SixtiesRick
New member
Some years ago I had a neighbor, a single dad, and I got to know him because our boys were the same age, same school, and they lived right up the street. He and I got to be great friends, we both liked to party, we would sit back on the deck and put away the Jack and Cokes, share stories from the hood and such... anyway, one day Kenny comes wandering down the street with his big ole' tumbler of Jack and Coke in one hand, and this guitar in his other hand. I saw the back of this thing, it had obviously been in a basement flood, a high water line part way up the body, the wood split apart at the base, glue letting loose all over.
He tells me, "I bought you a guitar at a garage sale. They wanted $10, I offered $5, we settled on $7." Then he flips it around to show me the front. "It says 'Gibson' on it. Think it's any good?" It had a sandwich bag tied to the strings by the bridge with all the little pieces of wood that had fallen off from the inside. The Charlie Christian pickup was so corroded, it was nearly powder. I took it, gave him the $7, figuring I had bought something I might eventually fix up enough to hang on the wall to look at. The Gibson logo was different, I hadn't seen a logo like this, but it looked old. I thought maybe I could glue the pieces back on, maybe clamp it back together... it went into the basement as a future project, which I never did get to. It stayed in the basement for about 7 years...
So one day I have a dentist appointment, routine cleaning and exam. It just so happens that this dentist's hobby is actually building guitars from scratch, acoustic and electric, so we usually have a guitar-talk session afterwards. He comes in and tells me, "Hey, me and another guy are starting a business restoring vintage instruments, since you run an open mic, could you put out the word among your network of players?" I said yes, and then told him I had something I wanted him to look at. About ten minutes before he closed for the day I brought in this Gibson, and he just about freaked when he saw this guitar. The big question he had was "What do you want, collectability or playability?" I said, hands down, playability.
Short story is, they did the restoration, gave me some history about the guitar, and it cost me $500 for the whole job, and it was worth every penny, IMO. Physically, this is the finest player I own. The one thing that's strange about this guitar is that the pickup position as installed at the factory is near the bridge instead of the neck. He said the number inside indicated it was made in 1940, but there were only about 75 or so made with the pickup near the bridge. The original pickup was so corroded that it wasn't salvageable, so they put in a P90. The volume pot is a push-pull. I'd love to get a neck pickup for this guitar, but I'm not willing to cut any more holes in it, so maybe a rail pickup or something. In any case, this guitar is a work in progress.
Check it out, I have pictures before and after... you can see the water line in the first couple pics. They managed to save the logo. I love this guitar!
He tells me, "I bought you a guitar at a garage sale. They wanted $10, I offered $5, we settled on $7." Then he flips it around to show me the front. "It says 'Gibson' on it. Think it's any good?" It had a sandwich bag tied to the strings by the bridge with all the little pieces of wood that had fallen off from the inside. The Charlie Christian pickup was so corroded, it was nearly powder. I took it, gave him the $7, figuring I had bought something I might eventually fix up enough to hang on the wall to look at. The Gibson logo was different, I hadn't seen a logo like this, but it looked old. I thought maybe I could glue the pieces back on, maybe clamp it back together... it went into the basement as a future project, which I never did get to. It stayed in the basement for about 7 years...
So one day I have a dentist appointment, routine cleaning and exam. It just so happens that this dentist's hobby is actually building guitars from scratch, acoustic and electric, so we usually have a guitar-talk session afterwards. He comes in and tells me, "Hey, me and another guy are starting a business restoring vintage instruments, since you run an open mic, could you put out the word among your network of players?" I said yes, and then told him I had something I wanted him to look at. About ten minutes before he closed for the day I brought in this Gibson, and he just about freaked when he saw this guitar. The big question he had was "What do you want, collectability or playability?" I said, hands down, playability.
Short story is, they did the restoration, gave me some history about the guitar, and it cost me $500 for the whole job, and it was worth every penny, IMO. Physically, this is the finest player I own. The one thing that's strange about this guitar is that the pickup position as installed at the factory is near the bridge instead of the neck. He said the number inside indicated it was made in 1940, but there were only about 75 or so made with the pickup near the bridge. The original pickup was so corroded that it wasn't salvageable, so they put in a P90. The volume pot is a push-pull. I'd love to get a neck pickup for this guitar, but I'm not willing to cut any more holes in it, so maybe a rail pickup or something. In any case, this guitar is a work in progress.
Check it out, I have pictures before and after... you can see the water line in the first couple pics. They managed to save the logo. I love this guitar!
