this, the body has no common machining or routing with a regular SG, even the control cavity is different. Look at the pics, you can see the neck pickup is right against the 20th fret like a double neck, and then there's a huge gap between it and the bridge pickup - more than double the norm. The bridge is WAY back there, further than even a double neck. Overall length is the same as an SG, the short neck gets the long headstock for all those tuners. It's no more (or less) neck-heavy than any other SG I've played. Tone is unremarkable, seems silly but I have to say it sounds like a 12 string SG. The pickups are WAY too hot, the volume stays down around 4 or it just gets muddy as hell. Playability is as good as expected, and 12 string work is now much lighter than the double neck allows. Condition is 8 out of 10 with a couple nicks on the body. It has light playing wear so it wasn't a case queen. Gold hardware is typical, the slightly tarnished and crummy looking stuff you have when the finish wears away some. Board is most likely Brazilian Rosewood to add to the collectibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSG_Standard Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 Man i wish i was at that shop...does it feel weird to own something no one else owns? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted May 3, 2009 Author Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thanks Neo, that was a good bedtime story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoConMan Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 Man i wish i was at that shop...does it feel weird to own something no one else owns? It's the best stocked guitar shop I've ever been in' date=' and I've been in a bunch of them in a bunch of states over the last 30 years. If you're ever in Phoenix, you gotta check 'em out. As far as something nobody owns, I dunno. In my teens I managed to find a 66 Mustang that was odd and rare - considering over half a million of 'em were built. I've acquired some nice rare guns over the years. I have these guitars as well, I've never seen another one in person though I know there's a few out there.... [img']http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3595/3377450185_43203bacf5.jpg?v=0[/img] 1959 Gretsch lap steel 1968 Kustom K-200 I like finding the odd and unusual stuff when I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SG_Mike Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 Thanks Neo!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoConMan Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 No, thank YOU!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckledzepplin Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 hey neo post some of the close up pictures of the guitar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ignotum-Per-Ignocious Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 very cool Neo :- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Californiaman Posted May 4, 2009 Author Share Posted May 4, 2009 This is exactly the type of story that should show up in the "Lounge" from time to time. I for one, loved it. Having a unique instrument like a 12-string SG is something a lot of people would want to read about. Thanks again, Neo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flight959 Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Neo, What sort of a case does it come in? Is it a Gibson Case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
recsec Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Great Story Neo. I appreciate the detail on the research you did. It is amazing that companies like Gibson and many others can be so bad keeping records. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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