c7sus or other vintage gibson people

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gibs

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This has been bugging me recently.....I bought a red guitar (used) in about 1975 from a music store...it was a Gibson, very sweet red color, but not really like the heritage version....it looked like an SG, BUT the horns were perfectly symmetrical (one was NOT higher)....

now...I bought the thing for 100 bucks, and sold it because I was broke about 8 months later for 100 bucks, but I always regretted selling it...one good friend of mine who was pretty serious about guitars, didn't know what it was, but thought there may have been some sort of transitional period between the les paul and the SG that might account for the horns......he also said maybe it was perhaps a prototype of a junior, but I didn't think so, because it had two pickups....

Has anybody seen or heard about such a thing?....and if you have, it's mine and I want it back:D...seriously, it played sweet and was kinda smallish with a great neck.....gibs
 
Gibs, I had a guitar very much like that, a Gibson, cant remamber the model, maybe and SG200. It wasnt an SG, had
two pickups, kinda like single coils? SG body. Black pickups
coverd. I think it had two swithces, long time ago.
 
Almost sounds like a Melody Maker. I've got an early '60s model. It's a double cut away (both horns are symetrical), cherry finish with a single, single pole pickup (although I've seen them with two pickups). Just a possibility.
 
(sorry c7sus, I remembered a post of yours about your 57 LP, hence, the vintage connection)

Hey thanks all...I wish I had taken a photo of the thing, or at least written down the serial number....it's "the one that got away" I guess......gibs
 
Quite possibly a Les Paul Special,as Tom Hicks guessed,although the TV models weren't red...they were the butterscotch color (also known as "wheat").Les Paul needed something to use on TV for the Listerine commercials that wouldn't glare in the lights,so the yellowish color was brought in.Good call,Tom.
 
This is great info, although it sorta makes me disgruntled to know I let it go...."Gibson" was all that was printed on it....so does anybody know why "Les Paul" wasn't printed somewhere on it?....damn......damn.....I feel so stupid, particularly since that guitar was so sweet..........but I was also really poor and needed to support my food habit....damn......gibs
 
Les's contract with gibson was just up at the time,so the TV Special and the SG (Solid Guitar was the project name)never got legal permission to put "Les Paul" on the headstock.

Tom
 
Les Paul Special - Mmmmmm!

The Les Paul Special was introduced in a regular 'LP' shape in 1955 with a 'limed mahogany' finish, which is a sort of see-through yellowy wheat color. This is also referred to as the 'TV' finish, allegedly because it showed up better on the black-and-white only televisons of the day.

It went to what collector's call the 'double-cut, not SG' shape in 1958 (although not released in any quantity until 1959).
The double-cut version was a slab mahogany body (no maple cap or contouring on the top) with two P-90 pickups, one of which was mounted so close to the neck joint that it was very unstable and many guitars broke there. Gibson moved the neck pickup back and also moved the pickup selector switch from above the controls to in front of the controls for easier access later in 1959.

The neck has dot inlays and is wide and flat, typical of the period.

The bridge is a standard Gibson wrap around.

They also added a deep cherry red finish to the 'limed mahogany' finish, which became more opaque and creamy colored.

The true SG shape came along in mid-1961.

The 'Les Paul' name was removed from the headstock early in it's history, probably late 1959 or early 1960.

This instrument was also made available in a 3/4 size.

It's a great guitar!

foo
 
PAPicker, the second url above is close....but two pick ups and no trem bar, and the pick guard was smaller I think, and not white...that shade of red is real close if not it, though....mine said "Gibson", can't tell what that one says....also, the horns don't look perfectly symmetrical as mine did.....they were more like the one in the upper url....except sorta beveled like the ones in the lower url...confusing but true....gibs
 
We have a third on the Melody Maker-- they were inexpensive solid bodies and frequently were fitted with a one-piece intonated metal bridge/tailpiece a lot like the second issue goldtops. (Damn, I sound informed, don't I?) I played with a guy in Austin 30 years ago who had one, he's probably not there any more, but he used to live off Red River....
John
 
Gibs that second pic looks alot like the one I had also which had no tremolo, exact same horn style, the pickus had
covers with no screws or poles and it was a natural brown.
For some reason SG200 sticks in my head allthough noone else
mentioned it, was there such a guitar? Also Les Paul something ? seems to ring a bell, if I think long and hard enough I might come up with the name of the one I had.
Does anyone out there know if there was a guitar called and
SG200, now I am curious. I was so whaked out back then I dont even know what I did with that guitar.
 
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