Strings Jr.
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2016
- Messages
- 670
Since retiring in April, I’m actually finding time to do some of those things you never have time to do. I’ve been wanting to share some pics of another guitar I acquired from Gibson. This guitar is date stamped March 3[SUP]rd[/SUP], 1988 so it just turned 30. In that time, it has never been gigged. It’s only been out of the case about five or six times. It still has the original strings on it.
The body is a LP shape, but thin and beveled like an SG. It’s a one-piece mahogany body and a one-piece mahogany neck with an ebony fingerboard and graphite nut. There is no binding and no peghead veneer.
The one-piece body has a lot of nice color variation on the front and back.
It has a Steinberger tremolo and three Bill Lawrence humbucking pickups. The front and rear pickups were used on other models, but I don’t think the smaller, center pickup was ever used in production (help me out here Big Al). The smaller width of the center pickup creates a unique sound when used with the front or rear pickup, or even alone. I’m not a fan of the Steinberger, it feels heavy on this lightweight guitar. However, it works great when set up properly, and it has a simple locking mechanism that holds everything tight when not in use.
The controls are a Master Volume, Master Tone with push-push coil tap, three pickup on / off switches, and a “Lead pickup only” switch.
I never got around to putting a truss rod cover on it. Now, I think it’s kinda neat. How many Gibsons have you seen that were never drilled for a truss rod cover?
We were well into the HJ era by then, and things were really taking off. One Friday, our bright, young Plant Manager who was trying to impress his boss (HJ) by hitting the weekly production numbers, ask me to come in on Saturday. “Oh, but I can’t pay you overtime.” At that point, the ball was in my court, and after a little negotiating, I came in Saturday, and got paid with this guitar.
Kinda sad that this guitar doesn’t get played since it sounds so good. I guess I’ll be content with it being a time capsule, without so much as a surface scratch, for a few more years.
The body is a LP shape, but thin and beveled like an SG. It’s a one-piece mahogany body and a one-piece mahogany neck with an ebony fingerboard and graphite nut. There is no binding and no peghead veneer.
The one-piece body has a lot of nice color variation on the front and back.
It has a Steinberger tremolo and three Bill Lawrence humbucking pickups. The front and rear pickups were used on other models, but I don’t think the smaller, center pickup was ever used in production (help me out here Big Al). The smaller width of the center pickup creates a unique sound when used with the front or rear pickup, or even alone. I’m not a fan of the Steinberger, it feels heavy on this lightweight guitar. However, it works great when set up properly, and it has a simple locking mechanism that holds everything tight when not in use.
The controls are a Master Volume, Master Tone with push-push coil tap, three pickup on / off switches, and a “Lead pickup only” switch.
I never got around to putting a truss rod cover on it. Now, I think it’s kinda neat. How many Gibsons have you seen that were never drilled for a truss rod cover?
We were well into the HJ era by then, and things were really taking off. One Friday, our bright, young Plant Manager who was trying to impress his boss (HJ) by hitting the weekly production numbers, ask me to come in on Saturday. “Oh, but I can’t pay you overtime.” At that point, the ball was in my court, and after a little negotiating, I came in Saturday, and got paid with this guitar.
Kinda sad that this guitar doesn’t get played since it sounds so good. I guess I’ll be content with it being a time capsule, without so much as a surface scratch, for a few more years.