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The Red Thread: Factory Red Gibsons from the Golden Era

JimR56

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
588
Not something you see every day- a '29 L5 in cherry. Not original factory (obviously), but factory refinned in the 60's:

AR4278.jpg
 

flameburst

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Joined
May 12, 2009
Messages
313
captaincanada - one of my favourite threads, thanks!

Good to see you here JimR56 :salude
 

JimR56

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
588
Glad to be here, fb. :salude

I hope we can keep this thread going... it's going to be a challenge to find more examples!
 

sharky

Active member
Joined
Jan 25, 2012
Messages
1,267
I really am not digging red as a color normally, but isn't the Gibson cherry red with all it's varieties one gorgeous, lovable color?
 

Danny W.

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
106
Hi CC, thanks for the welcome. This should be fun (I post on a few other guitar forums, but some of them are pretty slow at times).

The '63 L5CT, aka "George Gobel" model (modified with two humbuckers) is mine. The L5CT/Gobel with the Charlie Christian pickup is not mine (unfortunately), and the L5CES sold by Skinners is not mine. The only guitars of mine that I posted photos of here are the L5CT and the Epi Sheraton.

A few more views of my L5CT:

DSCN3384.jpg

DSCN3413.jpg

63L5CTWhurst.jpg

63L5CTWhurstrear2.jpg


Hi Jim,

Good to see you here.

That's a great-looking Gobel! Looks a lot like the one in my avatar, but older :)

Danny W.
 

JimR56

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
588
Thanks Danny, good to see you here too. My Gobel had a pretty rough life before I got it (in 1990), so it's more of a "player's guitar" than I'd prefer in terms of its condition, but wow what a player. My favorite of all the Gibsons I"ve ever owned.

You've been a guitar enthusiast for a long time- have you ever come across any other rare red Gibsons from the Golden Era? Super 400's? L5's? Johnny Smith's? I know there are more out there somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered (those ones in the Tsumura book always made me dream about finding something similar).
 

infiniteposse

Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2002
Messages
54
I just got this Casino in red that's fader quite a bit throughout the years:

E9EE171E-D7AE-4A12-A4C6-89A53B881187-2477-00000106692DE26F.jpg


Under the trem you can see something closer to what once was:

D5E58C89-BA02-4E38-BE4B-58EAED104042-2477-000001066227FC03.jpg
 

Danny W.

Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
106
You've been a guitar enthusiast for a long time- have you ever come across any other rare red Gibsons from the Golden Era? Super 400's? L5's? Johnny Smith's? I know there are more out there somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered (those ones in the Tsumura book always made me dream about finding something similar).

I never owned any, other than Gobels, so probably not. I suspect that anything I might have come across on someone's stock list wound up with Tsumura eventually. I do remember several red archtops over the years, but I'm not sure at this point if they were vintage or more modern.

I do still have a ton of dealers pre-WWW stock lists--if i find some time I'll look them over and see if there are any red ones.

Of course, there's this one, but it's too new to qualify for this thread:

41657232.jpg


Danny W.
 

JimR56

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
588
infiniteposse, very nice Casino. It may have faded, but I've seen much worse in that department. Thanks for posting it.

Danny, thanks- I should look through my pre-www lists also.
 
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