By Walter Carter

Adventures in Archives, No. 5

Loose ends from 1958

What started as a leisurely, chronological stroll through the Gibson ledger books, beginning in 1936, took a jump into the 1958 ledger a few columns back. Then, one thing led to another. The search for a sunburst Les Paul led to a cherry red Les Paul and then to what might have been the first Flying V, the first ES-335 and the first doubleneck guitar - - all in the same shipment. A turn of the page put us unexpectedly into early 1961, leaving an unexplained gap of a year-and-a-half in the shipping ledgers. Now we're about to get caught up in Epi cellos, Espey organ amplifiers and a confusing array of red and green ink.

But first back to the question we ended with in the last column: Was that "Dbl. neck Mandolin" (no doubt an EMS-1235, with standard six-string neck and short-scale six-string neck) of Feb. 21, 1958 the very first one?

This little search is going to be easier than usual, because all the special guitars in this area of the book are underlined in red--for example, a Les Paul Custom with Bigsby, an ES-125 with black finish, or a left-handed model. Some entire entries are in red ink, and they are all identified as returns or repairs. In addition, there's green ink, apparently for Epiphones. But already I'm sidetracked.

Back to the doubleneck search. On Jan. 7, 1958, the entry reads: "DN Gtr W Mandolin neck." Again, this is almost certainly the short-scale guitar neck. It was shipped to B.A. Rose Music. The book goes as far back as Nov. 27, 1957, and the previous book is missing, but Gibson's shipping totals show 1958 as the first year, so it appears that this one, on Jan. 7, is in fact the very first one. No serial number is listed, which leads to another entry:

• On June 30, 1958, there's a Les Paul Special, noted as having "no number." Gibsons occasionally turn up with no serial number and no evidence of having been refinished. It's hard to believe that Gibson knowingly would have sent out guitars in the '50s without a number, but there's the evidence.

Now for the green ink. On Feb. 20, 1958 seven Epiphone basses are entered, all in green ink. I had thought maybe they were returns, since Gibson had a lot of trouble producing Epi basses after Gibson's purchase of Epi in 1957. Also, some Epi basses had been either returned or recalled from dealers after the sale to Gibson. But then I came across an Epi bass from L.D. Heater on Feb. 12, clearly marked as a return, so it appears that these other entries actually were shipments of old Epi stock. In addition to the basses, a pair of Van Eps bridges--Epi's high-end bass bridges--were sent out to St. Louis Music Supply on Jan. 21. There were, to be sure, plenty of returns of old-stock basses. On Feb. 5, Jenkins Music (a distributor) sent four back. Two more came in on Feb. 12--one from Johns Music and one from Best Music.

With all the Epiphone entries apparently in green ink, it's easy to get a picture of Gibson's Epiphone business in the first part of 1958. And it wasn't a pretty picture. Along with Epi's good name, Gibson acquired Epi's guarantee. As early as Dec. 3, 1957, Gibson shipped out an FT Deluxe, an Epi high-end flat top--but not a new one from existing stock. The entry was clearly marked as a repair. As far as this ledger book goes (through June 1958), the only Epiphone guitars Gibson was able to ship out were the ones Gibson had taken in as repairs. The only shipments of new instruments were basses, and for the record, all had a serial number lower than 400.

One more green entry is quite odd: June 16: "Epi Kay cello," sent to CMI. Did Epi supply basses to Kay? Or vice versa? There exists an internal memo comparing Epi bass prices to Kay prices. Was this going to be Epi's answer to the Kay, student-level cello? Your guess is as good as mine.

Here are a few more interesting sights from the 1958 ledger:

• May 28, listed just under the special-finish Les Pauls: "New flat top Gtr Mahog no numb." The Hummingbird will not be introduced until 1960, but Gibson president Ted McCarty had a maple-body Martin-style (square shouldered) dreadnought, the Frontier, on the drawing board for Epiphone line as early as February 1958. The Epi Texan, a round-shouldered mahogany dreadnought, was also on that same drawing board, but would the Epi Texan have been noted as a "new flat top?" It was essentially just a Gibson J-45. Maybe this guitar is a mahogany prototype of the Texan, or maybe it's the first hatching of the Hummingbird.

• Another red Les Paul. "LP 8-1782 Cherry Red" on Mar. 20 1958. It was a red Les Paul that got us sidetracked into 1958 two columns ago. Since then, I've been asked about a black Standard. I haven't seen any yet.

• Jan. 8, 1958. "3 Clav concert, 2-181, 3-290, 1-95, 3 Clav amp concert." These are Claviolines, an obscure, French-made, pre-synthesizer keyboard that used actual tapes of instruments.

• Feb. 14, 1958. RB-250 #7-5709-87. RB stands for Regular Banjo, which was Gibson's term for a five-string. Banjos in the 1950s did not get a label with an A-series number, and serial numbers from the 1950s have been a mystery. Entire banjo production in the 1950s was only about 3700, which is a pitifully small sample for study when compared to over 270,000 guitars Gibson made in the same period. But with a few more entries, a pattern emerges. Four RB-250s were entered on Jan. 27, all with serial number configuration 7-5709 plus two more numbers. The last numbers go as high as 87. Other banjos from the late 1957 and early 1958 have a single digit prefix, never higher than 7. It appears that, as with solidbody guitars, the first digit of the banjo serial number is the last digit of the year. In other words, 7=1957. Also, the final two digits poke a hole in the theory of factory order numbers (FONs) that stated Gibson always numbered instruments in batches of 40.

And, for those who want to know everything.... Does your National guitar look like a Gibson? Does your Harmony have pickups that look like Gibsons? Does your Estey Organ amplifier have that vague look of a Gibson amp? Here's why:

• Dec. 16, 1957. 35 bodies to Valco; 493 fingerboards to Valco on Jan. 17, 1958. (Gibson's supply of parts to Valco, makers of National guitars, has already been documented in an earlier column.)

• Dec. 3, 1957. "50 pickups 6765" (probably a part number) to Harmony; 50 more on Dec. 6; 50 more on Dec. 16.

• Dec. 9, 1957. 45 1/10 yards of Lunite Grill Cloth to Estey Organ Corp. Does your vintage Estey organ have Gibson grille cloth?

Walter Carter is Gibson's historian. Through his work at Gibson as well as his library of published work, Carter has earned a worldwide reputation as an authority on fretted instruments.