Gibson '64-65 Tbirds...Custom Colors

[Dave W]

(children are coughing and spluttering, running to their parents with tears streaming from their eyes, inconsolable with grief, all across the Mid West)

Dave, next you'll be inferring that Santa is a ficticious figure and his workshop is (tax deductably) not based at (or in the region of) the North Pole...

[mc2NY]

But (in a voice filled with anxiety) won't Big Bird (a non-income tax payer if I've ever seen one!) be out of a job very soon once the Latter Day Bain has taken over?!!!!

Yes...."evil" Bain Capital...without them, the entire U.S. musical equipment/audio/DJ industry might collapse, should they go out of business and close up their network:

Guitar Center and it's sister companies/subsidiaries incorporate Music & Arts, Musician's Friend, GuitarCenter.com, LMI, Giardinelli, Musician.com, Private Reserve Guitars, Woodwind and Brasswind and Harmony Central.

If most manufacturers lost a major percentage of their sales in this ecomonty, they would likely go under.  Hard to think of Mitt Romney as holding up the music industry, no? Maybe explain that to the Occupy Wall Streeters banging on drums and playing guitars and kazoos. Would sort of suck protesting and having to bang on tree stumps and washtub basses instead (those are so hard to drag around....that is almost like real work.) The OWS folks would never walt to do real work...so, in cyclical reasoning....Bain Capital is supporting Occupy Wall Street!!

Romney should have used that argument in his debate...hahahaha.

[uwe]

"Guitar Center and it's sister companies/subsidiaries incorporate Music & Arts, Musician's Friend, GuitarCenter.com, LMI, Giardinelli, Musician.com, Private Reserve Guitars, Woodwind and Brasswind and Harmony Central."

Bain Capital holds stock in all of them? I didn't know they were so strong in retail as opposed to production. For the record: I have no issue with Romney's investment background (which on balance probably created more jobs than it cost, those companies were in the majority already sprawling before the raiders came) and he's probably the most intelligent, thoughtful and educated Republican candidate since Richard Nixon (who had his demons, but wasn't ignorant). (Now, if you wanted to say something nasty about modern US politics you could add that those three traits will make him lose the election right there!   ) That doesn't make me agree with his policies (whether adopted for convenience or out of conviction), but he's certainly a more qualified candidate than many before him. He's a decent guy, old-school middle-of-the-road conservative, worse things have happened.

And when I watched the 2nd debate I thought to myself that both men - if you take away the party rhethoric and their skin pigmentation - aren't such hugely opposed characters deep down inside. They're both brooders and careful (over-)analyzers. If Dems and Reps were forced into a coalition by some outside threat (Martians!!!), those two "decent guys" could probably do it and get along in one administration.

Those who know me know where my preferences lie, but the currently close race doesn't have me lose sleep. And that 2nd debate was in fact entertaining as both men offered more substance (not too much of course, hey, they are both schooled and well-oiled politicians!   ) than you regularly see at these kinds of events. So in a perverse way both Obama and Romney demonstrate that the politcal system of the US - for all its inherent flaws - can still generate an incumbent and a candidate that you don't have to be aghast about even if you're in the other camp.  

[Bionic-Joe]

I found this picture on my computer and have no information at all about it.

Wow! I have 3 of those 5 basses in the exact same color scheme...

[the mojo hobo]

Did you do a black headstock on the Inverness NR?

[Stjofön Big]

That pic with 5 T-Birds came possibly from me. It belonged, in the beguinning, to two persons in my hometown, who's collecting all kinds of stuff connected to the rock scene, and sent that card for Christmas or something like it one year. Before I retired I worked as a reporter at a regional newspaper. Wrote about these collectors over two full - big, in those days - sides. Don't have it. Was foolish enough to think I'd have no interest in looking at the old stuff... How wrong one can be...

[Bionic-Joe]

Did you do a black headstock on the Inverness NR?

No sir. Same as the body.

[Pilgrim]

Dave needs a visit from the Good Beer Fairy.

[Dave W]

Bain owns 100% of GC stock, they took it private in 2007 (long after Mitt left Bain, BTW). GC had bought MF outright around the turn of the century. The other companies had been bought up either by MF or directly by GC by the time Bain took over.

GC has had a poor bond credit rating for the last 2 or 3 years. Moody's downgrades GC. That doesn't mean they will fail, though.

[Pilgrim]

Doesn't it still seem odd to write "the turn of the century"??  That gives me pause for a moment.

[mc2NY]

Bain Capital holds stock in all of them? I didn't know they were so strong in retail as opposed to production.

Yep....From Wikipedia:

On June 27, 2007, Guitar Center agreed to $1.9 billion buyout from Bain Capital, totaling $2.1 billion including debt. The deal was led by Goldman Sachs and amounted to a per-share price of $63, or a 26% premium on the June 26 closing price. The deal was approved by shareholders on September 18, 2007, and closed October 9, 2007.[8]

"Guitar Center is the largest chain of musical instrument retailers in the world[1] with over 200 locations[2] throughout the United States. Its headquarters is in Westlake Village, California.
Guitar Center's sister companies/subsidiaries incorporate Music & Arts, Musician's Friend, GuitarCenter.com, LMI, Giardinelli, Musician.com, Private Reserve Guitars, Woodwind and Brasswind and Harmony Central
In mid-2009 Guitar Center opened a rehearsal studio facility in Woodland Hills, California. The eight studios with full backline range in size from 350-550 square feet.
Guitar Center also hosts annual events such as the Drum Off, King of the Blues, contests, and artist appearances throughout the nation."

I think Bain Capital has been largely labeled as "job killers" largely for political spin. There are far more companies they have reorganized and saved than failed and closed. Just more political BS about "capitalism is evil."

I think the person who comes out as the biggest winner from this Presidential campaign is Mitt Romney's wife. After he's been coached and trained to finally come out of his quiet bubble and get more aggressive, his wife finally gets to switch out of 35 years of missionary position


***Man....This topic about Gibson Custom Colors sure has made some strange turns and weaves.....

Speaking of which...So, I'm thinking that the variances regarding painted neadstocks or black with just the rim painted must have been from orders of "custom color" or "custom color with matching headstock?"  That seems to make sense.  Or "custom color with a few beers for lunch," could also still be a possibility I guess?

Anyone here know any oldtimers who used to work at Gibson Kalamazoo back in the early 60s? I bought my black  Les Paul Signature from one, who was later a repair guy in the area. I may reach out to him to see what he remembers.

[Dave W]

Doesn't it still seem odd to write "the turn of the century"??  That gives me pause for a moment.

Well, we're already into the second decade. Gotta happen sometime.

[Highlander]

Perfect, Dave... just perfect...

[Dave W]

...
Anyone here know any oldtimers who used to work at Gibson Kalamazoo back in the early 60s? I bought my black  Les Paul Signature from one, who was later a repair guy in the area. I may reach out to him to see what he remembers.

Contact Jules (EvilLordJuju) either through here or his Vintage forum, he took a trip to Kalamazoo about three-four years ago and interviewed some of the old-timers. I think he plans to eventually post an article at Fly Guitar.

[uwe]

Well, we're already into the second decade. Gotta happen sometime.

Two more years to go for WW I reloaded! And 8 years more for the Roaring Twenties.

I think I'll take a 12 year sabbatical from Germany though come 2033.