1956 Gibson Les Paul Jr

The Gibson Les Paul Jr was introduced in 1954 as a bare bones entry level electric guitar.  It featured a slab Mahogany body, Mahogany neck, Brazilian Rosewood fret board and a single P-90 pickup in the bridge position.  The Les Paul Jr is known today as a rock and roll workhorse.

This Les Paul Jr's design is so well suited for rock and roll because of the average weight, single pickup, neck profile/width and the fact that it is a real 1950s Les Paul.  The lack of a Maple cap on the body makes these a comfortable 7 lbs, give or take a pound depending on the slab of wood. The single pickup in the bridge position is actually one of this model's secret weapons: the lack of a neck pickup allows the strings to ring and sustain free from the pull of another pickup's magnet.  The result is a rich, full strum that sustains with harmonic overtones for as long as you want it to.  The neck profile is the same as any mid-to-late 1950s Gibson.  It's full and comfortable and only slightly more full than a '59.  And let's be honest, who wouldn't want something that says Gibson and Les Paul on the headstock and is actually from the 1950s?

The Les Paul Jr went through some changes throughout the 50s and 60s, the two most important being the change to a double cutaway body in late 1958 and the change to the SG body in late 1962.  I've heard of only three 1959 single cut Juniors so it is possible to have one.  That would be quite a valuable guitar with the '59 neck profile and single cut body, although I prefer the mid 1950s neck profile over a '59.  One other change of note is the relocation of the pickup from being right up next to the bridge to a half inch away.  They also increased the depth of the bridge posts which fixed the common problem with leaning posts.

Do you have a Les Paul Jr that you are interested in selling?  Please contact me: Truevintageguitar.com.

1959 Danelectro Companion

I'll be honest, I'm not an expert on Danelectro.  I've owned a Silvertone U-2 in the past but didn't really do much digging on the history, etc.  I happened across this Dano Companion and bought it with no strings.  The bridge was just rattling around in the case and I even though it was missing a piece.  I decided to string it up as is after seeing some pictures online.  It played great and the bridge held very well.  It was just as intended.  The neck was straight and the action was perfect.  I fell in love!

The Companion was apparently a fairly rare model.  It's very similar to Jimmy Page's Danelectro 3021 with the exception of the natural finish and the bridge.  The electronics are the exact same setup with two single coil pickups with stacked/concentric volume and tone knobs for each.  The middle position on Danelectro guitars is the tone that everyone is looking for.  They wired it so the pickups would run in series instead of parallel.  These guitars come alive with lots of output when you're playing in the middle position.

Do you have one of these for sale?  Contact me.  I'm always on the lookout for this kind of stuff.

1961 Silvertone 1446L

One of the greatest guitars Harmony (Silvertone) ever made was the 1446L commonly referred to as the "Chris Isaak" model.  Chris posed with this model for a couple of advertisements and also named an album "Silvertone."  What makes this guitar special is a combination of dashing looks, Gibson made and Seth Lover designed mini-humbuckers used only on this model and the Bigby vibrato.

The Gibson made miniature humbuckers really are the big attraction to this guitar.  If you want a guitar with these pickups you must buy this model or find some loose pups for sale (good luck!!).  Early production 1446 pickups came with the same "Patent Applied For" stickers as the highly sought after "PAF" pickups that came in 1957-1960 Les Pauls.  The PAFs in those Les Pauls are worth about $2000 each in good shape.  I think the 1446L is very undervalued at $1500 for one in great condition from a big vintage dealer.

The rest of the electronics are good, solid American made just like what came in an LP from that time period.  It has the same setup as well with two pickups, 2 volume and 2 tone knobs, and a 3 way switch.  The whole guitar just seems so solid even though it was manufactured by a budget company.  

I'm a big fan of the Bigsby B3 vibrato that came on these guitars.  The subtle, wavy, almost dreamy vibrato is a lot of fun to play around with.  I naturally lean towards blues licks when I'm playing so I haven't sought after guitars with vibratos.  I did seek out these pickups and I'm glad I was introduced to a good solid vibrato as a result.

If there was one drawback to this guitar it would be in the neck construction.  It does have a truss rod but doesn't taper in width from the heel to the nut.  It seems a little "cheap" at first but I got used to it very quickly and grew to really like it.  The nut width is small but I haven't measured it.

Bottom line:

This is a professional grade vintage instrument at a "prosumer" grade price.  It has the tone and feel of the early 1960s and the looks certainly don't disappoint.  This model shows no sign of declining in popularity and therefore value so it would likely be a good investment as well.  However, because of the nut width and neck construction this guitar may not be the answer for the player looking to own just one guitar.  

Do you have one of these that you would like to sell?  I'm looking for another.  Please email me about what you have for sale.

A Semi-Rarity: The 1966 Epiphone Wilshire (USA!)

Vintage guitars often come with a trade off: the "good ones" got played- hard.  As a result they have lots of character.  I don't mind character- in fact I love it.  I like seeing some scratches in the top of a guitar or the wear marks on the side of the neck from 60 years of first position chords.  Every once in a while however I will come across one that is clean.  This Wilshire, my friends, is CLEAN.

 

In 1957, Gibson bought a financially failing company that had been their long time competitor.  The Epiphone brand was known for very fine instruments like banjos, archtop electrics and acoustic guitars.  The competition was especially fierce in the large body electric archtop market.  Gibson would come out with a big jazz box and a month later Epiphone would come out with a slightly bigger or more fancy one.  Epiphone manufactured out of New York until about 1953 manufacturing moved to Philadelphia (although the labels still said New York!).  The failing company was at odds with its employees and the name was eventually bought along with a bunch of parts by Gibson.

Gibson began manufacturing Epiphone guitars first with leftover parts and continued by introducing their own Epiphone models.  This was a move by Gibson to get more guitars in stores.  Retailers didn't want 10 Gibson SGs but didn't really have a problem buying 5 SGs and 5 Epiphone Wilshires.  The USA Epiphones were made right along sides of the Gibsons in the factory at 225 Parsons Street, Kalamazoo, MI.  These are very high quality instruments!  The quality of the instruments bearing the Epiphone brand didn't drop to the current level until that unfortunate time in the 70s when the new owners of the Gibson brand (Norlin) shipped all production over seas to Japan.

The Epiphone Wilshire was a bit of a rare model until the its reissue this past year (made in China- sadface).  It has always had a small Mahogany body and neck but had two different editions.  The first was introduced in 1959 with a 3+3 headstock and P-90 pickups.  The second version appeared in mid-1962 that had a funky "batwing"style headstock and two mini humbuckers.  Mine is the second version with the silky smooth mini hums.

I absolutely love these guitars.  They have the coolest 60s styling with quality ingredients to boot.  The mini humbuckers are very versatile and can take you from Guns and Roses to Neo-classical jazz in a real hurry.  The neck joins at the very last fret so the player has full advantage of the fretboard.  Unfortunately the "Vibrola" was a source of frustration for most players so the trem arm is usually taken off and lost.

This is my second mid 60s Epiphone Wilshire.  My first one had seen some playing time and the finish showed it.  It was still original (but was missing the trem arm of course).  I eventually sold it but still had my love of Wilshires.  When I saw the ad for this one I couldn't believe it.  The seller was the original owner and the finish looked like it had just rolled off the assembly line.  I asked him when and by whom it was refinished.  He said that it hadn't been refinished.  Well, I have heard that before.  I always take that kind of thing with a grain of salt.

When I showed up to look at the guitar I still couldn't believe it hadn't been refinished.  We met outside of a Waffle House so I couldn't really take the pickguard off to check.  It looked "right" so I went ahead and bought it.  I took the pickguard off but the wires kind of stuck.  I looked closely to see what was going on.  Yes, the wires were stuck in the lacquer.  I carefully peeled them away to find that I was the first one to ever take the PG off.  This was clearly the original finish.  There was even a little bit of router dust in the electronics cavity.  That was a cool moment but I totally regretted it after!  I knew I had to take the pg off to verify the originality of the finish and electronics but I wish that it had still "never been taken off."  Oh well.

There is no checking on this guitar.  NONE.  It looks like it was made recently.  This thing is as real as it gets.  There are a couple of nicks around the guitar (about 3).  That is all. The original owner was not keen on the original set of tuners so he had them changed to mini Schallers.  He also lost the tremolo arm.  Other than that, this is the way it came from Kalamazoo.  One thing that is weird is that the gold Epiphone silk screen logo was done once, painted over, and done again slightly more centered.  Must have been a new guy at the silk screen booth that day.

The seller said he went into the shop in '67 to buy a Gibson SG.  He saw this one up on the wall and bought it instead.  Good call.  I don't think he played it very much because it has hardly any fret wear or wear on the back of the neck.  It is an absolute joy to play I hope you get a chance to play one of these oddities sometime too.

I took this guitar to the Nashville guitar show and another dealer was interested in it.  He took it over to an amplifier and played it for a while.  When he came back he told me that the pickups were wire out of phase!  That was news to me but I wouldn't have noticed it because I stick mainly to the neck pickup.  I took it out this morning and messed around with it and found that he was probably right.  One other thing I found interesting is that the bridge pup is rotated 180 degrees from where it "should" be.  I asked the original owner why he swapped it and he said that he didn't.  That is the way that it came from the factory.

Peter Green's 1959 Gibson Les Paul was made this same way in that his pickups are wired out of phase as well.  Apparently it is more common than originally thought but most people probably didn't notice it.  Maybe they just played on the neck pickup too...

TVG

Harmony Bobkat Video Blog

I picked up this Harmony Bobkat a couple of days ago.  I didn't feel like writing tonight but I wanted to get the word out about these so I made a quick video about it.  Check it out, comment, disagree, like it, share it.... participate.

I just wanted to show that while I could be playing much more expensive and technically "better" guitars, instead I am playing this one.  You don't have to pay 3 grand to get a solid vintage guitar.  Price does not translate into quality, playability or tone.  The price of a vintage guitar is only the result of supply and demand.  Most of the time the demand for a guitar and its overall tone/quality go hand in hand but there are always exceptions.  I believe this is one of them.

This girl is tearin' up this Bobkat!  Good stuff!

The $200k Les Paul's little brother: 1960 Gibson Melody Maker

According to Gibson's website, the Melody Maker was the best selling guitar at the time.  It was cheap and looked cool too.  They produced them on the same line that made Les Pauls, ES-335s and J-200s.

The Melody Maker was a full scale guitar with trimmed down features. The body is solid Mahogany but is much thinner than a standard guitar at 1 3/8ths" thick.  It has only one single coil pickup made specifically for this model.  The neck is a full size standard neck except the headstock doesn't have the "wings" glued on the side like a standard Gibson.  

This guitar was owned by a blues player and you can tell!  He played and played it.  It has a nice aged patina but still fully playable and has all the original parts.  I bought this guitar and two others from the brother-in-law of the blues player.  The other guitars I bought from him were a 1964 Fender Duo-Sonic and a 1946 Gibson J-45.  They all have a distinctive wear mark where he put his arm and shoulder over the guitar.  This wear doesn't photograph well but this picture shows it the best.  

The guitar is all original but the case is clearly not.  It is from the late 60s/early 70s.  It fit the guitar well and protected it much better than the chipboard case that it probably came in.  That case is long gone.

 This guy must have been a hell of a player!  He played these things all the way through the finish on the neck.  It feels good- very good.  I guess he figured they needed to be broken in before they played well.  He may have been right!  Many people would pay big money to have their guitar "relic"ed like this.  Now I know why.

The neck retains the 50s style big full neck.  It has the standard width with just enough depth to feel full.  The is the same neck shape that would be on a Les Paul from the same year.  The fretboard is Rosewood but is flat-sawn instead of quarter (like would be on a Les Paul).  I've seen this one some J-45s from the late 50s as well (email guitar).

This simple layout includes a jack, tone, volume and pickup.  You could take all of the electronics out by removing the pickguard if the ground didn't go to the bridge post.  

Some have described the Melody Maker single coil as a cross between a P-90 and a Tele neck pickup.  I would say that it is closer to the Tele pickup but a bit darker.  

 Do you have one of these?  Send me a picture!

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Email Guitar- Look what we have here!

I got an email from a reader with a couple of pictures attached.  Needless to say, I was pumped.

It's a Silvertone 1446!  It is always a great day when you find an old guitar in a closet, under the bed, wherever it was left years ago and forgotten.  This one seems to be original except for the decal pinstripes on the headstock.  I think they are cool but I would probably still attempt to remove them if I felt comfortable with it.  It even has the original case and seems to be in good shape.  

Damian sent these in to my email (tvguit@gmail.com) and said he had an amp with it too.  Way to go Damian!  Maybe he will send in some pictures of the amp?? Are you reading this Damian?  Don't leave us hangin' man!

1963 Harmony Rocket H59 with 3 Rowe Industries DeArmond "Gold Foil" Pickups

This one has been a favorite since day one, the Harmony Rocket:

I just about jumped out of my chair when this one popped up in PoDunk, AL (not a real place).  It was covered in half a century's dirt and dust from being in a garage for so long.  After a quick wipe down with a barely damp cloth the finish was sparkling.  I was amazed at how well this one cleaned up.  

Seems like the first thing anyone notices about these are the knobs.  SO MANY KNOBS:

Individual Bakelite volume and tone knobs for each pickup.  The rotary pickup selector allows you to select pickup 1, 2, 3 or All.  So if you want just pickups 2 and 3 you must select All and turn the volume all the way down on pickup 1.  I really like the tone possibilities as well as the way all those knobs just call to you when you see it.

Tuners are cheap Kluson knock offs that tune very well after you lube them and adjust the screw on the poll.  I have had no problems with them and do not wish to change them out.  No, they are not as smooth as "Grovers", or as lame.  Sorry.

These had very thin Nitrocellulose finishes that wore off very easily in certain places:

This one shows very little (to no) fret wear.  It does have this tasteful looking wear mark on the neck.  Almost looks like it had some kind of red primer or undercoat.  Do any of you guys have any definitive info on this?  Comment and let me know.  I'm curious to hear what you think.

The Rowe Industries Gold Foil Pickup:

I really like these pickups.  Loads of output but still has a jangly, single coil "Harmony" thinness to them.  Kind of hard to describe I guess.  If you want a '57 Classic sound then do not buy this guitar.  Go buy a Gibson.  

These pickups usually read about 12k ohms which is pretty hot!  I haven't measured mine but they sound great.  Check these pickups out on eBay- people are really digging them as of late.  You could buy one of these guitars and make money just parting out the pickups on eBay. Don't do that please!

October 30, 1963

Still has the original case which is pretty dirty and wouldn't do a very good job protecting it on the road:

The only downside to this example is that it doesn't have an adjustable truss rod.

The later ones ('65 or '66 and later not sure) did have an adjustable truss rod.  The neck is actually pretty straight and plays well.  It has just a little more relief in it than I would like.  Probably would benefit from a fret leveling and crowning but I haven't gotten around to it.  I do most of my play between 0 and 9.  I'm no lead shredder.  It sounds really good with just a little tube compression and nice smooth bluesin'.  

See those little wooden spacers?  These guitars don't have adjustable poles or pickup heights unless you can make more spacers out of Walnut!  I really like the aesthetics of the spacers.  They just look really classy and neat.  

A note on my pictures:  I am not a photographer.  I don't know anything about it.  My wife has a cool camera that I borrow.  Do you have any feedback on how I could get better pictures?  Let me know.

My Vintage Guitar and Gear Wishlist.... and why I think these things are cool

There are always weird guitars and gear that I see and hope to run into one day.  Recently it has been a Harmony made Silvertone and a brand new amp from Fender.  More on that one later.

The Silvertone 1446l has been popping up on my radar just about everywhere.  These things are American made by Harmony in Chicago from 1962 until 1967.  They featured a Bigsby Vibrato, a hollow body of laminated maple (even though the ads said Spruce top and back!) and the very illusive Seth Lover designed, stagger-poled mini-humbuckers.  I have never held one of these in my hands but supposedly these pickups screamed with higher output and thick silky humbucker tone.  This one is often refferred to as the Chris Isaak model but I believe that Dan Aurbach of the Black Keys is a fan as well.  Do you have one for sale?? Contact me!

And now, for something completely different: The Fender Pawn Shop Series' Greta.  These things are a bit "gimicky" but they are just so damn cute.  It is a two watt (tube), table top radio style guitar (and iPod) amplifier.  It features one 12ax7 preamp tube and one 12 at7 power tube and breaks up faster than your "high school sweetheart" friends.  The 4"speaker has a bit of a hard time keeping up with the output but plugged in to a cabinet this thing is an apartment ready blues machine.

Notice the "VU" meter?  It is a total gimmick and I love it.  VU stands for "Volume Unit" with the green section indicating clean tones and the red indicating distorted.  The meter is backlit with a small blue LED that is really just fun to look at.  The knob on the left is gain and the one on the right is tone.  

The coolest part about this little amp is what is on the back:

From left to right: Guitar, Aux In, Line Out, 8 ohm Ext. out, Switch, Power Input

Fender made this amp very versatile with all the ins and outs.  With the 4" speaker there isn't much headroom before the speaker farts out.  Which is why they added the 8 ohm extension out.  This thing sounds really good through a 4 12" cabinet.  It has a little more headroom but still has a nice, thick tube crunch.   If you are looking for a sparkly clean tone then you should probably look somewhere else.

But what if you have a larger amplifier that you like but can't play at the volume you want at home?  Enter the Greta, once again.  It has a Line Out that you could run a 1/4" cable directly into that amp's input.  Just use it like a distortion pedal.

But what if you are a trendy hipster with a turntable and feel like your warm, analog signal path is being ruined by your solid state stereo?  Enter the Fender Greta's Auxiliary 1/8" input.  Plug your turntable into this little guy for analog tone that lets your recent Grizzly Bear or Bon Iver vinyl sound like it should, I guess.  Or just plug in your iPod (digital music through an analog amplifier?).  I actually have not experimented with this feature of the Greta although I would love to.  My wife and I listen to a wifi radio (Logitec Squeezebox) every morning and I would be very interested to hear how it sounds through the Greta.  Do you play your iPod through your Greta?  Comment and let me know what you think about it.