Description
Here’s one of the rarest of all Gibson guitars – the Gibson Moderne, designed and registered in June 1957 but not put into production until 1982 as part of the Heritage Korina series!
Gibson's Heritage Korina series reproduced the Moderne, Flying V and Explorer, with the V and Explorer launching first in 1981 and the Moderne debuting at the 1982 Winter NAMM show.
In total, about 150 Moderne reissues were built and shipped before the Heritage Korina series was closed in 1983.
This Gibson Moderne Heritage Korina Reissue example has a G serial prefix and 1982 volume pot codes, dating it to late 1982 or very early 1983. The lettered serial prefixes ran from a to H over the life of the Heritage Korina series, with the following digits being batch numbers.
The guitar is in overall good shape but has two or three finish wear areas that have been touched up, there's a small amount of rivet rash on the back and a few small dents to the top. Fret wear is very light. The gold plating on the top ends of the ABR-1 bridge is worn, revealing that this guitar has been played, an unusual situation for an instrument aimed at collectors. It does play well and the body design allows for easy access to the higher frets. It's quite resonant and sounds great. The lower body notch has a total of three strap pins including an older Dunlop piece. The 'Gumby' headstock with its string pivot points allows for surprisingly smooth tuning.
The original, rectangular Gibson branded hard shell case is included, and contains the original (but broken) handle; a new handle has been fitted.
About the Moderne and its Siblings
As the end of the 1950’s approached, Gibson had to respond to the Fender juggernaut with flashy new products, and in 1957 President Ted McCarty and an in-house team developed three new designs. Two of these designs were presented at the July 1958 NAMM show, but the Moderne was abandoned.
(A few years later, McCarty met famed Detroit auto designer Ray Dietrich who had retired to Kalamazoo. McCarty attended an automotive styling talk Dietrich presented, and afterwards approached Dietrich about work on a new line, which became the 1963 Firebird guitar and Thunderbird bass).
These three designs, the Explorer, Flying V and Moderne were registered with the US Patent and Trade Mark Office during 1958. Only the Explorer and Flying V were put into production. However they were not successes, and fell off the catalog in a short time. It was decades before the Rock world caught onto them and other companies started using the designs, and Gibson put them back into production.
The Gibson Moderne, however, existed only in design or a vanishingly small number of prototypes – which did in fact vanish. The Moderne was a thing of legend until 1982, with the introduction of the ‘Heritage’ series and the Gibson Moderne Heritage. These were built as the originals were, using what Gibson named Korina, more commonly known as African Limba and technically named Terminalia Superba.
Materials and Construction
In addition to being rare, these reissue guitars were also expensive, targeted towards collectors and connoisseurs.
As with the originals, Korina was used for the body and neck, with an unbound Rosewood fingerboard. The neck is mostly three pieces for stability, with two small pieces to fill out the headstock profile. The headstock has a unique splayed design sometimes referred to as the 'Gumby' headstock from the Claymation character. To remove friction at the nut it incorporates four rotating pivot points to direct the A, D, G and B string paths. This is an idea far ahead of its time, now available for addition as the String Butler by Dietrich Parts in Halle, Germany – a patented product, though the patent claim likely applies to the mounting method.
The hardware starts with Gibson-stamped Kluson Deluxe style tuners with plastic Keystone buttons, and a stock tune-o-matic bridge and stop tailpiece at the body end. All the visible metal parts are gold plated.
The electronics are a typical standard Gibson design, with a pair of Tim Shaw humbuckers passing through a three-position selector, individual volume controls (pots dated to 1982) and a master tone control (dated to 1980, and drawn from existing stock) and a three-way SWitchcraft toggle switch.
|
There are no refunds or returns on used items unless authorized in advance by a Twelfth Fret Sales Associate at time of sale. View Our Full Terms Here |
DETAILS:
- Instrument Model: Moderne
- Instrument Manufacturer: Gibson
- Instrument year: 1982
- Instrument Finish: Natural Gloss
- Instrument Class: Solidbody Electric Guitars
- Instrument serial number: G 023 dated to late 1982 - early 1983 at Nashville
- Country of Origin: USA
- Instrument Condition: Good
- Right-handed
- Instrument Weight Imperial: 7.04 lbs
- Instrument Weight Metric: 3.20 kgs
- Scale Length Imperial: 24.6 in
- Scale Length Metric: 625 mm
- Nut Width Imperial: 1.691 in
- Nut Width Metric: 42.97 mm
- CITIES Documentation Required: No
- Case included: Yes
- Case original: Yes
- Items in Case: Original Handle (broken)
- Case Type: Hard Shell Brown Rectrangular, Gibson branded,
- Consignment: Yes
- Product ID: 191027
|
|
There are no refunds or returns on used items unless authorized in advance by a Twelfth Fret Sales Associate at time of sale. View Our Full Terms Here |