jb_abides
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2005
- Messages
- 5,276
We welcome whatever stories and photos you bring here, Strings Jr! :salude
Same cutaway as the Heritage 80 series.Very cool!
The headstock inlay on the Les Paul Custom your pop is working on looks unusual, like an RD Artist, maybe?
Also, that cut looks like a good 'n pointy cut-away on the "Les Paul 59/80"! I don't think actually I've seen one of those in person. :hmm
Another great post1 Thank you!
Very cool!
The headstock inlay on the Les Paul Custom your pop is working on looks unusual, like an RD Artist, maybe?
Also, that cut looks like a good 'n pointy cut-away on the "Les Paul 59/80"! I don't think actually I've seen one of those in person. :hmm
Another great post1 Thank you!
Same cutaway as the Heritage 80 series.
Good eye!! I always thought it was a Custom too, but it's actually a LP Artist.
You can barely see the TP-6 and mini-switches.
That IS the Heritage 80 Series :salude
I ran across this old Gibson employee newsletter dated March / April 1980.
Seemed appropriate to share it in this thread since the photo at the bottom right is my Dad in the same sound booth shown in many of the photos in this thread.
Here's another photo on the inside. Alf Fidler introducing the new "59/80" at an all-employee meeting. Pretty neat to see 40 years later!!
I would like to know how the drying ovens "improve our finish" and "improve operations in the buffing (and repair) areas". Fast drying times = faster throughput, sure. But hype on the rest?
That IS the Heritage 80 Series :salude
I’m not a “finish” guy, and I’m not going to pretend to know the specifics of how the new ovens improved the finish. All I know is that the Finishing Department was always the “bottleneck” of the entire process. We were constantly running out of work in Final Assembly due to issues they were having in Finishing / Buffing. It seemed to have gotten better after the new ovens were installed, but we still ran out of work a lot.
Speaking of the Finishing Department and their woes, I noticed in my notes that on this date, April 29th in 1986, there was a FIRE inside the plant. A maintenance guy was on the roof doing some welding near the exhaust vent for one of the repair spray booths. (duh) I remember seeing a flame shooting out from the repair booth about 20 feet across the floor. Looked like a dragon. No one was hurt, but several instruments were damaged, and the plant was shut down for three days. That was the second fire I saw at Gibson. The first happened when some nut put a rubber hose on a belt sander. The hose had a metal mesh inside and sparks went into the dust collection system. Not much damage from that one, but the plant looked like a smokey night club.
Sorry, didn't see your number. But thanks for asking. You never know.Thanks for the reply!
In 8 months it will be 40 years since I clapped eyes on my Heritage Std sn 82000572 series # 0138. Were you involved with that one?
I can't say for sure since the fire wasn't in Final Assembly. The one hanging in the repair booth at the time of the fire was toast. No doubt it went to the band-saw.I have to ask out of curiosity what happened to the instruments that were damaged ? Were they repaired/re fixed or did they go to the wood chipper ?
Thank you Randy,this is an awesome thread.I have an older model I wish I could have said it were one of yours, before your start though.Thanks for sharing this history with us,I love guitars and love trying to build a bit,I am not a pro by any means,(building or playing)still enjoy learning and trying.I only have built one so far, it is somewhat a strat kind of body with LP soul electronics inside,(although the new pcb board,not the old school mojo) and after I bought my first LP, and I really learned alot just from seeing and feeling a true work of beauty Gibson luthiers create. I have alot to learn.appreciate it.