Bobby's used to be a great little shop in Denver. By the time they went out of business they had moved down to 9th and Broadway. The original location is kind of a guitar store as its a pawn shop now. Bobby Rosen passed away in 2009, but he had sold the store many years before that, I'm thinking sometime in the 90s (he was a realtor for like a decade and then retired and did handyman work). He was a prominent member of the Denver Jewish community. Bobby was a drummer, not a guitarist (but I imagine whomever was selling this guitar either bought it originally at Bobby's or this was part of his estate sold off by one of his kids).
For anyone who's interested, what Austin commonly refers to as "ringy grain" is properly known as "runout". It's found on slab-cut boards and is not generally cared for by many folks as it technically denotes an inferior board when it comes to 'furniture grade' lumber. The good news is that slab-board backs and bodies are usually quite resonant and make for good bloom & warmth in a guitar's voice, hence why Trogly's new Deluxe sounds 'round' (as he put it) even on a mini-hummy in the bridge position.
Bobby's Music was in Denver and did great business up into the mid-'80s, I got and sold a lot of good stuff there. They went out of business sometime around 1988, and the location is a pawnshop now.
The "G" inside I wonder if stands for Glitter. As when I remember first seeing one in the 70s in the UK I'm sure it was billed as a Glitter finish. 🤷🏼♂️
Mini-humbuckers and Firebird pickups are made differently than your average humbucker pickup. You can find photos of uncovered Gibson mini-humbuckers and Firebird pickups, but they're hard to disassemble and just don't look good. Rio Grande pickups makes mini-humbuckers with zebra coils, basically just a shrunken humbucker.
@@PNWJEEPER01Looks like the holes in the metal bar should fit p90. You might have to drill into the body underneath it to make some room. Question is if you want to do that on a vintage guitar. The routing is the same. I did a conversion from p90 to mini humbuckers. The holes you see in the body are for mounting the plates.
Austin, where did this guitar come from? Bobby's Music is now defunct, but an old Denver Colorado Shop. that 1025 Broadway address is now a Pawn Shop. It also had a different location, but that building got demolished and now a high rise is going up. Beautiful mahogany on the back. Sorry the 1970s clothes had big buckles...
I know it's commonly accepted that the pancake layer is supposed to be a maple veneer, but in all my years of looking at pancake bodies I've seen exactly zero examples that looked like it was maple. All of them have had what looks like mahogany veneers with a few that _may_ have been walnut, or maybe just particularly chocolatey mahogany. But never maple.
@@cataclysmicconverter that's what I'm talking about, it looks nothing like maple (to me at least). And the finish shouldn't darken only the maple and leave the mahogany the same shade.
It is best to view the maple from the inside of the cavities (the secret layer in pickup cavities and the main layer by the control routes.) The back and sides might “look” like a clear coat but there is a colored finish as well to enhance the look of the mahogany
The new one sounds much better, yes, even the bridge pup' sounds darker than minis usual. My question is: are there indicators of a marked market down turn? As a player, I've seen big swings in non- vintage, causing me to be bloated with G.A.S., haha. Ü ♫
Gotta love Adrian! Even though he plays a lot of Jackson strat style guitars I always like to picture him with his Les Paul gold top which I think is a Deluxe too!
Have a question. Looking at a 81 gold top standard but it doesn't have "Made in USA" on the back of the headstock. Is that common or a red flag. Everything else looks legit and it is a guitar shop selling it. Any advice would be welcomed.
@@cataclysmicconverter Cool thanks. This one is in Melbourne. There are 2 listed on reverb, one in the states and one in France 1984 and 1981 both have made in USA which has me questioning this one.
Sometimes the "MADE IN U.S.A." stamp is very faint and hard to see unless you tilt the guitar at different viewing angles. Can you look at it in person to check that?
Why would anyone use a yellow grain fill on a naturally more reddish wood like mahogany? Never made sense to me regardless of how cool it looks after the fact.
Looks like a cool guitar. I’ve got a 70’s deluxe in cherry sunburst. It has a maple neck and weighs around 11 lbs. I remember the stock pickups would feedback when I played loud. I eventually had it routed for regular humbuckers. I’m in the process of getting Fishman Fluence Classic humbuckers installed in the guitar.
Sounds good. I'd like a 70s LP with a maple neck. I think it would reduce the worry of suffering a neck break if a guitar is being taken out and about a lot. I've played a maple necked L6S which worked great apart from the slightly narrower neck width at the first few frets.
It must have been re-fretted at one point. I have a 72'-73' gold top deluxe that was barely played by my dad, and the frets are flat. I've seen another video from a luthier, and he indicated in the video that this was one of the features that deluxes were infamous for, along with the pancake body and the bump where the headstock transitions to the neck, all features that Gibson purists despised about this model. I was watching it because I was trying to research a problem that I'm having with mine, which is a crack starting to form at the low e saddle screw. I'm curious, though, if a rounded re-fret affects the intonation, as you're moving the last point of contact on each back by a millimeter or so
I've owned a Deluxe gold top since about 1980 and the frets were always pretty low. Similarly, I bought it off a friend and he hadn't played it loads. So, they could have come out of the factory like that. Getting the frets dressed by a luthier improved things for a while and it was my only gigging and rehearsing guitar for a long time. I got it re-fretted in the early 2000s and it plays beautifully now.
Are those P 90 screw holes in the bottom of the routes? If so, I’m wondering if I could easily convert my 70s mini bucker into a P90 guitar without doing anything but switching pick ups and trim rings…
Hey Trogly, love the show. I worked for Bobby's Music back in the 1990s, If you want to know the story about about the shop and how and when it closed let ma know. Take care
i noticed the same thing with the red ones, one is darker and has bigger sparkles . sparkle tops are super cool! and the glitter industry doesn't want us to know its glitter, its totally glitter btw..and now that you know that you can make any top sparkle! with glitter!
Back in the early to mid 90's, I found two sparkle tops side by side in a pawnshop. One was blue and the other red, both must have come from the same owner, as the original bridge pickups had both been removed and were routed out for humbuckers. Both sparkle Deluxes were priced around $600, if I remember correctly? NOTE; While we appreciate your getting as much information into the video, but if it's a strain to follow you, then it takes the fun out of it. Please try and speak a little slower and more clearly. Your volume goes up and down, so it's difficult to follow your speech. Thanks
Thanks for all the great videos man !!! That thing about the trussrod where your going to "train" the natural direction. Theres another option if it's not that bad. You (can/could) go to neutral on the rod, then turn 1/8-1/4 positive pressure, then level the frets. Will it take more off the middle than the ends of the frets, yeah. But, can make the difference between a guitar in Ohio(or other) playing 12 months out of the year as opposed to 8 or 9 months. I wont say which usa custom shop guitar company made my experience guitar but I dealt with this issue about 27 years before I did what I just described and behold...12 months ! And a tiny bit of play. The final difference in fret height was .1mm lower around frets 9-12
You truly love the blues it would be a shame if you didn't keep both they are beautiful I couldn't choose I love dark blue but I love the lighter one too
I had an L6-S (all Maple) Custom Natural for a while.....and the at first the neck was okay. Then while still using my regular 10-46 gauge strings the neck on that guitar developed a back bow. Gibson must have been having some bad neck wood problems back then....regardless of the neck material! (Oh...and mine was kept in it's case the majority of the time that it wasn't being played....and I did play it quite a bit before it got weird)
I bought a Glarry case for a build guitar that I haven't finished yet . I put my Greenburst Studio in it since for some reason I keep getting my order canceled for an actual Gibson case. It has decent hardware and the tolex looks okay though it has a similar grain to a football.
Love the videos and your content. So, I have a request, during the sound tests maybe add a backing track to one small part. It would be nice to hear the sound of them along with the band.
Ok, is it my failing eyes, or is this guitar ridiculously THICK? Being a drummer, I truly love the "metal flake" (aka: "sparkle") finishes. My thoughts? Keep 'em both!!
Yes, the first blue sparkle I reviewed and sold is now his. I replaced it with my dark blue a few years later and then picked this up about a year and a half after that
@@Trog thanks for the reply, just couldn't remember after all the videos (I think you told us about it in an unboxing, when you ordered a 70s Deluxe to replace the replaced knobs with vintage correct) of yours I watched over the years (been following your channel since the carpet era). Keep on the good work!
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Bobby's used to be a great little shop in Denver. By the time they went out of business they had moved down to 9th and Broadway. The original location is kind of a guitar store as its a pawn shop now. Bobby Rosen passed away in 2009, but he had sold the store many years before that, I'm thinking sometime in the 90s (he was a realtor for like a decade and then retired and did handyman work). He was a prominent member of the Denver Jewish community. Bobby was a drummer, not a guitarist (but I imagine whomever was selling this guitar either bought it originally at Bobby's or this was part of his estate sold off by one of his kids).
I actually like this Deluxe better than the other one in my opinion. The mini-humbuckers sound amazing
too.
For anyone who's interested, what Austin commonly refers to as "ringy grain" is properly known as "runout".
It's found on slab-cut boards and is not generally cared for by many folks as it technically denotes an inferior board when it comes to 'furniture grade' lumber.
The good news is that slab-board backs and bodies are usually quite resonant and make for good bloom & warmth in a guitar's voice, hence why Trogly's new Deluxe sounds 'round' (as he put it) even on a mini-hummy in the bridge position.
Wood doesn't matter all that much on an electric guitar
@@lptomtomit does matter. Wood with run out is more unstable.
@@lptomtomYeah, and earth's flat, and there wasn't a moon landing.
@@bluglass7819Guess you've had a couple of
1 3/4" slabs fly apart on you over the years, huh?
Thanks for that john. Now could you explain or define what a "juicy" pickup means?
That's a really narrow-looking headstock for a 70's LP, killer guitar!
Bobby's Music was in Denver and did great business up into the mid-'80s, I got and sold a lot of good stuff there. They went out of business sometime around 1988, and the location is a pawnshop now.
The "G" inside I wonder if stands for Glitter. As when I remember first seeing one in the 70s in the UK I'm sure it was billed as a Glitter finish. 🤷🏼♂️
How come no ever removes the cover on mini humbuckers
Helluva question! Dont believe ive ever seen them naked! Now i wanna know!
I tried. The pickups held in place with the covers, unlike regular humbucker pickup bobbins are screwed into the back plate.
Mini-humbuckers and Firebird pickups are made differently than your average humbucker pickup. You can find photos of uncovered Gibson mini-humbuckers and Firebird pickups, but they're hard to disassemble and just don't look good. Rio Grande pickups makes mini-humbuckers with zebra coils, basically just a shrunken humbucker.
The darker example has a coarser brighter metal flake, it's particularly evident on the down flop angle, it's almost black in color.
Another great Deluxe. Those sparkles suit it perfectly.
Are those p90 screw holes in the bottom of the mini bucker routes? If so, I’m wondering if i could put p90’s in my mini bucker lp of similar vintage…
@@PNWJEEPER01Looks like the holes in the metal bar should fit p90. You might have to drill into the body underneath it to make some room. Question is if you want to do that on a vintage guitar.
The routing is the same. I did a conversion from p90 to mini humbuckers.
The holes you see in the body are for mounting the plates.
Austin, where did this guitar come from? Bobby's Music is now defunct, but an old Denver Colorado Shop. that 1025 Broadway address is now a Pawn Shop. It also had a different location, but that building got demolished and now a high rise is going up. Beautiful mahogany on the back. Sorry the 1970s clothes had big buckles...
Looking at the original listing from Reverb, if you zoom in, you can see the buckle worming
Also, thanks for the Thin Lizzy riff! Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson played Deluxes a lot during that era, appreciate that you gave them a nod.
Those pickups sound great! 👍👍
I like the darker one too. Were any deluxe models from the 70’s made with p90’s or if they have p90’s they are the pro model?
Pretty good shape for the age, still sounding great
Do you have a video that shows your cleaning process? I'd love to know how it could take two hours.
He probably applies his own special sauce to polish .
Both of these guitars are beautiful, the blue metallic finish is so awesome! I would be so disappointed if my beautiful blue guitar aged to green!😂
Can someone tell me why there are 5 braided wires (counting the bridge pickup wire) in the video of the bridge pickup channel?
@@cataclysmicconverter thank you.
We need a Les Paul that is "A Whiter Shade of Pale" 😁
Excellent call
Gorgeous blue shade
Exactly what are we calling a polish? Dunlop polish spray and a rag or some swirl remover and a drill?
I know it's commonly accepted that the pancake layer is supposed to be a maple veneer, but in all my years of looking at pancake bodies I've seen exactly zero examples that looked like it was maple. All of them have had what looks like mahogany veneers with a few that _may_ have been walnut, or maybe just particularly chocolatey mahogany. But never maple.
@@cataclysmicconverter that's what I'm talking about, it looks nothing like maple (to me at least). And the finish shouldn't darken only the maple and leave the mahogany the same shade.
It is best to view the maple from the inside of the cavities (the secret layer in pickup cavities and the main layer by the control routes.) The back and sides might “look” like a clear coat but there is a colored finish as well to enhance the look of the mahogany
The new one sounds much better, yes, even the bridge pup' sounds darker than minis usual.
My question is: are there indicators of a marked market down turn? As a player, I've seen big swings in non- vintage, causing me to be bloated with G.A.S., haha. Ü ♫
I’ve seen a slow down for common gear but the rare stuff still has a pretty strong market
Keep both!
im not a mini humbucker fan but id keep the darker one personally if i was going to keep one
Did you hit the lottery or something? Just curious how you can buy all these.
Wait, can somebody explain why the truss can't be loosened on this guitar? What am I missing?
Think of the truss rod like a bottle cap. I need to loosen it a hair, but the cap only "falls off"
@@Trog Ok, thank you!
Those mini's sound way better than the other one.
The reason one looks like it has more sparkles is cause the metal flake is bigger in the one. There both nice
Now that's a cool one!!! I love the blue!!
Darker blue is beautiful!
How nice it is to get a day off from the hard work of looking at guitars online...
Of two guitars, I like this one better. The wood grain on the back is especially nice.
I wasn't expecting to like the mini-humbuckers but that bridge pickup has character!
I've always wanted a gold top because of Adrian Smith, but Bath-Salt Blue sounds pretty cool! lol
Gotta love Adrian! Even though he plays a lot of Jackson strat style guitars I always like to picture him with his Les Paul gold top which I think is a Deluxe too!
A Mike ness special drop some Seymour d and voila , social distortion tone💯🔥😻
I would give anything for a reissue of one of these but in green. Something just a little bit lighter and sparklier than Gretsch’s Cadillac green.
Inverness Green
Gretsch has made green sparkle Jets and they look amazing.
I thought the pancake layer was usually walnut,,,
looks really nice what a Deluxe find mini humbuckers are winning
Well, youre just gonna have to keep em both Trogly! 😀
Darker 🤘🤘
I like the double ring tuners
I bought a 83 deluxe right haver my turkey dinner!
What is that song at 16:39? I know it but I can’t think of it.
'Diggin' the matching outfit there, Austin!
Have a question. Looking at a 81 gold top standard but it doesn't have "Made in USA" on the back of the headstock. Is that common or a red flag. Everything else looks legit and it is a guitar shop selling it. Any advice would be welcomed.
@@cataclysmicconverter Cool thanks. This one is in Melbourne. There are 2 listed on reverb, one in the states and one in France 1984 and 1981 both have made in USA which has me questioning this one.
Sometimes the "MADE IN U.S.A." stamp is very faint and hard to see unless you tilt the guitar at different viewing angles. Can you look at it in person to check that?
@@davesinger6526 Yeh I can, I'll keep investigating and if I want to see this one in person I'll will.
Why would anyone use a yellow grain fill on a naturally more reddish wood like mahogany? Never made sense to me regardless of how cool it looks after the fact.
I have a 72 deluxe with what looks like regular humbuckers
Looks like a cool guitar. I’ve got a 70’s deluxe in cherry sunburst. It has a maple neck and weighs around 11 lbs. I remember the stock pickups would feedback when I played loud. I eventually had it routed for regular humbuckers. I’m in the process of getting Fishman Fluence Classic humbuckers installed in the guitar.
Sounds good. I'd like a 70s LP with a maple neck. I think it would reduce the worry of suffering a neck break if a guitar is being taken out and about a lot. I've played a maple necked L6S which worked great apart from the slightly narrower neck width at the first few frets.
The pale grain fill is nowadays a feature of some modern PRS guitars called “dog-hair”. It’s quite attractive when used appropriately.
I used to call it baby poop brown.
Bobby's Music Center is now an EZ Pawn Shop.
It moved down to the corner of 9th and Broadway first (then that building became an antique mall). Its been a long time though.
It must have been re-fretted at one point. I have a 72'-73' gold top deluxe that was barely played by my dad, and the frets are flat. I've seen another video from a luthier, and he indicated in the video that this was one of the features that deluxes were infamous for, along with the pancake body and the bump where the headstock transitions to the neck, all features that Gibson purists despised about this model. I was watching it because I was trying to research a problem that I'm having with mine, which is a crack starting to form at the low e saddle screw. I'm curious, though, if a rounded re-fret affects the intonation, as you're moving the last point of contact on each back by a millimeter or so
I've owned a Deluxe gold top since about 1980 and the frets were always pretty low. Similarly, I bought it off a friend and he hadn't played it loads. So, they could have come out of the factory like that. Getting the frets dressed by a luthier improved things for a while and it was my only gigging and rehearsing guitar for a long time. I got it re-fretted in the early 2000s and it plays beautifully now.
Are those P 90 screw holes in the bottom of the routes? If so, I’m wondering if I could easily convert my 70s mini bucker into a P90 guitar without doing anything but switching pick ups and trim rings…
Yes and yes.
What percentage of Gibsons need headstock repairs?
I like the lighter blue. Absolutely stunning! A dream guitar for me…
That thing is gorgeous! Even that purple in the case looks cool.
70's mini humbucker's are the best sounding pu's ever
Forever wishing for a new run of this finish available for lefties. There will never be enough blue sparkle top videos on the channel!
Dam&$t Jim…I would LOVE to be able to afford one of those!!!!
Hey Trogly, love the show. I worked for Bobby's Music back in the 1990s, If you want to know the story about about the shop and how and when it closed let ma know. Take care
Keep dark one the light one probably seen more sun being connected jewel of a small shop
i noticed the same thing with the red ones, one is darker and has bigger sparkles . sparkle tops are super cool! and the glitter industry doesn't want us to know its glitter, its totally glitter btw..and now that you know that you can make any top sparkle! with glitter!
The red ones are tricky to find - hopefully I can document some more as it wouldn’t surprise me!
Holy dang those frets been hit hard. Someone played the heck out of this guitar but was very careful. Wow
I’ve always loved the sound of the little mini humbuckers. Beautiful both of them.
Just keep both, There just going to keep going up in price.
Keep both of them.
As usual, an excellent video made even better by some Thin Lizzy Jailbreak thrown in at the end. Top Marks for Trogly.
Back in the early to mid 90's, I found two sparkle tops side by side in a pawnshop.
One was blue and the other red, both must have come from the same owner, as the original bridge pickups had both been removed and were routed out for humbuckers.
Both sparkle Deluxes were priced around $600, if I remember correctly?
NOTE; While we appreciate your getting as much information into the video, but if it's a strain to follow you, then it takes the fun out of it.
Please try and speak a little slower and more clearly.
Your volume goes up and down, so it's difficult to follow your speech.
Thanks
Head straight to the dark side! It looks really pretty
Thanks for all the great videos man !!!
That thing about the trussrod where your going to "train" the natural direction.
Theres another option if it's not that bad. You (can/could) go to neutral on the rod, then turn 1/8-1/4 positive pressure, then level the frets. Will it take more off the middle than the ends of the frets, yeah. But, can make the difference between a guitar in Ohio(or other) playing 12 months out of the year as opposed to 8 or 9 months. I wont say which usa custom shop guitar company made my experience guitar but I dealt with this issue about 27 years before I did what I just described and behold...12 months !
And a tiny bit of play. The final difference in fret height was .1mm lower around frets 9-12
that's a really good sounding deluxe!!!!
How much do you want for them ?
You truly love the blues it would be a shame if you didn't keep both they are beautiful I couldn't choose I love dark blue but I love the lighter one too
I don't want one but I think the Delux is beautiful!
Keep both ! You only live once, and you can document and show the difference in the history of the change of the guitar
I like your style heck yeah!
Love a blue sparkle deluxe
Love the Color
That surface on the back of the cover made me think it is Formica
That's a keeper.... listen to all that mahogany singing
I had an L6-S (all Maple) Custom Natural for a while.....and the at first the neck was okay. Then while still using my regular 10-46 gauge strings the neck on that guitar developed a back bow. Gibson must have been having some bad neck wood problems back then....regardless of the neck material! (Oh...and mine was kept in it's case the majority of the time that it wasn't being played....and I did play it quite a bit before it got weird)
I bought a Glarry case for a build guitar that I haven't finished yet . I put my Greenburst Studio in it since for some reason I keep getting my order canceled for an actual Gibson case. It has decent hardware and the tolex looks okay though it has a similar grain to a football.
Love the Deluxe 👍
Love the videos and your content. So, I have a request, during the sound tests maybe add a backing track to one small part. It would be nice to hear the sound of them along with the band.
Shitoyant?
Blue Sparkle Deluxe. The King of ‘70’s Rawk Git tah.
It screams 'Glam'.
Beautiful guitar!!
As I have developed a habit of saying over the last few years, I would take the one in the middle.
Ok, is it my failing eyes, or is this guitar ridiculously THICK? Being a drummer, I truly love the "metal flake" (aka: "sparkle") finishes. My thoughts? Keep 'em both!!
That guitar sounds great, Trogs! But yeah, I like the darker finish better, too.
Wasn't there a episode where Trogly told us that he sold his first Blue Sparkle LP to Mike Ness?
Yeah pretty sure the one he let go when he got the dark one.
Yes, the first blue sparkle I reviewed and sold is now his. I replaced it with my dark blue a few years later and then picked this up about a year and a half after that
@@Trog thanks for the reply, just couldn't remember after all the videos (I think you told us about it in an unboxing, when you ordered a 70s Deluxe to replace the replaced knobs with vintage correct) of yours I watched over the years (been following your channel since the carpet era). Keep on the good work!
nice, some Jimmy Page for his Birthday.. I like it.
Looks like Mike Ness is gonna come calling again. lol
Yo
Holy shit that sounds heavy
The darker one is nicer looking.
I bought a 76 LP custom that came in the same case.
Howdy everyone!!
I’ll help you with you internal struggle just give me another Les Paul from your collection and you keep both of those 😎😎😎
Very nice considering it's age
Love Mini-Humbuckers - they sound just amazing!