Gibson Victory MVX

For guitars of the straight waisted variety (or reverse offset).
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Larry Mal
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Re: Gibson Victory MVX

Post by Larry Mal » Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:59 am

If it's any consolation, finding the original pickups would have been very difficult.
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Embenny
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Re: Gibson Victory MVX

Post by Embenny » Fri Nov 29, 2019 2:36 pm

Oh for sure, I was basically planning on sticking one of those splittable Duncan Stacks in the middle and asking Fab (of D'Urbano) to wind me a replacement bridge. The DCR, magnetic and physical specs are more or less known so I figured I could have a reasonably accurate new one made much more easily than sourcing an original.

Maybe some day I'll find a deal on an intact one. I'm definitely not rushing out to scoop up the $1500-$2000 ones online.
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s_mcsleazy
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Re: Gibson Victory MVX

Post by s_mcsleazy » Fri Nov 29, 2019 3:32 pm

Larry Mal wrote:
Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:59 am
s_mcsleazy wrote:
Fri Nov 29, 2019 12:37 am
semi-related but i actually really like the bass version.
Me too. Or at least I think I would like to own one.
same. most times ive delt with soapbar pickups, they always sound really flat to me.
offset guitars resident bass player.
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Embenny
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Re: Gibson Victory MVX

Post by Embenny » Sat Dec 07, 2019 10:31 am

For those of you talking about the bass - the same store now has this:

Image

They're asking $1500 CAD, which seems to be the lowest price online for one of these two-pickup Artist models, if anyone's interested. They've definitely shipped stuff before but don't often list on Reverb.
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Mechanical Birds
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Re: Gibson Victory MVX

Post by Mechanical Birds » Sat Dec 07, 2019 9:37 pm

Didn’t know any of that about the Victory, but always loved how they looked. I also know pretty much nothing past broad strokes about Gibson history, that most people talk shit on the Norton stuff but yeah, would love to check one of these out sometime.

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Larry Mal
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Re: Gibson Victory MVX

Post by Larry Mal » Sun Dec 08, 2019 7:07 am

People are taught to write the Norlin era off automatically, and one of the biggest teachers of that is modern day Gibson. The Henry J company went to great lengths to discredit the Norlin years, which not coincidentally provided Henry J Gibson with a very rare opportunity to not have to compete with used Gibson guitars as much.

But the truth is that Norlin Gibson was a dynamic company that viewed itself as a company that did original designs more than anything else. The Les Paul is probably the best example, because for most of the Norlin years they did not make Les Pauls other than the Deluxe with the mini-humbuckers on there. They did not view themselves as slaves to the past.

And when they did original designs, they weren't just just slightly tweaked body shapes with hardware and electronics that they already had laying around slapped on there like Fender does now.

They would bring in outside talent like Bill Lawrence to design whole new pickups for the new guitars, so in a lot of cases you can find something that simply never existed anywhere else. The Marauder is a good example of that.

They also play a little differently from modern Gibsons, with broader and flatter fretwire. They play great.

What they didn't know, though, was that the guitar market had already fossilized into a conservative orthodoxy that rejected anything new whatsoever.

And some of the choices are genuinely bizarre at times.

Bear in mind that this only applies to the Norlin era electrics- the acoustics of those years should be avoided at all costs, they decided that the main thing that makes an acoustic guitar good was durability, so the guitars are build very heavily and with double bracing in there, which killed the sound. Skip all those.
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Re: Gibson Victory MVX

Post by Mechanical Birds » Sun Dec 08, 2019 4:40 pm

That all makes good sense to me. I know American manufacturing really took at hit at the end of the 60s and the 70s are viewed as the dark times not only with Gibson, but guitars in general, and otherwise-trusted American brands in general. The cars, the motorcycles, electronics started coming from Asia, etc. always sorta been told/assumed like most of the stuff, and I’m a big Fender guy and kinda hate Gibson, that around this time it was harder to find a good one, but they didn’t totally go extinct. Like a lot of Strats might be dogs from 1978, but there would be good ones too. I have to assume the same with Gibson, but the way you talk maybe not.

I hate that the market is what it is today and would love to see any company come out and create entirely new models with new everything. Companies do make new stuff, but Sadly, it often stops at the shape or whatever. Everything has a strat trem or a TOM, rando humbuckers or something unveiled in the 60s or whatever... I want entirely new proprietary pickup and trem and neck designs. Can’t imagine living to see the Strat or Jazzmaster unveiled in real time.

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