Orville by Gibson Catalogue Information

Tokai Forum

Help Support Tokai Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

orvilleowner

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
281
Reaction score
0
Location
washington state
I have posted model information from two Orville by Gibson catalogues (1992 and 1997) at the forum at univox.org. I put it there because it was html enabled (it would display the html table I created). I forgot to say there that all fingerboards in these catalogs are rosewood except where noted.

http://forums.univox.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1063

I would love to see this information posted for other ObG catalogues!
 
many thanks for the info, orvilleowner. i've been curious about this stuff for a few years, since i picked up an Orville LPC (1996). since mine has an ebony fretboard, i'm assuming it's the LPC-85. unlike others i've seen on fleabay, etc., this one is all mahogany, no maple cap. i wonder if this is yet another model, or if they just ran low on maple blanks one day. . . . :wink:
 
magentaplacenta, Ok, if you say so!

omboy, Here's what the 1997 catalog says about the LPC-85: "On the strong demand from the musicians, this 1957 reissue model was reproduced with cream binding, all mahogany body (and ebony fingerboard)." It sounds like you have the 1996 version of that model, congrats.
 
thanks for that info, orvilleowner! it's a sweet guitar, 8.5 lbs and rings like a bell. next i need to find a nice Orville Junior. . . .

LPC-85 pix: http://tinyurl.com/agdwy
 
It's a sweet guitar, 8.5 lbs and rings like a bell. next i need to find a nice Orville Junior . . . . LPC-85 pix: http://tinyurl.com/agdwy

Thanks for the pictures. That's probably about the nicest of all of the "Orville" branded ObGs (IMO)!

As for the Junior, is it single-cut or double cut-a-way for you?

I wouldn't mind a nice double cut-a-way. :)
 
orvilleowner said:
As for the Junior, is it single-cut or double cut-a-way for you?

I wouldn't mind a nice double cut-a-way. :)

i like the single-cuts, myself, but either a single or double-cut would be fine by me as long as the neck was big enough. most of the ones i've seen on fleabay have been "slim" necks.

orvilleowner, do your catalogs give any info about the available neck profiles of different models? i've read in a few places that there were no "chunky"-necked Orvilles or ObGs, but my Custom has a neck that's almost as fat as a Gibson Historic R7. maybe that's a topic for another thread. . . .
 
omboy said:
do your catalogs give any info about the available neck profiles of different models? I've read in a few places that there were no "chunky"-necked Orvilles or ObGs, but my Custom has a neck that's almost as fat as a Gibson Historic R7. maybe that's a topic for another thread. . . .

The 1997 catalog doesn't have much details on the specs. I have translations for all the specs (and for just a few of the model write ups), and there's no mention of neck profiles, sorry. The 1992 catalog has much more detail, but I don't have it translated. I can only pick out certain phrases ("carved maple top," "mahogony back," "ebony," "rosewood," etc). So there could be info about neck profiles, but I can't read it!

I had parts of the 1997 catalog translated by a friend in Japan who sent it to me in the first place (back in 1998). I just got a hard-copy of the 1992 catalog. I haven't tried to "type" in the Japanese at a translater (like babelfish). That seems to be a lot of work, but theoretically possible. I'll have to look into it more.
 
I would love to see this information posted for other ObG catalogues!

A month has passed since I posted the basic information from a couple ObG catalogues (1992 & 1997) at http://forums.univox.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1063 . That posting seemed to be well accepted.

I am again requesting that forum members with other ObG catalogues to please post similar information. I will help in anyway possible, just PM me. Thanks.
 
Allow me to ask again. If you have Orville by Gibson Catalogues, would you please consider sending me some of the information out of them or sending me photocopies?

Please!? My poor ObG Firebird wants to learn about its lineage!

http://www.hickoryshomepage.com/orville%20OBG%20firebird.bmp

Thanks.
 
togps said:
Orvilleowner, this is all what I have. Since I am not able to scan, I would be able to shot your pics, instead.

Pics would be just great! Thanks. I have enabled email to me, so whatever you could send would be appreciated.

As Luis said, he sent me a photocopy of the one in the middle of the top row. I have the smaller one on the right in the bottom row -- at least my 1997 has the exact same cover. So I would love pics of the 1992, 1993 (on the ends of the top row) and the yellow one.

Thanks.

I will post the info in the same format as I've posted the others.
 
I came across some images from a 1989 Orville by Gibson catalogue.
It has Les Paul (the guitarist) on the cover.

Here are the models.
I havn't got all the pages so some models are missing.

Orville SG 62 Reissue
Orville SG-60
Orville EB-3 SG Bass
Orville Les Paul Custom (LPC)

Orville by Gibson Les Paul Custom (LPC)
Orville by Gibson Les Paul Standard (LPS)
Orville by Gibson Les Paul Junior (LPJ)
Orville by Gibson Les Paul Junior Double Cut-a-Way (LPJD)
Orville by Gibson SG Custom (SGC)
Orville by Gibson ES-335 Dot
Orville by Gibson 58 Flying V FV-58
Orville by Gibson 74 Flying V FV-74
Orville by Gibson Firebird (FB)
Orville by Gibson Thunderbird Bass

The earliest Orville anyone has seen (as far as I know) is a 1989 Orville EB-3 Bass (there are no Orville by Gibson EB-3 Basses).
The Orville SG models mean that there are 1989 Orville SG models around yet no one has seen a Orville SG (not a OBG) model with a serial number before 1993.
So these Orville SG models must be the K Orville models.
Also notice one of the Orville SG models is a SG-60.

I also found the 1990 Orville model range at
http://www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/guitarcrazy/page04-07.htm

EX;EXPLORER, FB;FIREBIRD, FV-58;'58FLYING V, LPC, LPJ, LPJ-D, LPS, SG;'62 REISSUE, SGC;SG CUSTOM, LPC-65, SG60;SG62REISSUE

So the SG-60 appears in the 1989 and 1990 catalogues but is not in the 1993 catalogue.
Only the SG 62 reissue appears in the 1993 catalogue so it looks like the SG-60 was dropped by 1993 and it must be a K Orville.
There are no SG-60 ink stamped models around.
If the Les Paul LPC-65 from 1990 is right then it must be a K Orville which was also dropped in the 1993 catalogue.
Also the SG 62 reissue models up to 1993 were K Orvilles as well and were sold for 65000 yen and the SG-60 K Orville would have been sold at 60000 yen and the LPC-65 K Orville would have been sold at 65000 yen.
So this new catalogue info just backs up the emails I received from K Orville owners about the year they bought them.
The K Orvilles ran from 1989 to 1992/93 and have a K 0Yxxxx serial number where Y is 9=1989 0=1990 1=1991 2=1992 3 =1993.
So I think now that there can't be too many objections about what years the K Orvilles came from now that the catalogue info backs up what the original K Orville owners year info was.

If you translate http://www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/guitarcrazy/page04-07.htm
actually you have to translate the cache and not the original page for some reason
http://cache.yahoofs.jp/search/cache?p=tokai+%22sg60%22&ei=UTF-8&fr=top_v2&fl=1&x=wrt&meta=vl%3Dlang_ja&u=www006.upp.so-net.ne.jp/guitarcrazy/page04-07.htm&w=tokai+sg60&d=Bp4DK-xsN_2a&icp=1&.intl=jp

you get

It is the same at the Minoru [email protected] any manufacturer, but the less pole of the o building the number of models which were sold you think the gold top that it was little. Including also "byGibson", please teach the model name and the price which are sold. Reply: 2001.5.14 : Below Gan [email protected], ' It is model name of 90 years, (as for price it was not understood) EX; EXPLORER and FB; FIREBIRD and FV-58; ' 58FLYING V, LPC, LPJ, LPJ-D, LPS and SG; ' 62 REISSUE and SGC; SG CUSTOM and LPC-65, SG60; SG62REISSUE reply: 2001.5.24 : Way method of writing the Minoru [email protected] question ?? you apply, the shank. It does again to ask. Please teach the model name and price of the less pole gold top of the o building make. Including also "byGibson", as about only 2 types not been, we have remembered. We ask may. Reply: 2001.7.4 : Furthermore [email protected] I increase, now sleeping in depth of the shelf, but it has the gold top of the o building. Remembering, increase the type name it is, price you think that they were 80000 Yen.

(o building) means Orville.
(It is model name of 90 years) means 1990.
 
Hey there,
It seems everyone is well into the OBG LPs but I have an OBG J-45 acoustic and am having a heck of a time finding anything out about it. I know it has a solid top but no idea about the back and sides. Serial no is inked on headstock and is G30xxxx. Do any of your catalogs have any info on the OBG acoustics?
Cheers
 
I wish I knew more about the Acoustics.
They were probably made by Terada from 1991 to 1993.
 
They were made it at least 2 plants ( at the same time).
Probably terada and Fujigen, Some have the Gibson TRC and some have the Greco-like TRC with 3 screws. I saw some Terada acoustics with the 3 screws, and I 've seen some Burny Accoustics with 2 screws TRC, so my guess is the 2 screws TRC Orville BG are from Fujigen, and 3 Screws Orville BG are from Terada ( Or IIda as they seemed to be involved in the Orville production).

Only "Orville by Gibson" accoustics from what I saw. Mine is solid wood only and Nitro finish.

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6188&highlight=j200
 
FujiGen gave up making Acoustics way before any of the Orville by Gibsons were made.
http://www.daeschler.com/articles/fujigen/

According to this page Iida had problems keeping up with orders.
This info is from Jim Donahue, former Ibanez product manager.
They were making Ibanez Artists in the late 80's.
If this is true I think they can be excluded from having much to do with the K Orvilles.
The K Orvilles are from the same time so if they couldn't keep up with Ibanez orders I doubt if they had time to make Orvilles.
Also it's interesting about the set necks and fujigen.
If it's true it might be why Terada seem to making a lot of the early K Orvilles and Orville by Gibsons.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes that is exactly what I thought. Here is a long story short. Fuji gen the main Ibanez factory started making the Fender Squire guitars in the early 1980's. By 1985 they decided that making set necks was not efficent so they decided to stop, Hoshino Scrambled to find a new supplier for both the hollow bodies and the Solid bodies.

The H90 serial number is very confusing, It should mean 1989 H is Hoshino, Two factories used this Terrada for the Hollow bodies they made and Gretsch guitars and also the Sigma Acoustics for Martin. The other company was IIDA, They made all the Artist's. The guitar you have is an IIDA model. Probably 1987 or 1988, They used H9 for three years? There are also some H7's out there,

In the End neither factory could keep up with production and the rejection rate was very high. in 1990 there was almost no set neck models produced, then in 1991 Fuji-Gen started making all these models again.

So why is it not a Gibraltar II? because IIda ordered the wrong bridges from Gotoh. This was not shown in the catalog withthis bridge.

This is one of those untold things that happens.

Jim D

Jim_Donahue
 
Yep mine has a 3 screw cover so it must be terada? From the serial no it is a 93 model. For the money I paid it was a stone cold bargain compared to a usa version. I had a room mate in college that had a 60's USA j50 and it had a much different pick guard with kind of points coming off of it and an adjustable bridge where as this one has a Martin style tortoise pickguard and bridge so I am not too sure how exact a copy it is but it plays like a dream and sounds good so I am thrilled with it. Is the acoustic with solid sides you mention a J45 or are the solid guitars only the higher end like J200s?
cheers
 

Latest posts

Back
Top