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They made a lot of budget guitars that turned out to be deeply unpopular in the 70s ... They still do that. I didn't mind the Melodymaker Vs and explorers etc ... in fact I had one ... but they were fairly universally greeted with derision. They made unpopular high end models in the 70s ... like the RD (which I personally loved the shape of) but the buying public universally thumbed their noses at ... and today we have the Firebird X
The world turns ... and things stay about the same ...
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
The issue for me, is not whether 50s instruments were built with CNC precision (which of course they weren’t) - but whether the ‘basics’ are right - correctly dried timbers, fretting, neck angles, nut height, etc. These are the issues which ‘any’ modern maker should get right - but on ‘production’ instruments at least - sometimes Gibson don’t.
One thing though - is it normal for Gibsons to have a funny smell?
None of my other guitars have a smell at all but my Gibson has a very distinct strong smell lol
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
ignoring the really budget models, most surviving Norlin era guitars can and have been made to play much better.
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I agree they are not the type of guitar you'd buy as your main/go to instrument, but with some work they can offer something different, as and when required
I suppose interest in such guitars has been driven by a good early/mid 60's SG's now having such a high price ticket - So such examples are now 'affordable vintage' with character
I recently fitted a Gibson-logo Bigsby to one of these - actually the two-pickup version - he paid £900 for it.
I agree with impmann - they're not actually terrible as guitars, as long as you think of them as a guitar which happens to be roughly the same shape as an SG, but is really quite different. I still wouldn't pay anything like that for one though, even with two pickups.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Good old Pete Townsend, always looking out for kids.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein