manintherain
Group: Members.
Posts: 546
Joined: Mar. 2004 |
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Posted: Feb. 28 2006, 04:20 |
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Quote (yanouch65 @ Feb. 23 2006, 07:37) | Thank you manintherain!
I bought a Mike's guitar. It is the Gibson Les Paul jr SG 1961 with number 77138. Could you tell me if Mike had several Gibson 1961? The seller told me that it was used on Ommadawn! Is it true? If you have a couple of informations about it....it would be great!
Thank you |
Hi yanouch65.
What a fine guitar you bought. Congratulations!
Thank you very much for sharing the details of your guitar. Sorry, but my french isn´t good either.
Here are some more details:
The Les Paul Junior was completely re-designed in 1961. The familiar single-cutaway body style was dropped, and the new instruments featured a radical double-cutaway body with highly sculpted edges. Initially, Gibson retained the Les Paul name on the re-designed version: on the headstock of the Junior.
During 1963 Gibson dropped the Les Paul name from the re-designed Les Paul Junior, and in their literature gradually renamed these instruments as the SG Junior.
There are a number of different stories concerning the eventual removal of Les Paul´s name from the newly-designed Gibson ‚SG/Les Paul‘ models in 1963. Ted McCarty, still president of Gibson, says that it was done because of various factors which made the association with Les Paul less of a commercial bonus than it had been. The main reason why Les Paul´s name was dropped from Gibson guitars in 1963 relates to the divorce of Les Paul and Mary Ford. The contract ended in ’62. Paul also says that he didn´t like the design of the new SG/Les Paul models, and that this was an additional reason for the removal of his name from them. It´s this reason which has most often been given prominence.
During 1961 inked-on numbering was replaced by a method using digits actually stamped into the back of the headstock. At this time gibson introduced a new serialization system for all instruments. These numbers were supposed to be allocated in a strict sequence, but this did´nt happen in practice – and the fun started. Many instruments from the 1960s carry duplicated serial numbers, used not only twice but sometimes as many as six or seven times on different guitars.
The Serial numbers give a rough guide to some of the sequences that Gibson used and duplicated between 1961 and 1975. The serial number series are broken down into thousands or groups of thousands. The dates are approximate, and can only really be used to confirm a broad period already indicated by more solid clues from the model type of the guitar in question, ist construction style and the components it uses.
71,000s to 99,000s 1962-1963
So your SG/Les Paul Junior is more likely to be a 1962 model rather than a 1961!
I haven´t figured out the differences yet to the other SG/Les Paul Junior which later became the ‚Gibsynth‘ (around 1979/1980), and which has been declared by Mike and Chandler as a 1963 model. One of these two has been used for the recording of Ommadawn in replacement for the 1966 SG Junior which Mike used for the recording of Hergest Ridge and which later got stolen at the Beacon (around 1975).
GIBSON SHIPPING TOTALS for ‚SG/Les Paul‘ Junior models:1961 2151 (includes some Les Paul Junior models); 1962 2395; 1963 2318 (includes some SG Junior models).
Hope that helps a little bit.
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