AlienVintage
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2015
- Messages
- 334
Long story short: I recently bought an early '62 Barney Kessel (regular version), with original PAFs.
I was curious. I figured: what the heck, I'd give it a try. The PAFs are probably worth almost as much as I paid for the whole guitar (yes, even though the neck one has the narrow spacing), which I figured was good insurance.
I expected the guitar to sound and play sorta like an ES-175 (which I have owned).
Boy, was I ever surprised by this '62 Barney Kessel.
I never imagined the guitar would be as "335ish" as it is.
Despite being fully hollow, it can truly rock, if you want it to. And that is not an exaggeration - you could easily use this guitar for rock and blues.
Got me thinking about the combination of features on the Barney Kessel: PAFs, laminated spruce top, maple sides and back, fully hollow construction, pointy cutaways.
Which leads me to this theory: I think the Barney Kessel is a sibling of the Gibson doublenecks that debuted just a couple years earlier:
In fact, per this 1998 VG article, it looks like the Barney Kessel design (prototype) actually originated in 1960, and thus it was an already-designed model that they assigned as the Barney Kessel model later in 1961, after the fact:
https://www.vintageguitar.com/1801/gibsons-experimental/
We have read that jazz guitarist Barney Kessel never liked his own model. Now I can see why - in my opinion, and after trying it myself, crazy as it might seem, this model is not as strictly "jazzy" as I always thought it would be.
I was curious. I figured: what the heck, I'd give it a try. The PAFs are probably worth almost as much as I paid for the whole guitar (yes, even though the neck one has the narrow spacing), which I figured was good insurance.
I expected the guitar to sound and play sorta like an ES-175 (which I have owned).
Boy, was I ever surprised by this '62 Barney Kessel.
I never imagined the guitar would be as "335ish" as it is.
Despite being fully hollow, it can truly rock, if you want it to. And that is not an exaggeration - you could easily use this guitar for rock and blues.
Got me thinking about the combination of features on the Barney Kessel: PAFs, laminated spruce top, maple sides and back, fully hollow construction, pointy cutaways.
Which leads me to this theory: I think the Barney Kessel is a sibling of the Gibson doublenecks that debuted just a couple years earlier:
In fact, per this 1998 VG article, it looks like the Barney Kessel design (prototype) actually originated in 1960, and thus it was an already-designed model that they assigned as the Barney Kessel model later in 1961, after the fact:
https://www.vintageguitar.com/1801/gibsons-experimental/
We have read that jazz guitarist Barney Kessel never liked his own model. Now I can see why - in my opinion, and after trying it myself, crazy as it might seem, this model is not as strictly "jazzy" as I always thought it would be.