Do you have a "NORLIN Era" Gibson guitar or bass? What do you think of it?

SH
Thanks for the links, now I know that my Les Paul Deluxe goldtop is from 1969..I had found out that it was from a period between 69-72, but now it's confirmed.

Well , the neck is VERY slim and extremely comfortable, the original neck and the new one (had it redone by Aaron from "Aaron's music service" near Kalamazoo MI-who had worked in Gibson) are a marvel since it's almost impossible for it to detune itself, and the sound is as good as any Les Paul I've ever heard.
I even have a High School mate who is a luthier in PR(which stands for PUERTO RICO-part of the USA-since most people from the US think it's a FOREIGN country), Eric Cabrer, who confirmed that it was as good as it gets!

 

Same thing with those three-bolt Fender Strats of the 70's that people railed against. They're vintage beauties now, man!

For me, my LP Deluxe just feels great. Looks like it's been through it's share of barrooms. It's broken in. Can't get that from a new guitar.

 

From what I've read and heard, it's the acoustics from the Norlin era that were the worst. Apparently, the new management wanted to cut down on warranty claims, so they made them sturdier, at the expense of that famous Gibson tone.

That said, I played an early 70's Gibson acoustic in a shop a couple years ago (I forget the model), and I was surprised at how good it sounded. Not bad at all. It didn't have the pre-Norlin Gibson sound, but it was a fine old guitar.

I think Paul Weller's favorite acoustic is an early 70's Gibson J45.

 

I've only got one - a 1972 ES-335
All my acoustics pre-date or post-date

 

Here is my 78 Custom, and my Heritage 80. In the early 80's, I added the Kahlers. These guitars are heavy. My left shoulder is in need of surgery.

The 78 Custom plays as well as any guitar I have tried. The neck isn't too fat and my hands easily fit. The Heritage sounds as good and any guitar I have tried and I don't know why. The original pickups aren't very good, IMO. I installed some WCR pickups and now, especially the Custom sound real good. Think about some of the great recordings made with Norlins.

 

'70 ES-340TDN

Blonde, fairly thick-block semi hollow with two humbuckers and mid-range cosmetics. The factory designed this with a master volume, pickup mix, separate tone controls, and the pickup switch was in-polarity/out-poloarity/cut.

It was probably the summer of '75. This guitar was on the shelf at a small store where I had taken lessons, tagged at under $300, and they thought it was broken, because the controls didn't work the way they expected. I played it for a minute through a Leslie, and I was hooked. My previous electric was a mid-'60s Melody Maker (I still have it, too), and this ES looked, played, and sounded like a huge step up.

The ES served as my main electric guitar through years of playing nightly gigs. To make it more versatile, I did what many others did (it was a player, not a museum piece): replaced the tuners with Grovers that worked, added a stop tailpiece, replaced the bridge pickup with a Dimarzio Super Distortion, added series/parallel and coil cut switches. With these options, I could get the sound of many different types of guitars, while being too poor as a starving musician to actually afford a good Les Paul, Strat, etc. (I did later buy a '65 Strat). Right now, I have the trapeze tailpiece on right now, and I like the way it sounds (I have other solid body two-humbucker guitars).

The neck has always been flawless. It's wants a fret job, but it still plays well after countless hours of playing. The action has always been super low with no buzzes anywhere. The width of the neck at the nut has always been a little narrow for my long fingers, but I still play down there a lot. The finish has a good amount of natural yellowing and checking (and belt buckle rash), and I don't mind.

I think Norlin-era acoustics suffered far worse than electrics.

 

i wish i had the money for these awesome guitars. i only own one guitar and i spent all summer one year saving up for it. its a cream colored 57 fender stratocaster reissue with a kahler pro series double locking tremolo system and a kill switch i added. its my baby


before that all i had were cheap knockoffs

 

I've got a '74 SG Special with factory fitted mini-humbuckers in walnut. Also has block inlays. I really like it, bought in in '78 and had it ever since. Had to change the tuners and replaced the bridge last year.

 

I've got an '84-'85 (serial # isn't specific) Les Paul Standard. It's got the dotted "i", though, so I must've just missed the NORLIN era. Got it new at a fire sale at Building #19 (any eastern Mass. residents will know what I'm talking about - this was the Burlington store) for $400 in early 1986. Even though I've been building a little Fender arsenal over the last 15 years, my Les is still the greatest guitar I've ever played.

 

Here's mine...1970 Goldtop Deluxe with those sweet mini-humbuckers.

 

Let's not forget the "RD" series... Great guitar ! They even reissued it

Jimmy Page used one

 

I had many years ago a blond ES-175e (late 70's I believe) as well, and I thought it was a great guitar!! It was even a second (it had a 2 under the serial number)...I couldnt notice one thing wrong with it.

 

1974 Deluxe with fullsize humbuckers. Oh yeah!

 

gibson SG

Hi Steve,
my 73 Gibson was one of the worst ever made according to the American book of guitars & it kept going out of tune, so we took the bigsby off & drilled a couple of holes to fit a static bridge, works great now, it originally belonged to White snake who put brass knobs etc on it, now i know why they got rid of it.
thanks, mike

 

I have a '77 Les Paul Custom. It has everything that you described your '78 having. People really hate those maple necks on their Les Pauls! But myself and my good friend/former bandmate just love the sound. I think that it adds a bit of brightness that Les Pauls lack. I love playing mine through my '60s Skylark pinned at 10...on everything. When recorded, it sounds like a Bassman being driven hard.

However, my favorite Gibson is still my '67 Pelham Blue Melody Maker D. I just love that guitar.

 

I had a late '69/early '70 Gibson ES-335 (the serial number indicated 1970, but the features were more in line with late 69s) and it was an absolutely great guitar. I wish I still had it. Nice woody tone - and smell! The pickups were too hot for my taste though, and I sold it rather than tamper with a beauty like that. Now I wish I'd kept it and just bought a different guitar to tamper with...

I never had any issues with playability, durability, construction.

 

My baby is a 1969 Goldtop deluxe with P-90s.
It's identical to Synthfreaks except it has P-90s and a tune-o-matic with plastic saddles. It's my favorite guitar and it doesn't leave the house. I used to have a RD bass, it weighed a ton (at least 15 pounds) and killed my shoulder. Marilyn Manson's bass player bought it off of me, I put a bunch of screwholes in the body to keep it from neckdiving. It sounded nice but it was a shoulder killer. The worst Norlin Gibson I owned was a Maruader that I bought at a pawnshop on 441 in Hollywood for $45, got it cheap since the bridge and stop tailpiece were missing. Went to Music Stop a few blocks down the road got the two parts and a set of strings and put them on. It was the worst POS Gibson I ever played. The neck on that must have been a baseball bat in a previous life since it was so skinny at the nut and clubby at the base. I think I traded it off for a Marantz intergrated or a piece of gear since I did that a lot in the 80's.

 

1980 Les Paul Deluxe (but the "i" is dotted). Is this a NORLIN?

Pardon my cell phone camera photo.

 

1976 Wine Red Les Paul Standard here. Bought it with HS graduation money in 1980 for $300. Great sound, but the neck has always been a bit of a challenge. I probably need to take it to somebody who knows what they're doing to see if that can be remedied.

 

I've had it since '91 when I replaced a tobacco sunburst KM Les Paul stolen from the band's practice room. I got it at our local mom and pop music store for $650. The owner always had guitars that never made it out on the floor, and if you told him what you were looking for he would go in the back and come out with something that would stop you in your tracks by its case alone.

It's very heavy but I've always loved the sustain and warm tone. The Deluxe has a thicker neck than the KM, but it's never factored for me in playability.
I was fortunate to have a friend in the band who was a fanatic on setting up guitars and getting them in prime shape for playing.

About 15 years ago I was playing out and the guy who used to own it came up to me and said he hated to sell it but had fallen on hard times. He did a lot of playing in the bars and clubs because the binding is yellowed from nicotine.

 

I have three Les Pauls that I bought new in about 75 or so.

A white front (black everywhere else) Custom, a burgandy Standard, and a tobacco Deluxe. The Custom is a twentieth anniversary or something so maybe I bought that a little earlier.

I don't remember the gripe with Norlin era stuff. My three are okay. Heavy. I never really used the Standard, but I loved the color so I bought it. In my vague memory, these guitars were only about $600 or so back then.

I see prices now for these vintage models up at 2-3 grand. Ridiculous.

Also, I'm not a purist. I have no problem hacking up and modifying any guitar ... hence, that may be why you see MY hacked White Falcon in the old Ferris Buheler's Day Off movie. I made it look c-o-o-l.

Anyway, here below is my Deluxe (disregard the dirty patio), complete with the 1977 incorrect Bigsby I slapped on back then (I'm going to switch that to a larger Bigsby soon) and the gawd awful Arp Avatar interface I had installed in late 77. I'm going to remove that too when I replace the Bigsby. I also slapped on a larger Gibson bridge (more goldie looking). I put gold Grovers on there too ... so, it's pretty well a gasp job in the eyes of purists.

I'm also ordering a set of gold mini humbuckers to replace the original nickel ones in the pic. At least then, I'll have a nice, gold look, a better gold bigsby, and a nicer overall gold look against the tobacco body. Maybe it'll get into the Ferris Buehler II movie.

 

I dunno why they chamber them now. For the weight on older models, I just got used to it as I'm sure everyone else did. What does Gibson achieve by chambering? A lower UPS bill to ship them to dealers?

I actually like the sustain and bite of the Deluxe's mini-humbuckers a bit better than my Custom and Standard with regular humbuckers.

Les Pauls just feel comfortable to me in about every way. Unlike my strat which I don't like in any way shape or form except that's the only way to get that sound.

I haven't picked up a newer era Les Paul at all. Do they really feel like SGs now?