Guitar Nerds Anonymous

There's some great stuff there, some of it remarkably affordable

Yeah, although I imagine that '59 is enough to get lots of people turning up in the room and online, so perhaps the estimates are a bit on the low side?

Even with the wrong bridge, the '52 goldtop in particular doesn't seem too expensive (unless it's a complete wreck...)

I've got that auction on live in the background! They're doing the pedals - things are going well above the estimates.

Blimey! £132000 for that 59 Les Paul. Even if I could afford to, I'm sure I'd never spend that much on a guitar.
Mind you, I suspect this one will end up in a bank vault, never to be played, until it's sold for £200000 in 20 years time.

Haven't looked into it but suspect it might have known issues within the, urgh, "burst" community as good '59s were going for $200-250k 12 years ago.

A dealer acquaintance of mine once observed that trouble tends to follow all sunburst LP Standards in one form or another. Such a weird world... originality at that level basically comes down to which big cheese in the vintage scene has put the weight of their word behind it.

I thought that was cheap too. Assuming it’s a legit 59 who ever won that auction got a bit of a bargain. Either that or the value is declining on such a guitar, there are more options than there were ten years ago to satiate that desire for a 50s Les Paul like that.

I thought it was relatively cheap - it was a bit disappointing to watch that it didn't really take off. A number of the other's went (for what seemed) reasonably cheap prices in the end. The '52 goldtop was £7200, the '56 LPJ £6000, '61 SGJ £3400, '62 Precision bass £3500.

Most of those would cost more than that to get a custom shop replica.

https://youtu.be/fSKUBdtq5EQ

Check out the Gibson ES 350T in Shawn Stockman’s hands aka ‘wink’

Yeah I was surprised too. Managed to catch the end of 59 selling and the auctioneer looked as though he was expecting more. I was expecting way more than £100k anything, thought it would go for at least £500k+.

Probably would have done better going through a larger auction house. Bet loads of people didn’t even know it was happening.

Oof!

Disappointed the Squier didn't go for a zillion quid. I've got one of those.

Didn’t see those coming!

Lovely shape but I'm not a fan of that particular paint scheme. This one though.......

Also giving raiding my piggybank for one of these some serious thought.

Really liked the Revstar I had for a while, only sold (to @ffm) to swap for the P90 equipped Tele I have now. Very well made and easy to play it was.

Just seen the Cosmic Jade colour for it, niiice.

Some footage from the Gibson factory in 1967.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-zOaOYB120&t=1082s

Obviously some terrifyingly casual health and safety things (spindle moulder at seven minutes looks particularly lethal), but some lovely stuff in there as well.

I'm still enjoying the Revstar immensely. @Bobbo I really like the look of the Meteora too and I wondered if it might feel somewhat similar to the Revstar with P90s or humbuckers (as you choose) and the same relatively flat fingerboard radius (now 12", old Revstar was 13 3/4"). The chambering on the new Revstars is probably a good thing as it was a weighty guitar, I wish they'd kept the metal tuners on the new range though.

😨

JFC

In the first picture, the spindle that he isn’t using, the one by his left elbow, is still running while his attention is on the work piece and the other spindle. Terrifying.

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The spindle moulder looks bad but in reality isn't far off how they're used today, by placing his hands where they are he has a fairly weak grip so if the workpiece takes off it will be pulled out of his hands and not drag him into the bit. As far as I'm aware the only thing that would be different today is the machine would turn off when not in use.

The guys casually spraying a potentially explosive lacquer without respirators was what had me feeling a bit worried.

chambering on the new Revstars is probably a good thing as it was a weighty guitar,

Good to hear. I'm not going to pre-order as I want to play one first but I'm very tempted.

Is this the factory that was inherited by Heritage Guitars? When Gibson moved out some of the workers took over and started creating their own ‘Gibson’ range using all the original tools.

I didn’t find it heavy particularly, though it is mahogany with a maple top so i guess it is, relatively. The korina offset Tele I replaced it with is quite a bit heavier. That’s heavier than my bass as well, mind…

Yes, I think so (having looked it up - the link below references Heritage guitars). Must be Kalamazoo in the film given the dates:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-old-gibson-guitar-factory-kalamazoo-michigan

As far as I'm aware the only thing that would be different today is the machine would turn off when not in use.

Really? That's nuts if so. I've never used one; I actually think I'd find it a bit intimidating tbh. The few I've seen have gates and guards on them, where just enough of the cutter is left exposed to make the cut you want - not just a mental death blade in middle of a table.

At least he's not wearing a tie...

A spindle moulder is basically a big router.

The main difference is with a router you buy a profile and attach it to the router by putting the shank of the bit into the routers collett. With a spindle moulder you buy components and build your desired profile buy placing them on the spindle of the machine.

With relatively simple profiles like skirting boards it is possible to use an autofeed a guitar neck is quite a complex profile as it changes along the length of the neck. In that video the operator is using a jig to guide his cut as well as using the jig to hold the workpiece. As you say there is no loose clothing to catch and drag him onto the cutting head and he's not wearing gloves so that particular issue has been thought about and addressed. In a modern setting there would likely be some sort of safety gear above where the jig is moving to shut the machine down if something hits it and in Europe the cutting head would have to be braked so that it stopped within 10 seconds of the off switch being hit.