Arch D. Bunker
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2015
- Messages
- 328
Somewhere in the local classifieds a ‘Gibson guitar’ turned up, a real nice looking 1964 Hummingbird but with a L5 fingerboard. So it had to be modded along the way, right? Since the guitar looked to be in great condition, that did not seem to make sense though. After some searching it turned out that a small batch of these with the L5 boards were actually made in 1964. There also was a very recent vid from Norman’s where they were showing another one, in ridiculous condition. Norm had no less than three of these at one point – one, pictured in Norm’s first photo book, was later sold to Tom Petty.
Now that got me going – for some reason I had overlooked early ‘60s Gibson acoustics. I owned a ’64 J45 for a couple of weeks that I flipped because of a repaired headstock crack and some other stuff which had not been reported by the seller, but kept remembering how great it sounded. Plus those acoustic Gibson sounds on sixties records are embedded in the aural DNA of old geezers like me. Keith’s own ’64 Hummingbird was used in composing and recording many Stones hits, including Street Fighting Man, Jumping Jack, Sympathy, Angie, you name it.
The asking price in the ad looked high, but actually was a great deal after looking at the very steep historic selling prices of the few rare ‘Lummingbirds’ that I could find. After a call with the seller we eventually reached a deal. He did not want to ship the guitar, and graciously offered to take a seven hour train trip (!) to meet me. He had bought the Bird in 1978 in LA in hopes of learning to play guitar. That did not really work out, but he kept the guitar during the following decades in the new red-lined Gibson case he bought for it.
When he opened the case, I noticed that though the guitar was full of grime and the neck had a slight concave bow, it was still in great condition. It also sounded beyond my expectations in spite of the old strings and bowed neck – the unmistakable big body Gibson sound, booming bass and singing trebles. We closed the deal and went out for quite a few drinks and dinner, and had a great time. It tuned out that the 78-year old seller and I had been born and raised in the same city before moving around the globe, so we had a lot a stories to exchange. If only all guitar deals were like this (sorry for the suboptimal pics, taken before cleaning and neck tweaks - it plays great now).
Here’s a clip of Tom Petty playing his Lummingbird during his last live show, a week before his passing.
Now that got me going – for some reason I had overlooked early ‘60s Gibson acoustics. I owned a ’64 J45 for a couple of weeks that I flipped because of a repaired headstock crack and some other stuff which had not been reported by the seller, but kept remembering how great it sounded. Plus those acoustic Gibson sounds on sixties records are embedded in the aural DNA of old geezers like me. Keith’s own ’64 Hummingbird was used in composing and recording many Stones hits, including Street Fighting Man, Jumping Jack, Sympathy, Angie, you name it.
The asking price in the ad looked high, but actually was a great deal after looking at the very steep historic selling prices of the few rare ‘Lummingbirds’ that I could find. After a call with the seller we eventually reached a deal. He did not want to ship the guitar, and graciously offered to take a seven hour train trip (!) to meet me. He had bought the Bird in 1978 in LA in hopes of learning to play guitar. That did not really work out, but he kept the guitar during the following decades in the new red-lined Gibson case he bought for it.
When he opened the case, I noticed that though the guitar was full of grime and the neck had a slight concave bow, it was still in great condition. It also sounded beyond my expectations in spite of the old strings and bowed neck – the unmistakable big body Gibson sound, booming bass and singing trebles. We closed the deal and went out for quite a few drinks and dinner, and had a great time. It tuned out that the 78-year old seller and I had been born and raised in the same city before moving around the globe, so we had a lot a stories to exchange. If only all guitar deals were like this (sorry for the suboptimal pics, taken before cleaning and neck tweaks - it plays great now).
Here’s a clip of Tom Petty playing his Lummingbird during his last live show, a week before his passing.
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