The Norlin years were from 1969 to 1985. There were really two periods in the Norlin ownership, the first from 1969 to about 1976 or so. Those years were not the greatest for Gibson in terms of quality guitars. They put into place a number of manufacturing processes that were not very popular. The sandwich body for one, where they put a very thin piece of maple between two slabs of mahogany for the body. This process is called crossbanding. Crossbanding allowed Gibson to use smaller pieces of mahogany, that were used for necks because of their size, to be used for the bodies. There were problems with this process, there were complaints about shrinkage around the joints. Also in 1969 Gibson changed the necks from 1-piece mahogany to a 3-piece laminate, and added a volute to the back of the neck. Also the angle at which the headstock pitched back was decreased from 17 degrees to 14. All these things hurt Gibsons reputation amoung traditionalists. Rumors started to spread that LPs were not as good as they used to be.
The second period of the Norlin ownership showed quality guitars coming back to the LP line. In 1978 Tim Shaw joined Gibson, and by 1979 he was heading up the R&D dept. The crossbanding process was stoped by this time, and the LP necks went from the 3-piece laminate to a 3-piece maple for added strength. The volute was removed by 1981. The headstock pitch returned to the original 17 degrees as it should be. Shaw designed new humbucking pickups that mirrored the original PAFs, he hand wound some himself. Today Tim Shaw pickups are highly regarded, and some say are the closet to the original PAFs. The changes mabe in the early 80s resulted in some of the finest LPs made. Unfortunately today when someone talks about Gibsons Norlin era it has a negative conotation. People seem to forget, or don't know that the end of that era, 1978 to 1985 Gibson made some fine guitars.
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The second period of the Norlin ownership showed quality guitars coming back to the LP line. In 1978 Tim Shaw joined Gibson, and by 1979 he was heading up the R&D dept. The crossbanding process was stoped by this time, and the LP necks went from the 3-piece laminate to a 3-piece maple for added strength. The volute was removed by 1981. The headstock pitch returned to the original 17 degrees as it should be. Shaw designed new humbucking pickups that mirrored the original PAFs, he hand wound some himself. Today Tim Shaw pickups are highly regarded, and some say are the closet to the original PAFs. The changes mabe in the early 80s resulted in some of the finest LPs made. Unfortunately today when someone talks about Gibsons Norlin era it has a negative conotation. People seem to forget, or don't know that the end of that era, 1978 to 1985 Gibson made some fine guitars.
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