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Topic: Unusual Gibson inlay |
Noah Miller
From:
Rocky Hill, CT
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 12:32 pm |
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I just acquired a nice old EH-125. Interestingly, the peghead inlay is different from either of the two mentioned on this model in Duchossoir's book. Even more interestingly, the inlay is closest to that found on a couple of higher-end banjos, the TB-12 and TB-18. However, the inlay on this steel isn't quite identical to those banjos; it's a bit more crude and has an extra step at the top. The Gibson logo is similarly crude. However, it's not quite a one-off. There is a perfectly identical inlay on this banjo, whose owner notes has a non-standard inlay.
I'm wondering if Gibson lost their inlay person to the draft and both my steel and that banjo were done by the "new kid". The nut slot is also cut a little too wide, which allows the nut to lean back a bit (but doesn't seem to cause a problem).
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 12:46 pm
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What's the batch number on your EH-125, Noah? I have two 1943 EH-125s that were purchased as carcasses. They both have the "fleur-de-lis" peghead inlay. One is from batch number F-7317, and the other is from batch number F-7318, which Duchossoir states is the "highest batch number earmarked for EH-125s... of the prewar era."
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Noah Miller
From:
Rocky Hill, CT
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 12:51 pm
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| The batch # is E3815. |
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Brad Davis
From:
Texas, USA
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 12:54 pm
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| Cool, probably a late pre-war model, possibly unique. I always loved the new art deco style on the RB-18. Although they made an effort Gibson was never too much of a stickler for adhering to the catalog style if there were other available parts and materials around. |
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Andy DePaule
From:
Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 4:34 pm Sloppy Inlays
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Many older Gibson and other name brands too had instruments with very sloppy inlay work.
Back in the day they let loads of bad work go by.
We often see inlays that were broken as they were installed as well as just plain poorly cut designs.
We re-produce a lot of the older inlays and sell them on our web site, but we do them much better than the original ones. www.luthiersupply.com
Very cool Noah, I didn't know they did a 7 string version of those.
BTW Jack, got the fretboards back today so just need to file the edges smooth now and ship them to you. Lighting reflections in my kitchen hard to avoid.
Hope you'll like them.... Seem to me like an improvement over the one you sent.
Best wishes,
Andy 
_________________
Inlaid Star Guitar 2006 by Mark Giles. SD-10 4+5 in E9th; http://luthiersupply.com/instrument-gallery.html
2017 Mullen SD-10, G2 5&5 Polished Aluminum covering. Custom Build for me. Great Steel.
Clinesmith Joaquin Murphy style Aluminum 8 String Lap Steel Short A6th.
Magnatone Jeweltone Series Lap Steel, Circa 1950? 6 String with F#minor7th Tuning.
1956 Dewey Kendrick D-8 4&3, Restoration Project.
1973 Sho~Bud Green SD-10 4&5 PSG, Restoration Project. |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 5:42 pm
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| Noah Miller wrote: |
| The batch # is E3815. |
Thanks, Noah. The "E" prefix would seem to indicate an earlier manufacturing date than my pair. On page 150 of his book, Duchossoir wrote "E3815-16 is an EH-125 from 1941."
As Andy suggests, 7-string EH-125s may be somewhat scarce. Could that style inlay be unique to the 7-strings? |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 5:46 pm Re: Sloppy Inlays
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| Andy DePaule wrote: |
BTW Jack, got the fretboards back today so just need to file the edges smooth now and ship them to you. Lighting reflections in my kitchen hard to avoid.
Hope you'll like them.... Seem to me like an improvement over the one you sent. |
Andy, they're beautiful! If they look half as good in person as they do in the photo, I shall be ecstatic. Can hardly wait! |
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Andy DePaule
From:
Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 6:05 pm Re: Sloppy Inlays
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[/quote]Andy, they're beautiful! If they look half as good in person as they do in the photo, I shall be ecstatic. Can hardly wait![/quote]
Yup, they came out real nice...
_________________
Inlaid Star Guitar 2006 by Mark Giles. SD-10 4+5 in E9th; http://luthiersupply.com/instrument-gallery.html
2017 Mullen SD-10, G2 5&5 Polished Aluminum covering. Custom Build for me. Great Steel.
Clinesmith Joaquin Murphy style Aluminum 8 String Lap Steel Short A6th.
Magnatone Jeweltone Series Lap Steel, Circa 1950? 6 String with F#minor7th Tuning.
1956 Dewey Kendrick D-8 4&3, Restoration Project.
1973 Sho~Bud Green SD-10 4&5 PSG, Restoration Project. |
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Todd Clinesmith
From:
Lone Rock Free State Oregon
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 6:31 pm
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| Todd Clinesmith wrote: |
Sorry to detract but Andy your photo has all a man needs to survive... Penut Butter, Jerry Byrd and The Constitution ...
Besides that, I am always interested in what stones Noah is turning over.... |
Haha! I can think of one or two other things, but yeah--unless I was trying to survive in another country!
Noah is quite the detective.
_________________
http://www.steelinstruction.com/
http://mikeneer.com |
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Andy DePaule
From:
Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 7:14 pm Penut Butter, Jerry Byrd and The Constitution
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| Todd Clinesmith wrote: |
Sorry to detract but Andy your photo has all a man needs to survive... Penut Butter, Jerry Byrd and The Constitution ...
Besides that, I am always interested in what stones Noah is turning over.... |
I don't know Noah, but can see he has the eye for good guitars.
The rest sounds about right to me, but my lovely girlfriend being a great cook and a good cuddle is another big plus.
The Constitution is one of the most incredible documents ever written in my opinion. The Pro and Anti Federalist papers leading up to it for the full understanding. And those guys never had a peanut butter sandwich, but I'd bet Jerry ate plenty. Now I also should not steal the thread.  
_________________
Inlaid Star Guitar 2006 by Mark Giles. SD-10 4+5 in E9th; http://luthiersupply.com/instrument-gallery.html
2017 Mullen SD-10, G2 5&5 Polished Aluminum covering. Custom Build for me. Great Steel.
Clinesmith Joaquin Murphy style Aluminum 8 String Lap Steel Short A6th.
Magnatone Jeweltone Series Lap Steel, Circa 1950? 6 String with F#minor7th Tuning.
1956 Dewey Kendrick D-8 4&3, Restoration Project.
1973 Sho~Bud Green SD-10 4&5 PSG, Restoration Project. |
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Andy DePaule
From:
Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon
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Posted 27 Mar 2018 7:18 pm Me too!
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| Mike Neer wrote: |
| Haha! I can think of one or two other things |
Me too! But not for this thread....
_________________
Inlaid Star Guitar 2006 by Mark Giles. SD-10 4+5 in E9th; http://luthiersupply.com/instrument-gallery.html
2017 Mullen SD-10, G2 5&5 Polished Aluminum covering. Custom Build for me. Great Steel.
Clinesmith Joaquin Murphy style Aluminum 8 String Lap Steel Short A6th.
Magnatone Jeweltone Series Lap Steel, Circa 1950? 6 String with F#minor7th Tuning.
1956 Dewey Kendrick D-8 4&3, Restoration Project.
1973 Sho~Bud Green SD-10 4&5 PSG, Restoration Project. |
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Noah Miller
From:
Rocky Hill, CT
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Posted 28 Mar 2018 3:09 am
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| Jack Hanson wrote: |
| Noah Miller wrote: |
| The batch # is E3815. |
Thanks, Noah. The "E" prefix would seem to indicate an earlier manufacturing date than my pair. On page 150 of his book, Duchossoir wrote "E3815-16 is an EH-125 from 1941."
As Andy suggests, 7-string EH-125s may be somewhat scarce. Could that style inlay be unique to the 7-strings? |
Whoa - I totally missed that line in the book. I just came across another relevant quote on page 68: "The first batch of EH-125 (#E3815) was delivered from July 1941..."
Apparently it's one of the first, so maybe Gibson didn't settle on the "standard" inlay for a little while. Maybe they even tried out a few different inlays within the same batch. |
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Andy DePaule
From:
Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon
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Posted 28 Mar 2018 5:36 am
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[quote="Noah Miller"][quote="Jack Hanson"]
| Noah Miller wrote: |
| Apparently it's one of the first, so maybe Gibson didn't settle on the "standard" inlay for a little while. Maybe they even tried out a few different inlays within the same batch. |
I've seen many examples like that in instruments they built prior to about 1950.
Happened in guitars, banjos and steels. Even a few mandolins didn't have the expected inlays. Perhaps they were doing tests or maybe they even took custom orders back then, but I somehow doubt that they did custom work except maybe for big name artists?
I'm no Gibson expert, just know what I do from re-producing the inlays.
Have even had luthiers ask us to make very rough cut inlays so they could make an instrument look more "Vintage". Lucky to find that 7 string
_________________
Inlaid Star Guitar 2006 by Mark Giles. SD-10 4+5 in E9th; http://luthiersupply.com/instrument-gallery.html
2017 Mullen SD-10, G2 5&5 Polished Aluminum covering. Custom Build for me. Great Steel.
Clinesmith Joaquin Murphy style Aluminum 8 String Lap Steel Short A6th.
Magnatone Jeweltone Series Lap Steel, Circa 1950? 6 String with F#minor7th Tuning.
1956 Dewey Kendrick D-8 4&3, Restoration Project.
1973 Sho~Bud Green SD-10 4&5 PSG, Restoration Project.
Last edited by Andy DePaule on 28 Mar 2018 9:14 am; edited 1 time in total |
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David Ball
From:
North Carolina High Country
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Posted 28 Mar 2018 9:08 am
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Please forgive my use of the "B" word, but the quality of inlay on prewar Gibson banjos is all over the board. We have an annual event in East Tennessee known as the "Banjothon." It's a reunion of sorts for prewar Gibson banjos, although a few Loar mandolins, guitars, etc. have made their way too in recent years.
Getting to see several hundred prewar Gibsons in one place gives a good opportunity to see first hand how bad some of the inlay work really was. The Gibson script is frequently found inlaid into a big rectangular cavity of filler--invisible when the black stain is on the front of the peghead, but clearly visible if the neck is being refinished.
To my eye, none of Gibson's inlay work was anywhere close to the masterful stuff that the Boston area put out at its prime, but your lap steel is nowhere near the bottom of the pile in terms of inlay quality. But just like on the banjos of the era, the inlay quality had nothing to do with the overall quality of the instrument. The inlay on your lap steel looks pretty much the same as some of the top tension banjos of the same era.
Just my .02
http://guitars.com/sites/default/features-archive/tb12-18/JE2661h.jpg
Dave |
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