murkat Posted June 12, 2012 Posted June 12, 2012 An acquaintance from the GCS, and a friend, Frank Pine, who makes the "Less Tall" mini Les Paul, http://www.histrungguitars.com/ , been mulling over and wanting to do his old Jr. dbl cut in TV yellow, the old school way. frank finally sent me the fiddle. Not easy. Already was re re finished in shellac a very long time ago. Rock hard. Very difficult to get all of it off and then some. Then many attempts to get the now end result. I think it turned out great. I did learn a few things at the GCS.... It is pretty much all stock parts. and a tasty sounding P90 at that. enjoy.
Bennyboy-UK Posted June 12, 2012 Posted June 12, 2012 Incidentally, just an old JR question in general, do the quite severely offset stop tails intonate ok, you see some with quite a pronounced angel and some with less, is that purely down to the offset of the set screws, back in the old days with heavy and different string gauges to today?
tbonesullivan Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 How is the original "tv yellow" done? I've heard some reference to "limed mahogany" over the years, but every time i see picture of that, it looks nothing like TV yellow.
edgar_allan_poe Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 Incidentally, just an old JR question in general, do the quite severely offset stop tails intonate ok, you see some with quite a pronounced angel and some with less, is that purely down to the offset of the set screws, back in the old days with heavy and different string gauges to today? Intonation is for pussies.
gtone Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 Looks great - I'm feeling it! Shellac huh? Methinks our pal Jay earned his pay with that one...
murkat Posted June 13, 2012 Author Posted June 13, 2012 How is the original "tv yellow" done? I've heard some reference to "limed mahogany" over the years, but every time i see picture of that, it looks nothing like TV yellow.Well, consider this moment it history...Back in the 50's even late 40's, Gibson figured it out that if they get a guitar into a performer's hands, they would sell 20. Marketing.Then TV came along.Now that Gibson is a established marketing monster, they wanted thier product on TV. Now known as product placement.But Gibson was not going to hand over high priced guitars to every wannabe with a maybe one hit single that was only going toLipsink there hit on whatever show is on.So, Gibson developed Guitar "props", a cheap, close facilmate to a more pricey guitar. Something that would have verylittle into it, and in return, a large amount of revenue do to the exposure.Gibson supplied instrument props for the musical TV shows.But, there was a problem, White looks like a sun spot on B&W tv, But yellow does not.The birth of TV yellow.Now, remember, these props were made very cheaply to do a specific need. Also was the finish....Basically a color wash over grain filled wood, sealed, buffed out.Due to the overwhelming responce of inquire from Gibson dealers seeing these guitars on TV,Gibson offered them to the dealers as Jr. , student, starter guitars at a reasonable price with a high profit margin.Who knew back then what tones came out of these cheap TV props in the right hands of some kown talent...Leslie West, Steve Marriot, Pete Townshend, etc. P-90's rule.The same principle of marketing is still in use today for Gibson.Credit score dot com ads....Jimi Fallen doing a credit card add...
velorush Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 Way cool! I going to go out on a limb here and say that I prefer that finish to the shellac!
Bennyboy-UK Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 How is the original "tv yellow" done? I've heard some reference to "limed mahogany" over the years, but every time i see picture of that, it looks nothing like TV yellow.a sun spot on B&W tv, But yellow does not.The birth of TV yellow.Now, remember, these props were made very cheaply to do a specific need. Also was the finish....Basically a color wash over grain filled wood, sealed, buffed out.The same principle of marketing finishing is still in use today for Gibson, just without the grain filling, or proper sealing...somebody may alledgeFixy...
hamerhead Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 I was probably sleeping in class that day, but I don't think I ever knew the origins of 'TV Yellow'. I learned something today.I hate that.
tbonesullivan Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 Oooo.. .a 1958 LP Junior on feebay: www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1958-Gibson-Les-Paul-Junior-Jr-TV-Yellow-Super-Clean-NEW-PICS-/270874831196See, there is grain showing through the finish. Most of the modern 'TV Yellow' FInishes these days are pretty much opaque, so you can't see the grain. I have seem "limed mahogany", which was popular in the 50's on furniture, but it's closer to white than to yellow. then again I've seen a lot of variety in the colors on original guitars. Question always is, what color were they when new, instead of 50 years old with yellowed nitro finish.Just rambling, I guess. I have seen some new "limed mahogany" LP style guitars that look quite a bit whiter than TV yellow. I guess really, the question is maybe are the tv specials limed, or is it just that the finish is meant to look like they've been limed?
hamerhead Posted June 13, 2012 Posted June 13, 2012 I think that's 'Limey' mahogany.Damn Brits anyways.
Question
murkat
An acquaintance from the GCS, and a friend, Frank Pine, who makes the "Less Tall" mini Les Paul,
http://www.histrungguitars.com/ ,
been mulling over and wanting to do his old Jr. dbl cut in TV yellow, the old school way.
frank finally sent me the fiddle. Not easy. Already was re re finished in shellac a very long time ago. Rock hard.
Very difficult to get all of it off and then some. Then many attempts to get the now end result.
I think it turned out great. I did learn a few things at the GCS....
It is pretty much all stock parts. and a tasty sounding P90 at that. enjoy.
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