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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Steve Hoffman, Jun 23, 2010.

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  1. rednoise

    rednoise Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    No, of course they don't.

    I've played a couple of recent "weight-relieved" Les Pauls side by side with a couple of '60s and '70s models and I thought the new ones held their own along side the oldsters. But lighter, of course. The new ones still had plenty of tone and sustain. And I've played old ones that were toneless lumps of wood.

    I wouldn't let the chambering be a deciding factor.
     
    Lonson likes this.
  2. kt66brooklyn

    kt66brooklyn Senior Member

    Location:
    brooklyn, ny
    A few thoughts on Gibson in the 1970's. All of the humbucking pickups, from the 50's through the 70's were wound by one person. When I worked at Gibson, she was still a consultant for the company. She was very experienced by the Norlin era. That's one reason why 70's Gibsons can sound so good.

    They were open to experimentation, which led to products like the Acoustic Mark 35 and 55. They were overbuilt, but they were an interesting departure anyway.

    They still had top flight talent for the construction of archtop guitars and mandolins.
     
  3. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host Thread Starter

    Exactly. The person (people) who made both of my Gibson Johnny Smiths had to have been at Gibson since, well, a long time, probably since the 1940s or even older. That kind of experience is priceless.

    I'm telling you, the 'buckers in my '78 Paul are just perfect. Best I've ever heard. They quack, spark, growl, cry, whatever you want them to do. The only crime they commit is to be encased in CHROME instead of NICKEL.

    I can live with it.
     
  4. TLMusic

    TLMusic Musician & record collector

    "Open to experimentation" could have served as Gibson's motto from the company's inception. The Norlin years continued that tradition. There was a saying among the vintage guitar dealers that "Gibson built one of everything." They made so many guitars with unusual custom features, and were known to mix features between models. Every now and then, a really wild and unusual cool Gibson would turn up, with details unlike anything depicted in the company catalogs.

    My understanding is that Gibson also hoarded many old parts and materials that they would sometimes use in the construction of their current model guitars. This was especially true of the rarer and high end models. Say, an archtop completed in the 1970s may have been made with a top carved in the 1960s. ...or used an NOS pickguard assembly, or perhaps inlays created years before the final ship date. Since you worked there, perhaps you could shed some light on how often this actually happened.
     
  5. troyvod

    troyvod Forum Resident

    Location:
    hunter valley
    i've oened a bunch over the years and still have a couple. Seriously my 73 deluxe is one of the best Les Pauls i've played, except for some 50's ones. My 77 custom, i couldn't say the same about though.
     
  6. McLover

    McLover Senior Member

    What kind of 3/4 size Gibsons are especially good? I need something my small hands and short stature can play. Need the action on the light side.
     
  7. I had an SG from 72 and it was terrible. It was always out of tune and had 2 slide switches to go from on pickup to another. The only good thing about it was the pickups. On the other hand my 73 Les Paul Custom is one of the best guitars I've ever had. I guess the more the guitar was worth the more attention went into quality.
     
  8. BobbyS

    BobbyS Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Delaware OH USA
    Hey Steve,

    Have you ever played a 50's gold top or Standard? Some of those are really light. My 54 stop tail gold top weighed in at just under 8 pounds. Conversely, I've a friend with a 73 LP Custom which weighs almost 14 pounds. Makes my back hurt just thinking about it!

    Bobby Sutliff

     
  9. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    I have a left shoulder problem, which I think came from all those years carrying my Norlins. Both Norlins are made from a pretty substancial slab of maple.

    I had my three pickup Les Paul rewired with 50's style wiring, which has only one tone control for all three pickups and the middle pickup's volume can be controlled via the bass pickup tone control. This guitar really sounds amazing.
     
  10. Tullman

    Tullman Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston MA
    Honestly, I didn't like the pickups in my 78. I put in some original PAFs which sounded much better. I am currently using WCR pickups that I think are the best I have ever heard in my 78, including the originals, Dimarzio's, various Seymor Duncans, oringinal PAFs and current Gibson pickups.
     
  11. JBryan

    JBryan Forum Resident

    Location:
    St Louis
    Norlin acquired Gibson at a time when the economy was bad and Japanese imports were making strong inroads - remember the first time you saw a Toyota or Datsun? That was their first in a string of bad decisions that were unforgivable to many players though in their defense, they probably kept Gibson from going under.

    That said, Gibson's material and build quality dropped noticeably during those years, especially with acoustics which were already suffering from bad wood and design flaws. The LPs became clunky and overweight and the SG went through so many design changes, no one could keep up and few found anything resembling an improvement. My main gripe with SGs (and the like) was the oversized headstock literally unbalanced the guitar, often causing it to dip and the slim neck became that much easier to break.

    OTOH, the early '70's weren't so bad on the LPs as they were still using old parts in many cases but by the mid '70's Gibson wasn't drying the wood properly and the guitars became boat anchors. Sales declined significantly but Norlin didn't recognize the systemic problems, instead they looked to Marketing for ideas and the result was all those variations and new designs, some imported which did little to bring the players back.

    I've had more 70's Gibsons than I can count but some are outstanding guitars that I'm delighted to have kept in the fold. The early LP customs are among my favorite guitars, period and a few of the experimental guitars actually sound and play great, the RD Artist w/Moog's electronics is a good example. All through the awkward years, the pickups retained their quality and sound so at least there's something Gibson had going for it that Norlin didn't screw up (although the heavy wood made them sound dull on LP's). Too bad by the time Gibson pulled itself out of mediocrity in the mid 90's, they had lost the recipe for those great pickups.
     
    misterdecibel likes this.
  12. italianprog

    italianprog Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    My first guitar was a 1980 Gibson Sonex-180 Deluxe, and is still my main guitar to this day. I love that thing. The "resonwood" body is super light and, in conjunction with the Dirty Fingers humbuckers, really provide this screeching feedback like I've never heard in any other guitar. Think Billy Corgan's guitar on "Mayonnaise" and you'll get the idea.
     
  13. toddbooster

    toddbooster Forum Resident

    The first "real" bass I ever bought was a sunburst '79 Ripper that I picked up in Calgary for $450 in 1996; sold it 5 years ago for $1300.

    I dragged that bass with me to every sleazy venue in Canada for a decade and it never went wrong; it was a joy to play, great sounding, and at the time, pretty unique as no one was playing 70's Gibson basses (or Gibson basses from any era really) because of their undeserved reputation for muddy sound and poor quality.

    I regret selling it every day.
     
  14. Redbone

    Redbone New Member

    I have a 1975 Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop I bought new in 1976. Pancake, maple 3 piece neck, with mini humbuckers it weighs a ton 13+ lbs. It was my first name brand electric. The build quality compared to my later Gibsons (90's and up) looks kind of shoddy. There are little patched chips out of the back that came from the factory, the fret marker inlays don't fit just right, and some of the fret wire came up to catch my E string on bends. You know what? It plays and sounds great. I've used it on hundreds of gigs it never lets me down. All my guitar playing friends pick it first out of all of my nice axes to play. I have other Les Pauls with big humbuckers and P90's but the minis sound so bright and cut through they are my favorites. Even if it kills my shoulder it has great sustain and I love it.
     
  15. rhubarb9999

    rhubarb9999 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Atlanta, GA
    I have a '73 LP Standard .. dark tobacco sunburst. I paid $225 for it in 1983 (I was in high school). When I got it, someone had sanded all the finish off the back and neck. I had it resprayed but the front was untouched. It's still my favorite guitar. Great low action, killer sustain. When i got it, both pickups had been to changed to Super Distortions. It has the three ply body and is pretty heavy. I play my Strats more because they are lighter, but you can't beat the tone of the LP (even if its one of the 'bad ones').
     
  16. kevin5brown

    kevin5brown Analog or bust.

    Here are some pictures of my 1979 Les Paul KM that my buddy took during his swap of the stock pickups and electronics for Lollar Imperial High Winds, orange caps, CTS pots, etc:

    http://s429.photobucket.com/user/antimoo/media/79 Les Paul Lollar pup Upgrade/IMG_1405.jpg.html

    Yes, I got a good one. :)

    And here are some pictures of my buddy's 1978 standard: also a good one:

    http://s429.photobucket.com/user/antimoo/media/Lester Pix/IMG_0919.jpg.html

    He has his own luthier's business, so when he says a guitar is a keeper, you can bank on it. Gibson might have made some bad ones in the Norlin era, but these two aren't one of them!
     
  17. hogdaddy

    hogdaddy Active Member

    Location:
    alabama
  18. Brudy

    Brudy Senior Member

    Location:
    Portland
    I have a '75ish LP deluxe that my dad bought me in about 1985 for $200 for my birthday. The store had been embezzled and they were selling everything for what they could get for it. I still have it today and it's the one guitar I'll never sell. I've had a bunch of other Norlin era SG's and LPs, including a LP custom, all of which were totally serviceable and fine. The custom, like others have mentioned, weighed a freakin ton. In the 80's these could be had relatively cheaply and once I managed to save for one, I could easily trade it straight up for others (which is how I went through a bunch of LP's). I wouldn't say they were magic like some other Gibsons I've had, but they were all nice guitars.
     
  19. kevin5brown

    kevin5brown Analog or bust.

  20. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I have a black with gold hardware 1976 Gibson Explorer. I bought it brand new as NOS in 1978. It sounds and plays killer. It's a "fretless wonder" too.

    [​IMG]
     
    squittolo likes this.
  21. kozy814

    kozy814 Forum Resident

    Working on restoring a Norlin Kalamzoo Les Paul. My best guess based on the features is that this one is a 1970-72. My plan is to make it a blacktop standard with Stew-Mac Parsons Street Golden Age vintage style HW. I can post some project photos if anybody would like to see...
     
  22. GuildX700

    GuildX700 Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Pics are ALWAYS fun. Please post your progress.
     
  23. RelayerNJ

    RelayerNJ Forum Resident

    Location:
    Whippany, NJ
    How much have you compared this era of Gibsons from other eras?
     
  24. kozy814

    kozy814 Forum Resident

    QUOTE="GuildX700, post: 10825467, member: 46635"]Pics are ALWAYS fun. Please post your progress.[/QUOTE]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
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  25. kozy814

    kozy814 Forum Resident

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    [​IMG]
     
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