Big Al
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2002
- Messages
- 14,537
Hey, some of the long time members may have remembered me posting about Bad Betty, a 70's era flametop I got when I was at Gibson Kalamazoo, in 1978.
It has a three piece Mahogany neck, small headstock with Norlin Logo and no volute, with a full round 59 neck profile. The neck shape is identical to the average 59 and is not so fat as the newer R9's.
It has the proper red tortoise side dots and thin fingerboard binding but has the standard 70's perimeter binding, wide in the cutaway. It has the right body shape and has the early 70's modified long tenon which ends at the pickup cavity and is visable along the front edge of the pickup rout.
It has a two piece top of awesome Maple which has lots of flash and movement. It actually looks like completely different tops from different angles. There is a thin maple layer sandwiched between top and body visable in the routs.
The top carve is Norlin Dome, she has an ABR1 bridge and all hardware was Gold when I got it as it had a stock Viceroy Brown Finish which allways came with gold hardware. I've never seen another Standard in this finish.
Here are some shots.
She has a 1978 serial# that was stamped over the inked on number it originaly had. Gibson stamped the number into the back of the headstock for inventory reasons as it was marked for destruction at the plant and the only way I could buy it was if they stamped a new number into the headstock. It was also stamped "SECOND" so I could buy it. All I know for sure is that it was made some years earlier, and most probably for Strings and Things.
It is a wonderful guitar and though not particularly authentic to 50's specs at the time it was very cool, and still is.
It has a three piece Mahogany neck, small headstock with Norlin Logo and no volute, with a full round 59 neck profile. The neck shape is identical to the average 59 and is not so fat as the newer R9's.
It has the proper red tortoise side dots and thin fingerboard binding but has the standard 70's perimeter binding, wide in the cutaway. It has the right body shape and has the early 70's modified long tenon which ends at the pickup cavity and is visable along the front edge of the pickup rout.
It has a two piece top of awesome Maple which has lots of flash and movement. It actually looks like completely different tops from different angles. There is a thin maple layer sandwiched between top and body visable in the routs.
The top carve is Norlin Dome, she has an ABR1 bridge and all hardware was Gold when I got it as it had a stock Viceroy Brown Finish which allways came with gold hardware. I've never seen another Standard in this finish.
Here are some shots.
She has a 1978 serial# that was stamped over the inked on number it originaly had. Gibson stamped the number into the back of the headstock for inventory reasons as it was marked for destruction at the plant and the only way I could buy it was if they stamped a new number into the headstock. It was also stamped "SECOND" so I could buy it. All I know for sure is that it was made some years earlier, and most probably for Strings and Things.
It is a wonderful guitar and though not particularly authentic to 50's specs at the time it was very cool, and still is.
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