I thought that one might have been an Anniversary model at first. Good looking bass.

John Lodge (1945)
Carlos Santana (1947)

Peter

Well, I can't find where I have it saved, and Google just dumps me down an endless - and useless - AI rabbithole, but....
There is an image out there that has a "banner" headstock - altered to read "Only a Gibson is overpriced enough".

I have stated elsewhere - and will stand by - that the biggest difference between Gibson & Epiphone these days is that the Epi SJ-200 is a fine $1500 instrument that you can buy for $750, while the Gibson version is a fine $2500 instrument that you can buy for $7500.......

I do love Gibsons (by which I mean, of course, guitars built in Kalamazoo; if I wanted a new Gibson now, I'd buy a Heritage), but they always were willing to throw in whatever was at hand, and have always regarded manufacturing goofs as opportunities for creative camouflage.

Peter (who marvels that their "Collector's Choice" series - in which they paint & damage Les Pauls to look like various famous LPs - actually sells; were he to have kind of guitar money he would be calling Mica)

We learned this tune as "Warfield". I'm sure they're the same... you just sang the lyrics between; 

C'mon boys, let's go to Warfield, 
c'mon boys, let's go to Warfield, 
c'mon boys let's go to Warfield, 
Nawgatuck's gone dry... 

(these are places in West Virginia and Kentucky if you're curious) 

I don't know my Gibson bits quite as well as I should partly because there's so much you can't possibly know. But I always thought that famous banner should have read; Never Can Tell With A Gibson.

They just didn't stick to rules and standards in Kalamazoo like they did in Nazareth. That isn't to say they built bad guitars, but there's definitely a difference. Look inside any late-30's Martin Dreadnought any late-30's Gibson Jumbo and this becomes obvious. A completely different mindset built those two guitars. That is reflected in what they fetch too, and that's not a knock on a J-35. I've played about a dozen. All but one were fantastic guitars. Carry it forward 25 years and look inside a Martin 000 vs. a Gibson LG and the same thing exists except brought forward a couple decades. Line up ten of the Martins, and they will generally be identical. Get ten of the Gibsons and two or three of them will have some different parts. Why? Just how it is. Or was. If there's something weird about a Gibson... wacky serial numbers, wrong bridge, extra binding, different rosette, couple extra dot inlays... you never can say for sure it didn't come that way. 

I'll just say this... if they got in a stack of Spanish cedar, and it suited the purpose of making Les Pauls, there's no reason to think they wouldn't have. 

Quote from: Nova Constellatio on Yesterday at 01:01:05 PMIt's like a turkey tail.

I would have said peacock tail.

Peter

Very nice harem. The single pickup version catches my eye.

Quote from: cozmik_cowboy on July 16, 2026, 10:42:53 PMEvangelina Mascardi:   


Peter

Great timing. I've just started re-learning this piece. I played it in my early twenties. Evangelina is amazing on a series of period stringed instruments.

I was elated to have received this product during my visit about a month ago. I took it to a rehearsal to test drive it, and it proves to be a solid addition to a new pedal board configuration that I am arranging. I have experimented with Alembic instruments and as well with passive non Alembic instruments. Passive non Alembic instruments attain before unknown sonic attributes in variations of sonic sculpting. I will be parring it with a clean active DI box yet to be determined, whereas I have been experimenting with variable possibilities. Alembic remains at the pinnacle of ultra-high end achievement in its field of products with this addition to the product line, that I have come across in my pursuits as a bassist since 1970.

So we got roped into doing this gig over the weekend.  never played this venue before, cheap gig, agent says it's good exposure.  the sound person was the bar manager who set the PA up and then left the tablet on stage for us to manage.  no sound man.  The temperature was 94^o (US) when hit the stage for a 4-hour show. at least it's a dry heat.. a bunch of 70-year-olds, some of us in sketchy health. what could possibly go wrnog?

i took the lightest (alembic) fretted pair i have  with the headless along for backup.  it just so happens that i can play our whole 2^nd set on a 4-string, so i took the dragonwing along for some public exposure.


if ya listen on headphones, it seems that somehow the sound girl mananaged to get my bass tone.  this has got to be the most JE sounding alembic i have, even more so than the series II (*gasp*).  at least in the FOH.  plus it's just a freaking blast to play.  not too heavy, balances perfectly.  just a knockout to look at.  i can tell ya that regressing backwards to a 4-string is tougher than it sounds.  i wouldn't have done it for any other bass.  except maybe a spyder.

so here ya have the dragonwing taking flight with the midnight rambler

https://youtu.be/cns_IlncFMQ?is=-loISGoY8t-eFP3K


Cheers!