What Happened to Gibson Guitars?

eSGEe said:
Come on by there are a few floyds lying about you can adjust :)
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I had really been looking closely at this Adrian Smith and the Hellraiser FR.

Tell you where Floyd and I have always had an issue. It's where I often play a dramatic bend on the 'g' string with the 'b' & 'e' fretted but un-bent. It's always sounded out of whack because the tension on the 'g' pulled the other strings flat.

Listen to the 4th/5th measure of the solo on Tesla's 'Love Song' and you'll hear the bend I'm describing...
 
Thatbastarddon said:
I hear you there...I’ve managed to find 5 that I like a lot, and was able to afford. I have other electrics too, they do outnumber the Gibsons, but they are all enjoyable to me. None are difficult for me to keep in tune.
Play what you like. Buy what you want. Enjoy what you do with it. Make some music.
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I found two Gibson' s I really love... :-)
 
I posted a photo of Autopsy's Danny Coralles with his old Gibson Victory on my Facebook page and one of my FB friends (Leon from Nausea, Phobia, Nails, etc) had a funny tale to tell about it. I'll go look for it and post it. That guitar has taken a lickin' and keeps on kickin' ... pretty much the only guitar Coralles has used for the last thirty years, there is no footage of him with anything else.

Leon del Muerte I have seen that guitar with the headstock snapped off one day, onstage the next.

Dave Death That's amazing. I guess luthiers would be tripping over themselves to fix that thing, it's such a legend

Leon del Muerte Haha, Danny fixed it himself. We happened to be flying together to a fest. When they landed and saw the damage, he just went out and bought some wood glue and clamps.

Dave Death That's awesome! But it was snapped right off?

Dave Death I have some Titebond red on standby here in case the unthinkable happens, but I was mainly thinking of it in terms of cracks, not snaps.

Leon del Muerte Yep, still in the case, but in two pieces. They asked if they could borrow my guitar and I said "of course!" Then when it was time, they were like "all good!"

Dave Death I like how someone made him that custom Mental Funeral guitar and he never plays it, always just the old Victory.

Leon del Muerte Hey, when it works, it works. I've seen him play that thing nearly my entire musical career. My first show ever was with The Aborted, who later became Abscess.

Dave Death I wonder if he's ever had to replace a tuner or anything. Surely some of the hardware has worn out, because he gives it a tough time. Also he must have stripped out a strap button more than once in three decades

Leon del Muerte Haha, undoubtedly. I think he just keeps things as simple as possible.

Dave Death It's a totally iconic instrument. Look up Gibson Victory on the web and it's almost always mentioned somewhere. It's pretty much the only one out there working hard like that

Leon del Muerte Yep. I didn't even know what it was for the longest time. I assumed it was just some rando 60s kung fu guitar made in a basement in Estonia somewhere. That's the only one I've ever seen, I think, haha.
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chilipeppermaniac said:
Not exactly a new concept as can be seen in Ted Mccarty's own words and experiences.

Former Gibson Chief Ted McCarty on Tonewoods and the Problems of 'Top-Heavy' Management | Bacon's Archive
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That was an interesting article!

If completely accurate, Les Paul had nothing to do with the design of the Les Paul, other than suggesting the wraparound tailpiece. Les Paul didn’t even know the guitar existed until McCarty brought one to him.

Les Paul was more devoted to Epiphone.

Thanks for posting, Chili.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Not exactly a new concept as can be seen in Ted Mccarty's own words and experiences.

Former Gibson Chief Ted McCarty on Tonewoods and the Problems of 'Top-Heavy' Management | Bacon's Archive
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Well, this is an interesting set of paragraphs from the article, speaking of their development of the guitar that would become known as the “Les Paul”:


“When did you start work on this project?

About 1949 or 1950. We spent a year.

And when you say "we," who do you mean?

Oh, the factory, and my engineers. By this time I had over a thousand employees. My top engineers in electronics, amplifiers, and pickups. Because we made our own pickups, and we designed guitars. We started trying to learn something about a solidbody guitar. For instance, the stiffer the material—the harder the wood—the more shrill is the sound, and the longer is the sustain. Hit the string and it would ring for a long sustain period. It could be too long.

One of the things we did was to take a piece of iron rail from the railroad track, put a bridge and a pickup and a tailpiece on it, and test it. You could hit that string, take a walk, come back, and it would still be ringing. Because the thing that causes it to slow down is the fact that it gives a little bit—wood gives, you know? So we started. We made them out of maple—they were too shrill. Leo was using ash wood, always made of ash, and we didn’t think much of that as a wood. We didn’t use it.

What was wrong with ash?

Oh, it’s an incredibly soft wood. And it was not a particularly attractive wood—didn’t have much in the way of appearance. Anyway, we used a lot of Honduras mahogany, we used maple, and, of course, we used ebony and rosewood.

We made a guitar out of solid rock maple. Wasn’t good. Too shrill, too much sustain. And we made one out of mahogany. Too soft. Didn’t quite have that thing. So we finally came up with a maple top and a mahogany back, made a sandwich out of it, glued ‘em together. Then we decided, now what about the shape? We wanted something that wouldn’t be too heavy. The Fender was a much larger guitar, heavier. So we made ours a little smaller bodied, in a traditional shape.”
 
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smitty_p said:
Les Paul had nothing to do with the design of the Les Paul, other than suggesting the wraparound tailpiece. Les Paul didn’t even know the guitar existed until McCarty brought one to him.
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Yes, it's a very common misconception that Les Paul was (one of) the designers of the Les Paul guitar, & one that he really didn't try to dispel. In reality they merely got him to endorse it. If anything it should have been called the Ted McCarty (& co). Cheers
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Not exactly a new concept as can be seen in Ted Mccarty's own words and experiences.

Former Gibson Chief Ted McCarty on Tonewoods and the Problems of 'Top-Heavy' Management | Bacon's Archive
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Here's an interesting pic from the article.

The guitar is a little different from most Les Pauls in that it appears to have only two rotary knobs (one smaller than the other. I can't quite tell what that smaller control is), and one chicken head knob (Vari-tone maybe?).

Aaaand, check out that vibrato.

That's looks interesting, too. The photo is too soft to see much detail. It appears to be some sort of Maestro-ish thing.

But, the bar, itself, looks like something you'd see on a....

....FLOYD!


Les-Paul-Mary-Ford_x4afsf.jpg
 
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