That Gibson Super 400....

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 24 Dec 2009 9:36 am

In fairness to Ivor and his 'Showman' thread, I thought I post any further developments elsewhere.

Here's the guitar as it appears on the Hard Rock Cafe's website (funny: no mention of me owning it for thirty years!

)
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I've just noticed - the bridge has been moved.
It's too near the tailpiece!!! Who did that? (Not me!)
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Here's a cheesy band picture from the late 1960s...

Here's singer Eden Kane strumming the Gibson at the Cabaret Club in Liverpool (1963). I see I've been relegated to back-up vocals here...

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 24 Dec 2009 10:20 am

Roger, is that your guitar played in this song?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=995hhmsm ... re=related

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 24 Dec 2009 11:07 am

I can't tell - I'll ask Al next chance I get.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 24 Dec 2009 5:46 pm

I had a 1955 model in natural with P90s. I bought it from a collector who got it after being busted up by UPS. Paid $275 for it. I took my time and repaired all the cracks and replaced all the missing parts and sold it for about $7000 on Ebay. I liked that guitar in the studio, but live it was just too danged big and unwieldy to play. Like hanging on to a big woman. Just could not man handle her like I wanted to!

.
Beautiful guitars though.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 26 Dec 2009 11:52 am

This saga gets even more convoluted. After telling a good friend of mine back in the UK (a guitar aficionado and collector himself, and the original founder of 'Hank's Guitars' in Denmark Street) about how the Super 400 has resurfaced, he immediately countered with the news that there was a re-run on TV just a few night s ago, and there I was - playing the guitar in question!

By the '90s I'd long since retired the Gibson, opting instead for Telecasters for almost everything. However, I was, among other things, doing TV work with UK comedian/singer Freddie Starr, and he had got the TV company to fly the Jordannaires over for the recording, as Fred was going to sing 'King Creole'.

I couldn't let the opportunity pass, and dug out the Super 400 so I could try and replicate Scotty Moore's solo from the record.....

Here's a sort-of 'capture' of it...

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 26 Dec 2009 8:26 pm

Wicked stuff, Roger!

Not to drift again, but....what's up with that three-pickup Gibson next to yours in the late '60s photo? What model is that?

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 27 Dec 2009 3:57 am

Hi, Chris

That's a Gibson ES-5 Switchmaster. They were a cheaper option back then having a laminate top and back (the 400, the L-5 and the Johnny Smith signature models all had carved top and back). The ES-5 also has a rosewood fingerboard as opposed to the ebony on the high-end ones.

Cheap is relative, of course, but the ES-5 was £225 in the UK in 1960, while my Super 400 was £475. I have seen some sinking of the tops on ES-5s in recent years (due to the plywood?), but they're now very desirable. I had a '59 one myself in the '80s, but sold it on. That's Brian Hodgson with his 1960 ES-5 - Brian is now bass-player with Albert Lee & Hogan's Heroes, and he no longer has the Gibson.

Chris LeDrew · Post by **Chris LeDrew** » 27 Dec 2009 11:27 am

Thanks, Roger. I never heard of that model before.

Bill Fisher · Post by **Bill Fisher** » 27 Dec 2009 1:46 pm

The "Byrdland" was a carved front and back guitar; only thinner. Right?

Bill

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 27 Dec 2009 1:59 pm

Right, Bill - I forgot that one.

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 27 Dec 2009 6:14 pm

The ES-5 was the top of the line in the ES series, back in the '50s. They were in production from '49 till '62, and Gibson just started making a "reissue" ES-5.
The laminated tops, were supposed to help with feedback (that's what Gibson said), but all it did was make for an inferior instrument and bring the resale value down.

The first ones had the P90s with three volume knobs and one master tone. Then in '55 they went with a volume and tone for each pickup and a 4-way selector switch.

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 27 Dec 2009 8:30 pm

The "Byrdland" was a carved front and back guitar; only thinner. Right?

And has a shorter scale. (23.5" I believe)

That is a really nice looking S -400, Roger. Surely there are a few regrets on your part even if a Telecaster is more economical "tool"!

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 28 Dec 2009 5:30 am

A few regrets??? You bet - especially as I can now no longer recall what I did with all the money I got for it!

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 28 Dec 2009 6:34 am

Having said that, I must stress that, even if I had the Gibson back, I'd still be taking a Telecaster out to work. It was never, of course, about economics, but because, more and more, the players that were influencing me were using Teles. I'd originally been star-struck by that 400 - 'Wow! A guitar just like Scotty Moore's!!!', and no power on earth could have swayed me from buying it. (At that time - 1961 - I could have bought a new Tele for £120 - one quarter of what the Gibson cost me.)

To be truthful I always found the Super 400 a bit of a handful (I think Bill Hatcher said the same earlier). It needs heavier strings if you're not going to compromise its tone, and it's physically too big as well.

When I switched to my first Telecaster in '71 and put the Gibson away, I found the new guitar so liberating, and my playing seemed to make a quantum leap! It was sobering to realise that I'd been playing the wrong type of guitar for nearly ten years!

As we all know, Telecasters rule! But I'd still like to have my old Gibson back - just so I could admire it again at first-hand....