Gibson Modern
The Gibson Moderne is a 1,957-designed, rare Solid Body - electric guitar model with striking asymmetrical body of the American musical instrument manufacturer Gibson Guitar Corporation . The model, whose straight, sweeping body shape was far ahead of its time, was first offered by Gibson in 1982, twenty-five years after its design.
history
The president of Gibson Guitar Corporation , Ted McCarty , decided in the mid-1950s to add some new models with a modern design to the company's range. As a result, in the developed Modernistic designated number the designs Explorer , Futura (an early prototype of the Explorer ), Flying V and modernity . It is still unclear whether the modern era was even produced in significant numbers at that time. The books show the production of around twenty copies, but after that all trace is lost. It is not known whether an original instrument from 1957 was preserved. Only a few photos and the modern patent drawing exist from this period . Today it is assumed that the specimens built at the time, although a patent was filed by Ted McCarty on June 20, 1957, only served as prototypes for the sister model, the Explorer . Since the early 1980s, however, Gibson has brought at least one limited special edition of the modern on the market. In 1982 a model called Gibson Moderne Heritage appeared , which was produced in an edition of less than 200 pieces and was withdrawn from the range again the following year. As early as 1975, the Japanese guitar brand Ibanez had brought a slightly modified copy of the modern on the market.
Design and construction of the model
All models in the Modernistic series are solid body instruments, the first edition with corina wood, a mahogany type, and equipped with two humbucking pickups with metal caps. Like the Explorer model , the modern one has a straight, asymmetrical body, which, with its double-arrow body outline at the bottom, also bears a resemblance to the Flying V model . The model's headstock, which is also asymmetrical, is significantly widened towards the top and has widely spaced tuning mechanisms in a 3: 3 arrangement, which makes it necessary to guide four of the six strings over pulleys on the headstock. In terms of technical equipment (hardware), modern technology is apparently the same as the Explorer .
literature
- Tony Bacon, Dave Hunter: Totally Guitar - the Definitive Guide (Guitar Encyclopedia, English). Backbeat Books, London 2004. ISBN 1-871547-81-4
- Walter Carter: Gibson Guitars - 100 Years of an American Icon (English). Gibson Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-972751-01-7
- George Gruhn, Walter Carter: Electric Guitars & Basses . PPV Verlag, Bergkirchen 1999. ISBN 3-932275-04-7
- Heinz Rebellius : Vintage - Gibson Moderne Heritage, Bj. 1982 . Article about the history of the model and its new edition, in: Guitar & Bass , issue 10 / October 2011, p. 254 f. MM-Musik-Media-Verlag, Ulm 2011. ISSN 0934-7674
- Grégoire Hervier: Vintage . Roman, Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2017. ISBN 3-257070-02-0
Web links
- Article about modernism on the Vintage Guitars website , with photo (accessed October 10, 2011)