2NVSS60sAG - photo heavy
Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2016 12:49 am
OK ... on this day that has proven that average IQ of the world is actually lower than 100, lets look at some nice guitars.
2 New Vintage Square Shouldered 60s Acoustic Guitar
This thread is photo heavy .... cause I like looking at nice guitars
Some of you may recall that when I got my 1964 J50 recently I had actually been looking at the following guitar, a 1964 Epiphone Frontier. It was at the Austin Vintage Guitar shop ... a great set of guys there, really friendly. But due to various reasons (including the consignment owner did not want to move at all on the price) I had to pass on the guitar. That's OK... I made some internet contacts at Austin Vintage Guitar, who apparently love OSG ! and I knew that something may come along in the future.
Move along a few months, I get a small windfall in as much as some shares I was given by a company I worked for 20 years ago have to be "forcefully" sold back to the company. so I have some cash I did not expect and then I started to think about the Frontier again... were there some others out there.
Not really looking but at the same time looking, and not being helped by the following vid that Yannis pointed me to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8n6i-VeHis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
... I checked out Norman's Rare Guitars and I started to also notice the Gibson Hummingbird.
Now the Gibson Hummingbird is almost the same as the Epiphone Frontier, in as much as they are both square shouldered acoustics, with 25.4" scale lengths. The "luxury level" of the Epiphone Frontier is between the Gibson Hummingbird and the top of the range Gibson Dove. All these guitars were manufactured in Kalamazoo in the 60s.
I wanted an acoustic that had a nut width around 1 10/16" or at the very most just under 1 11/16".
I wanted most definitely the adjustable saddle set up that Gibson/Epiphone utilised back in the day, the guitar to be in very good to excellent condition and no cracks.
There seemed to be a common crack in many examples of early and mid 60s Hummingbirds that ran from the sound hole to the neck, parallel with the neck along the inner edge of the guard. (due to the miss match of shrink rates of the guard, the glue and the lacquer). I was looking for a Hummingbird that did not have any cracks.
Down many wrong paths or emails back and forth with dealers and sellers trying to confirm the actual width of the nut of various guitars that seemed like possibilities. I would ask the dealers/sellers to measure the nut in mm rather than inches.... because saying 1 9/16" could actually be close to 1 10/16" and they rounded down. Most people were pretty good and gave me the dimensions in mm .. all except one person who , rather than measuring the nut width again in mm, just converted 1 9/16" into mm and told be the value to the third decimal place!
Weeks went by and then suddenly I am at Gary's Classic Guitars website. They always have a good range of unmolested guitars. And sure enough they had quite a few Hummingbirds and a few Frontiers. Spent a while looking at them, crossing various off my list and I came down to two Hummingbirds (both 1965) and a 1965 Frontier. They guys at Gary's gave me the nut width data and ranked the three guitars in order of "best sounding" which was helpful. I have bought 5 guitars from Garys before (electric and acoustic) and although their prices are at the top of the range, what they say they have, they deliver. If they say the guitar sounds awesome, it will.
Then suddenly I though "what the fuck ... one only lives once" and I asked them what deal could they do on one of the Hummingbirds AND the Frontier. Their answer back was positive, and then a week or so later I had two acoustics on their way to Oz.
I was able to track the FEDEX shipping on the internet and for once was actually home when the delivery guy stopped by.
As you can see below the two guitars are magnificent. The Frontier with maple front/sides/back has a brighter sound than the Hummingbird, but not by much. In fact I am totally amazed by the sound out of bother guitars... classic Rolling Stones acoustic sound... classic Exile On Main St. sound... just think "Sweet Virginia". There is a metallic crispness/clearness to the sound of these guitars so different to the J50 (or J45) sound. Different again to the Texan and Cortez. I always thought the sound that the Stones go twith their acoustics had some post production ... but no... it is the sound of this type of 60s Gibson/Epiphone square shouldered acoustic guitar.
It took a couple of days to get the guitars set up after the flight from the USA. The wood/necks are all settled now and they both play so easily.
James come around this afternoon and enjoyed them for a short moment.
Anyway here is the 1965 Gibson Hummingbird and its sister a 1965 Epiphone Frontier.
(some shots are taken with the sun out, others when it was overcast)
2 New Vintage Square Shouldered 60s Acoustic Guitar
This thread is photo heavy .... cause I like looking at nice guitars
Some of you may recall that when I got my 1964 J50 recently I had actually been looking at the following guitar, a 1964 Epiphone Frontier. It was at the Austin Vintage Guitar shop ... a great set of guys there, really friendly. But due to various reasons (including the consignment owner did not want to move at all on the price) I had to pass on the guitar. That's OK... I made some internet contacts at Austin Vintage Guitar, who apparently love OSG ! and I knew that something may come along in the future.
Move along a few months, I get a small windfall in as much as some shares I was given by a company I worked for 20 years ago have to be "forcefully" sold back to the company. so I have some cash I did not expect and then I started to think about the Frontier again... were there some others out there.
Not really looking but at the same time looking, and not being helped by the following vid that Yannis pointed me to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8n6i-VeHis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
... I checked out Norman's Rare Guitars and I started to also notice the Gibson Hummingbird.
Now the Gibson Hummingbird is almost the same as the Epiphone Frontier, in as much as they are both square shouldered acoustics, with 25.4" scale lengths. The "luxury level" of the Epiphone Frontier is between the Gibson Hummingbird and the top of the range Gibson Dove. All these guitars were manufactured in Kalamazoo in the 60s.
I wanted an acoustic that had a nut width around 1 10/16" or at the very most just under 1 11/16".
I wanted most definitely the adjustable saddle set up that Gibson/Epiphone utilised back in the day, the guitar to be in very good to excellent condition and no cracks.
There seemed to be a common crack in many examples of early and mid 60s Hummingbirds that ran from the sound hole to the neck, parallel with the neck along the inner edge of the guard. (due to the miss match of shrink rates of the guard, the glue and the lacquer). I was looking for a Hummingbird that did not have any cracks.
Down many wrong paths or emails back and forth with dealers and sellers trying to confirm the actual width of the nut of various guitars that seemed like possibilities. I would ask the dealers/sellers to measure the nut in mm rather than inches.... because saying 1 9/16" could actually be close to 1 10/16" and they rounded down. Most people were pretty good and gave me the dimensions in mm .. all except one person who , rather than measuring the nut width again in mm, just converted 1 9/16" into mm and told be the value to the third decimal place!
Weeks went by and then suddenly I am at Gary's Classic Guitars website. They always have a good range of unmolested guitars. And sure enough they had quite a few Hummingbirds and a few Frontiers. Spent a while looking at them, crossing various off my list and I came down to two Hummingbirds (both 1965) and a 1965 Frontier. They guys at Gary's gave me the nut width data and ranked the three guitars in order of "best sounding" which was helpful. I have bought 5 guitars from Garys before (electric and acoustic) and although their prices are at the top of the range, what they say they have, they deliver. If they say the guitar sounds awesome, it will.
Then suddenly I though "what the fuck ... one only lives once" and I asked them what deal could they do on one of the Hummingbirds AND the Frontier. Their answer back was positive, and then a week or so later I had two acoustics on their way to Oz.
I was able to track the FEDEX shipping on the internet and for once was actually home when the delivery guy stopped by.
As you can see below the two guitars are magnificent. The Frontier with maple front/sides/back has a brighter sound than the Hummingbird, but not by much. In fact I am totally amazed by the sound out of bother guitars... classic Rolling Stones acoustic sound... classic Exile On Main St. sound... just think "Sweet Virginia". There is a metallic crispness/clearness to the sound of these guitars so different to the J50 (or J45) sound. Different again to the Texan and Cortez. I always thought the sound that the Stones go twith their acoustics had some post production ... but no... it is the sound of this type of 60s Gibson/Epiphone square shouldered acoustic guitar.
It took a couple of days to get the guitars set up after the flight from the USA. The wood/necks are all settled now and they both play so easily.
James come around this afternoon and enjoyed them for a short moment.
Anyway here is the 1965 Gibson Hummingbird and its sister a 1965 Epiphone Frontier.
(some shots are taken with the sun out, others when it was overcast)