Gibson Victory guitars

[duane v]

We have a winner!!! lol 

 

[Hellsten]

Cool that you can find them at under 7 lbs.  Maybe that horn will help it not neck dive like the 24 fret sg supremes.

 

Anyone know if the top on the maple topped Victorys is a cap top or a thin veneer? 

[Phil OKeefe]

27 minutes ago, Hellsten said:

Anyone know if the top on the maple topped Victorys is a cap top or a thin veneer? 

 

The Victory Figured Top has a figured maple cap. It's not a veneer. 

 

P.S. Welcome to the forums. I love your RJD avatar! 🤘

[tx-ogre]

Definitely not on my wish list.  My 8 string Ibanez, 7 string Ltd and all 3 of my basses (4 & 6 string) are “Super Strat” body styles, so I have that type more than covered.  And these Gibson models are rather fugly IMHO and  as usual seriously over priced.

[RBSinTo]

Is there some significance to the designation "Victory" for these guitars?

RBSinTo

[ksdaddy]

17 minutes ago, RBSinTo said:

Is there some significance to the designation "Victory" for these guitars?

RBSinTo

That the company made it out of the 1970s without padlocking the gate?

[RBSinTo]

23 minutes ago, ksdaddy said:

That the company made it out of the 1970s without padlocking the gate?

I thought perhaps Winston Churchill played one when he and his group "the Tories" jammed.

RBSinTo

[Larsongs]

You can buy one of those Victory’s for $Thousands or something like this Rivolta on sale under $1000.00 & it’s way better looking. This video is old & the contest is over. But, the Sale came across my feed today. Thought I’d share. No connection. Just showing other choices.

 

[duane v]

That looks like one of those 50-60's Framus guitars.

The dude has killer chops

[Hellsten]

On 9/12/2024 at 1:33 PM, Phil OKeefe said:

 

The Victory Figured Top has a figured maple cap. It's not a veneer. 

 

P.S. Welcome to the forums. I love your RJD avatar! 🤘

Thank's much for the info.  RJD was the man for sure.  I wonder if there's much of a sonic difference between the solid mahogany Victory and the mahogany with the maple cap. 

 

I'm digging the Victory. It's weird lines are growing on me. 

[Rabs]

13 minutes ago, Hellsten said:

Thank's much for the info.  RJD was the man for sure.  I wonder if there's much of a sonic difference between the solid mahogany Victory and the mahogany with the maple cap. 

 

I'm digging the Victory. It's weird lines are growing on me. 

 

Edited September 13 by Rabs

[Larsongs]

Looks like Gibson was entering the Offset market about 20 years after Fender. Why don’t the Victory’s have a Tremolo? I’ve never been a big fan of push/pull coil tapping SC to HB pickups.

I think a Single Coil Neck Pickup & a Humbucker Pickup at the Bridge works extremely well.

I would still like to try a Victory to see if they could change my mind. I’d still want a Tremolo though.

Still, it looks like Gibson is trying to offer an Offset Guitar that has all the Bells & Whistles but without the Tremolo… doesn’t.

Edited September 14 by Larsongs

[ksdaddy]

16 minutes ago, Larsongs said:

Why don’t the Victory’s have a Tremolo?

They came out in '81 and vibratos weren't popular at that time.  Even Fender was making nearly as many hardtail Strats in the late 70s as they were vibrato models.

[Phil OKeefe]

17 hours ago, Hellsten said:

Thank's much for the info.  RJD was the man for sure.  I wonder if there's much of a sonic difference between the solid mahogany Victory and the mahogany with the maple cap. 

 

I'm digging the Victory. It's weird lines are growing on me. 

 

I honestly haven't played the new ones, so I can't say for sure, but I'd expect the ones with the maple caps to have a bit more bite and brightness to the tone like a Les Paul Standard vs. an all-mahogany Les Paul Custom. The all-mahogany versions are probably a bit more midrange forward. 

[SteveFord]

Were Firebird sales so slow that it makes sense to produce models like the Theodore and Victory and discontinue the USA Firebirds?

[Larsongs]

3 hours ago, ksdaddy said:

They came out in '81 and vibratos weren't popular at that time.  Even Fender was making nearly as many hardtail Strats in the late 70s as they were vibrato models.

The Victory is an Offset shaped more like a Jaguar & Jazzmaster. It would appear Gibson was trying capture some of that market with the Victory. Very very few Jags or JM’s or none without Trems.

I saw lots of Strats back then with Trems. There are quite a few early 80’s for sale on Reverb with Trems.

I just thought it odd Gibson wouldn’t have a Trem on the Victory’s? 

[Phil OKeefe]

I own a few offsets. Fender owns the trademark on offset bodies, IIRC. A Victory is not an offset body design. There is no such thing as a Gibson offset. A Victory is not an offset body design, and neither is a Firebird (reverse or non-reverse). An offset has an offset body, where one side of the waist is closer to the neck than the other side of the body's waist. For example, a Fender Jazz Bass has an offset body, while a Precision Bass does not. For another example, have a look at a Fender Mustang, Jazzmaster, or Jaguar (all have offset bodies) and compare them to a Fender Telecaster or Stratocaster (not offsets) and the difference should be clear and easy to identify. Once you see it, you'll never consider a Victory as an offset body again. Yes, the Victory is a double cutaway design, and each "horn" is a different length, but that is not what defines an offset. If that were the case, all double-cutaway Paul Reed Smith models would be offset bodies, too, and just like a Strat, they are not offsets either. 

[Phil OKeefe]

If I wanted a Victory with a trem, I'd probably just put a Vibramate and a Bigsby B5 on it. It would add to the cost, but it would be a fairly straightforward mod, and would be totally reversible. 

[ksdaddy]

6 hours ago, Larsongs said:

The Victory is an Offset shaped more like a Jaguar & Jazzmaster. It would appear Gibson was trying capture some of that market with the Victory. Very very few Jags or JM’s or none without Trems.

The Jaguar was discontinued in 1975 and the Jazzmaster in 1980 so I doubt Gibson was trying to compete with those models.

Yes, they brought them back, first in Japan, then AVRI, now all over the place. I have a sonic blue Squier JM that is STUPID good. I read somewhere, years ago, and I do not have the footnotes to back it up, but the words stuck in my head whether they are true or not... that if a product (in this case, a guitar) is out of production for X number of years (the number 27 sticks out) that the company loses a certain amount of "ownership" of that design and then anyone can copy it. I DO NOT CLAIM THIS TO BE HOLY SCRIPTURE. I read it and it stuck. 

Fender also reissued the Mustang, Duo Sonic, (do they offer the Musicmaster?), even the much maligned, misunderstood and underappreciated Coronado. Maybe not in the 27 year window but not far off.

If this patent/copyright thing has a grain of truth, it would offer ONE reason for Gibson to be making RDs and Victories again.

I don't think they need to reissue the Sonex, Challenger, Invader.... already covered by the single cut thing. 

One word..... Corvus.

[Larsongs]

I already own a Fender USA AV65 Jaguar & a a Fender USA AV65 Jazzmaster. Both are excellent Guitars. I’m good on Offsets.

A Vibramate & B5 would be an improvement on those Victory’s IMO. 

[Retired]

On 9/10/2024 at 12:19 PM, Rabs said:

Yup... About 2k...   

Im not a huge fan.. The top horn is a bit big and I dont really like that style of headstock...

Still all look better than the Theodore though  😄  

I'm with you.

[Larsongs]

I watched several YouTubes. Most of the YouTubes sound like this.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

21 hours ago, SteveFord said:

Were Firebird sales so slow that it makes sense to produce models like the Theodore and Victory and discontinue the USA Firebirds?

G apparently thought so. 

[Sgt. Pepper]

On 9/12/2024 at 7:17 PM, ksdaddy said:

That the company made it out of the 1970s without padlocking the gate?

Too funny. And probably true.

[Larsongs]

OffsetGuitars.com a Fender Forum has a Thread about these.