chets gibson classic guitar

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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby cribdog » Wed Feb 08, 2012 10:44 pm

I was a gibson dealer in the 70-80's and purchased a CEC from my sales rep. It has the "custom shop edition" decal on back of the headstock with serial number and "made in USA" beneath. The case candy includes a little string card identifying the instument (K051) as an "original limited edition produced Jan through June of 1982" in Kalamazoo. Also included along with the warranty card is a nice form letter on parchment paper signed by Chet himself.

Ok, is this part a true story?
The rep (who could sell ice to eskimos) informed us that this was one of the first 100 produced and that all 100 had a "k" prefix for "Kalamazoo".
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby bill park » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:03 pm

If yours is Serial K051, it is definitely one of the first 100 CECs produced in 1982. But the "K" in the serial number did not stand for "Kalamazoo" - there were other letters used in the serial numbers of those first ones (a friend of mine had A019). The fact that your serial number starts with a letter, however, designates a Kalamazoo instrument. When production shifted to Nashville, they started using the traditional Gibson serial numbering format (8 digits, first and fourth digits indicating year of manufacture).
Bill
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby Roger Crews » Wed Feb 08, 2012 11:17 pm

glad there has been this additional post. which has cleared up one of my questions . i have one from the

It has the "custom shop edition" decal on back of the headstock with serial number and "made in USA" beneath.. mine is no k 043 thanx for the info.

i think another thing different is we have only 2 controls . vol. and tone
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby jay » Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:29 am

Hey guys...this may be redundant, but it is straight from Mr. Benton Cummings at Gibson Customer Service. He provided me with this information in April 2009. I thought I would share it.

Production run 1981-82. The first 1,000 of these instruments were serialized with a letter + 3 digits: i.e. A 001 – A 100, B 001 – B 100, C 001 – C 100, etc., through K 100


In a conversation with him that followed, he explained that the majority, if not all of these were made at the custom shop and then regular production was moved to the factory after K100 and standard serialization was used beginning in 83.

I have no idea if this is accurate. I do know that Mr Cummings was (is still?) a Gibson CSR and it appeared he had worked there for some time.
jay kantor
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby Phil Waldron » Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:15 am

Roger ... I have CE number A-083 and it does not have the wire you mentioned connected to the cover plate. Also I have never had a problem with the hum you mentioned and have changed batteries many times (I do this every 6 months just to ensure no leakage. When I store the guitar for a long time I remove the battery). I used to play this guitar a lot but now I play a Kirk Sand guitar instead. No disrespect to the Gibson CE but no comparison to the Sand, but again the price differential is large also. The CE was the trend setter in its time but now i keep as a "collectors" item.
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby cribdog » Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:33 am

You know, I think I read about that in a George Gruhn article a few years back. The problem is: (A-K) X 100 = 1100 instruments, not 1000?
Could 1000 of these have bee built in the old Kalamazoo plant in 6 months time? Just askin'...
The Gibson candy card in my case says it was one of the first built jan through june of 1982. (K051)

Thanks for all the input... I'm new here as of yesterday!
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby bill park » Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:12 am

jay wrote:Hey guys...this may be redundant, but it is straight from Mr. Benton Cummings at Gibson Customer Service. He provided me with this information in April 2009. I thought I would share it.
Production run 1981-82. The first 1,000 of these instruments were serialized with a letter + 3 digits: i.e. A 001 – A 100, B 001 – B 100, C 001 – C 100, etc., through K 100

In a conversation with him that followed, he explained that the majority, if not all of these were made at the custom shop and then regular production was moved to the factory after K100 and standard serialization was used beginning in 83.
I have no idea if this is accurate. I do know that Mr Cummings was (is still?) a Gibson CSR and it appeared he had worked there for some time.


That is accurate information, Jay. I have a 1982 letter from Gibson saying essentially the same thing.


cribdog wrote:The problem is: (A-K) X 100 = 1100 instruments, not 1000?

I don't know for sure, but maybe they didn't use the letter "I". Or perhaps they didn't produce exactly 100 instruments for each letter.

cribdog wrote:Could 1000 of these have bee built in the old Kalamazoo plant in 6 months time?

I also don't know how fast their production lines were, but 6 months is about 130 work days. That comes out to 7 CE/CECs a day (plus their other production). Sounds reasonable.
Thanks,
Bill
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby David Elliott » Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:19 am

Norm wrote:You have a grounding/shielding issue of some sort.
I'm betting the noise goes away if you touch the metal part of the cord insertion point on the guitar.

My Paul Yandell archive has this to say:
____________

"...One thing I learned from him (Chet) , the Gibson CEC and CE, Studio guitars aren't shielded very well and when you try to record with them you get a low frequency hum, Chet used to take a wire and connect it to his guitar and then the other end to his watch, it grounds out the hum. I have a wire with a clip on both ends I do that when I record..."
Paul Yandell_cgp


Hi Roger,

I assume we're talking about the 'standard' (solid bodied) Chet Atkins CEC guitar here, and not the 'Studio' guitar? The Studio guitars were also designated 'CE' and 'CEC'.

At any rate, I once had a Gibson CE which developed a "hum", and I solved the problem in the following manner and you might try this before you start messing around with the wiring in the little cavity on the back of the guitar, (which is very fragile)!

I took a small sheet of thin (cooking) aluminum foil, and molded it to fit the contours of the cavity (glue should not be necessary) and the "hum" immediately went away! I assume that this shielded the pots in that cavity, (something you would think Gibson would have done at the factory). :roll:

David
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby Norm » Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:57 am

David's suggestion crossed my mind but I never broached it because I had no idea how the cavity and innards were in the guitar. Back in the seventies and eighties cavity shielding was a big thing even involving paint that was conductive so it acted like foil.

It is lame that Gibson didn't deal with this as part of its construction process
...that's how it looks to me...The opinion expressed above is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of this station. Your mileage may vary...

Audio samples: http://www.youtube.com/user/acountrygent/videos
That should do it.
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Re: chets gibson classic guitar

Postby David Elliott » Thu Feb 09, 2012 1:23 pm

Roger,

Here is some more 'in depth' information regarding this humming problem with the CA CEC guitar.
Don't worry that they're talking about a 'CE' guitar, as the CE and the CEC are virtually the same instrument. The CE and CEC merely indicated the neck width.

http://fretsnet.ning.com/forum/topics/g ... ns-ce-1986

David
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