Orville by Gibson 57 Reissue Custom Chambering

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gtolenti

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Hi everybody,

I just recently bought an Orville by Gibson Reissue Custom. It has all the tell-tale signs of it being the real thing, i.e. kidney bean tuners, correct Gibson headstock shape (not the more spread out ones normally found on Terada OBGs), fat rounded neck, ebony fretboard, fret edge binding, long tenon, and "Patent Applied For" sticker on the pickups. If it was a fake it's a really elaborate one. The thing that's bugging me about it is how light it is. It has a very resonant acoustic tone which might lead me to believe that it's been chambered. From the serial number it looks like it was made in 1992 at the Fujigen plant.

I have a few Gibson Historic Les Pauls and they are generally lighter than even the weight relieved Gibsons I have. Are ObG reissue guitars just made of a lighter more resonant wood? I'm pretty bummed because when I pick up the guitar it feels like I'm picking up a toy, even my Chinese made Epiphone feels more solid. I've also owned a few Edwards guitars, which were also extremely light, but not as light as my ObG. I put it on my bathroom scale and it's right around 7lbs, but I wouldn't trust my bathroom scale too much. The fact still stands, this ObG just feels too light. Does anyone know if Orvilles were ever chambered, or if some were made light weight on purpose at the factory? I can't seem to find anything on the internet regarding this subject.

Thanks!
 
Seriously dude...nobody is faking ObG's.

How does it sound?

I have an ObG terada made standard and it is pretty light as well. I don't think it is chambered. Resonates and sustains like crazy. Sounds amazing. I also have a Greco EG1000 that is very heavy and sounds amazing.

Don't fall for the hype about weight. From what I've read many consider the best sounding LP's to be the one's on the lighter side anyway.

If your guitar sounds good then who cares how much it weighs. If it doesn't sound good then maybe you got a dog.
 
I've got a dozen OBG LPR "reissues" (fret-edge binding, fatter necks, aged-body binding, solid tops) and 15 other OBG LPS's and LPC's:

OBG LPs.....

The weights are all over the map. The Teradas seem to be generally lighter and the Fujigens are all heavier. One of them weighs around 11lbs and a couple others weigh a little over 8lbs and you can't tell by looking. They are all resonant as hell. None of them are chambered. I think it's just different pieces of lumber.
 
A Les Paul this light really caught me off guard, all of the Les Pauls I own have a lot of natural mids but with this guitar I find myself having to max out the mids on my amp and roll back the guitar's tone pots to tame the ice picky highs. I play through an Orange Rockerverb 50 which some people consider too thick and dark sounding.

I've owned 2 Orville by Gibsons built by Terada, just leaving the pots on max and setting my amp controls to noon gave me a nice mid-heavy Les Paul crunch.

I was planning on changing out the pickups and electronics anyway so maybe that will help.
 
Innadaze, that's an amazing collection you have there. I especially like the P90 gold top with the wraparound bridge, that must be a pretty rare piece.
 
No Chambering for any Orvilles or Orville by Gibsons.
Chambering wasn't used much anymore for most MIJ LP's after the early 80s.
Chambering was mostly used in the 70s and early 80s and was mostly used on the lower end guitars.

Some players like light LP's and think they have the best tone. Who knows.

I have a 1973 Gibson SG that is the lightest guitar I have ever played and it sounds great.
I also have a Northern Ash Fender from 1980 that is really heavy like the heaviest LP's and it sounds great.
 
Thanks for all of the info guys. One thing I tried this morning was adjusting the pickup heights, the previous owner had the bridge pickup set way too high and it was leaning upwards towards the high E string. I lowered the pickup quite a bit and it really brought the guitar back to life, the mids and lows are a lot more punchy. The bridge pickup by itself sounds a little thin for leads but chords have a lot of definition and bite. The guitar sounds a whole lot better now and I hope an electronics/pickup swap will make the guitar sound even better.

As for the tuners, I've been looking for an ObG 57 Reissue for a while and all of the ones I've seen on the internet have the round kidney bean shaped tuners, I assume that's how they normally come. Even the Gibson '57 Reissue Custom (non-VOS) has the kidney beans.
 
here's an OLD crusty set of gold plated Grover USA Pat. Pend. (bean) tuners :)

they hold perfect tuning & they have that old, crusty, oxidized look that I really dig :D

have them on my Burny RLC now 8) What a killer Custom :D
RLCGrover.jpg



just a bit of the gold plate visible under the GROVER logos; here on a 1980 EGF :p
grover3.jpg
 
Oh.... GROVER tuners. Never ever heard them called kidney bean tuners before....


Bean tuners I've always considered the white ones - like the ones found on Les Paul Juniors or Specials
 

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