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70's Gibsons. Show off your Norlins.

Progrocker111

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 10, 2003
Messages
4,013
1976 Gibson Les Paul Custom unplayed for 41 years...time capsule. My precious. Still has plastic cover on the pick guard, and the remove sticker. Its not a black and gold..its a black and nickel. Made specificly to match a Gibson Thunderbird bass black/nickel/rosewood as is this guitar.... A true requested custom. Yes my room is dirty, so is my wife. Enjoy \m/

Wow, very cool. :yah Do you like the tone of this mint beauty?
 

Zeppelinguy85

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Dec 1, 2002
Messages
422
Got this last week. Early 70's Goldtop Deluxe (I think it's either a 71 or 73). Great feeling and sounding guitar. It's got some issues (refin, repaired input jack, neck binding removed and sanded flush for some reason when it was refreted). Wonderful 1 5/8" neck. Currently it has some no name P90's in it which sound surprisingly good because I got it without pickups and I also replaced the knobs because the ones that came with it were pretty beat up and frankly I prefer top hats. I'm on the fence as to whether I want to counvert it to full size humbuckers, I've never liked mini's and P90's can be a challenge especially live, so I'm leaning towards converting mostly because it's originality is lnot no gone. It's definitely a player and I think I'd rather make it a no compromises number one player (the neck fits like a glove, under 9.5 pounds and it's gold). Definitely am going to play it for a while before I make any impulsive decisions.

<a href="https://ibb.co/iZ0ALF"><img src="https://preview.ibb.co/dAwjfF/24_CF01_D2_0_CF4_4_B0_C_8_E5_B_56_E110_F87_D53.jpg" alt="24_CF01_D2_0_CF4_4_B0_C_8_E5_B_56_E110_F87_D53" border="0"></a><br /><a target='_blank' href='https://imgbb.com/'>how to upload photo to internet</a><br />

<a href="https://ibb.co/g2RBSv"><img src="https://preview.ibb.co/ia2knv/IMG_2905.jpg" alt="IMG_2905" border="0"></a><br /><a target='_blank' href='https://imgbb.com/'>how to upload photo to internet</a><br />
 

That Painter Guy

New member
Joined
Jul 9, 2017
Messages
14
1976 Gibson Les Paul Custom unplayed for 41 years...time capsule. My precious. Still has plastic cover on the pick guard, and the remove sticker. Its not a black and gold..its a black and chrome. Made specificly to match a Gibson Thunderbird Bass black/chrome as is this guitar.... A true requested custom. Yes my room is dirty, so is my wife. Enjoy \m/

Here's the hang tag manual and some strings and picks he got when he picked up the guitar.
zORsLmb.jpg


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The manual says its from the Kalamazoo Michigan factory
 

FretsAlot

New member
Joined
Jan 22, 2003
Messages
931
76 LE Explorer with 50's style tuners, MojoAxe plastic, mid 60's T Tops with ThroBak magnets. Large, possibly gigantic neck. Fire-breathing monster.

Ocf3rpU.jpg

While I'm not a religious man, the 10th commandment clearly states...

Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...Thou Shalt Not Covet...

Dang... this is hard...
 

That Painter Guy

New member
Joined
Jul 9, 2017
Messages
14
I love that explorer, i tried very hard to find one i could afford before buying the Tribute gold top. They are not commonly for sale out this way, i found one Gibson 1978 Explorer but he wants 4 grand for it. Quite a bit out of my range.
 

ThePitbullofLove

New member
Joined
Jul 20, 2017
Messages
5
My very first guitar ever. Bought used in the summer of 1987 for $535.00.

A 1981 Gibson Les Paul Custom Cherry Sunburst, Creme Plastics, Gold hardware.

20521437100093-vi.jpg


Picture from the summer of '88.

Here's my old bandmate Big G playing it while I scream in the foreground...
Untitled16-vi.jpg


I sold it in the spring of 1996 for $1000, so I could buy some PA gear. I miss that guitar every day....
 

latestarter

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
4,173
I love that explorer, i tried very hard to find one i could afford before buying the Tribute gold top. They are not commonly for sale out this way, i found one Gibson 1978 Explorer but he wants 4 grand for it. Quite a bit out of my range.

Keep looking - they're out there. I waited a while for one to show up that wasn't broken! Of recent there seems to be a lot of 76 LE Explorers that are either repaired or refin'd. I got this for a reasonable price because the pickups were some shitty things and the tuners were Schallers (but no wood removed from holes - small size). That didn't worry me - I just wanted an unbroken, original finish 76 so I could supe it up the way I like it. I got an original case for $250 too, which was a find. It remains one of my best sounding guitars...

17966037_1485487428151424_1038008744737144532_o.jpg
 

Wilko

All Access/Backstage Pass
Joined
Mar 11, 2002
Messages
20,853
Looks like your image is hosted somewhere that doesn't allow directing img linking.
 

macg1

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2010
Messages
66
Looks like your image is hosted somewhere that doesn't allow directing img linking.

so LPF doesn't support imgur? Which hosting sites are supported? Photobucket? what else? Thank you for the assistance.
 

deytookerjaabs

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 6, 2016
Messages
1,592
so LPF doesn't support imgur? Which hosting sites are supported? Photobucket? what else? Thank you for the assistance.



Go to IMGUR, click on your image, and just copy/paste the text in the sidebar labeled "BBCODE"

bAi1Oax.jpg



Damn fine fiddle.
 

JoeJazz2000

New member
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
4
After returning to the site after an absence of several years, I'm delighted to see some love for Norlins. When I followed and posted here before, Norlins were nearly universally despised. My only LP is a Norlin, a '74 20th Anniversary Custom in natural, purchased new. I don't play it a lot now, but I love it. For a long time it was my only electric guitar and I played it constantly. It was everything I thought a guitar should be. I wasn't aware of its many "shortcomings" until I began following this forum the first time. Most of the unfavorable comparisons with golden age LPs related to features and characteristics that were judged to be undesirable years after the fact, after golden age features were judged to be perfection. I wasn't bothered by it and I once joked in a post welcoming a newcomer that I loved my Norlin until I came here and learned what a piece of crap it was.

The Norlin years were a period of Gibson's life just like the 1920s and 1930s. Designs were tried and abandoned in all eras; some succeeded and some failed. I'll never believe Gibson under Norlin set out to make lousy guitars. Many features and characteristics were acceptable and sought after according to the times and tastes in design, construction, and music. These things change. I appreciate what I've learned about Les Pauls of all eras here. I'm glad to see the affection for Norlins and the softening of hostility against them. We have room to enjoy all LPs.
 

Mark Stone

New member
Joined
Jun 16, 2017
Messages
25
This is my 1978 Les Paul Pro.

We didn't have a lot of money when I was a little kid, but my father always wanted an electric guitar. He saved and bought this Les Paul. We didn't have an amp. We plugged it into a reel to reel tape player and set the input until the UV showed the signal in the red. This created "distortion". He taught me how to play "Sunshine of your love" when I was 7 years old. Everyone thought it was crazy that I could play it at my young age. A few years later, my father bought us an amp.

Here I am playing it, probably 10 or 11 years old. I had big dreams.

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Some time in the early '90s, my father decided he wanted humbuckers. He really liked the Beano tone, and also liked Gary Moore a lot. He went at the guitar with a router, freehand, having absolutely no wood working or luthier experience at all. In retrospect, it's amazing that it came out this good. The neck pickup ended slightly to the right, and the bridge pickup was rotated a few degrees.

The guitar remained like this for years. I moved out, and took it with me. Last year, I decided to fix all the little things that bugged me about it. I had the tiny mini frets replaced with larger ones and had the bridge pickup straightened. The guitar was also buffed. It looked almost like a flat black paint job at this point.


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And now, it looks like this:

20688212_265025037331460_8729832835155755008_n.jpg


The original pick guard never fit correctly after my dad trimmed it down. I am working with MojoAxe now to have a replacement made that fits the "custom" fitting of the pickups. For now, I have put on this Gibson one, but the color is pretty off.

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And now I have a set of DiMarzio PAF '59 pickups I will be putting in. I like the idea of double cream on this guitar since the original P90s were cream. I really do like the Megadrive that's in the bridge position right now, but I find I am almost always playing with the volume knob down to 2-3. Maybe vintage output will suit me better.

DiMarzio-PAF-59.jpg


And somehow, in 30 years of playing, this is the only video I have of me playing this guitar. Sadly, I've never played in a band or anything like that. More of a bedroom dreamer...

https://youtu.be/1axyWRulvY0

Edit: Added these pics:

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29415085_177050036258660_3893067590997639168_n.jpg
 
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