Homepage › Forums › Guitar Discussion › Guitar › Can someone verify what kind of guitar I have?
- This topic has 18 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 16 years ago by Bo Badly.
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March 11, 2008 at 12:05 am #24678Bo BadlyParticipant
I have a Gibson I bought barely used in the late ’70s. The guy told me it’s a Midnight Special and I’ve read about them but have never found a picture with my guitar’s color. It’s a solid, thin body with a funky, deep purple (wine?) color with colorful speckles in the paint. The neck/fretboard is light-colored wood. The hardware is no longer original, I’m sure, so I can’t say much about that. It has two knobs on the front of the body, and they’re squat, clear plastic cylinders with gold at the bottom. The cord plugs into the front, by the knobs. There’s also a white toggle switch near the knobs. “Gibson” is written in black on the face between the tuning knobs.
Is this is a Midnight Special? I’ve just never seen another guitar quite like it.
Thanks for any info anyone may have for me.
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April 10, 2008 at 11:07 pm #771351bassleftParticipant
The other Gibson is Bo Badly’s; not mine, unfortunately. I can bet he’ll be interested to read of your story about the guitar and the association with Paul Stanley. I remember Bo was not wanting to sell, just looking for info. Always nice to think that any other owners that do a search will turn up this thread and find out something they didn’t know. If anyone out there owns an L6S, please take the time to say hello!
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April 10, 2008 at 3:53 am #77098GearheadMember
Oh, no worries. I thought you would like to see your guitar wasn’t some sort of freak or something 😀 So I sent that out of left field !!
Actually these instruments are somehow tied to Paul Stanley of Kiss. In the mid 70’s he played white ones and purple ones for a Kiss Alive tour. Destroyed a couple I hear as well. There are videos on YouTube of this. They of course played off of the Midnight Special theme at Gibson and came up with the name for this particular incarnation of the L6-S. These special colored guitars were very, very limited and they sold them at NAMM right off of the floor that winter. I cannot get anyone to confirm at Gibson how many actually exist but it is likely that there are less than 50 total given the extremely small number of Midnight Specials that DID get documented in Kalamazoo. I was told with the Kiss association and the rare finish this instrument can bring twice that of a regular L6. I have 4 other L6 and I paid the most for this one. About $900 10 yrs ago at a vintage dealer in Frederick MD. The story basically makes it worth more $$. Still not a super desirable instrument by Gibson enthusiast standards but still an interesting beast. Enjoy… ________ [URL=http://trichomes.org/marijuana-strains/og-kush]og kush[/URL]
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April 9, 2008 at 11:54 pm #771631bassleftParticipant
Wow, apols for my flip remark but there was no mention of any glitter finish when I searched the web for info. Thanks for taking the time to post another pic in and welcome to the forum 😀
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April 9, 2008 at 10:56 am #77151GearheadMember
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk93/hessofthewest/S4200065.jpg ________ [URL=http://www.toyota-wiki.com/wiki/Daihatsu_Tanto]Daihatsu Tanto[/URL]
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April 9, 2008 at 10:46 am #77120GearheadMember
Hey, watch out…. another exists !!! I have a cream colored one from the same era with the glitter in the finish. Very, very rare indeed. ________ [URL=http://uhwh.com/]uhwh warehouse[/URL]
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April 2, 2008 at 5:10 am #771481bassleftParticipant
http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/BoBoBadly/DSC01809.jpg
That should do it, albeit a bit of a large pic. Nice looks although, did someone paint the ceiling while the guitar was on the floor?
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March 20, 2008 at 5:03 pm #77088TimParticipant
Link works fine, and I must say that is a very nice guitar!
When you view your image in Photobucket, there’s a box bottom-right giving you 4 addresses, if you click on the one titled ‘IMG Code’ this will automatically copy the code to embed your pic straight into the forum. Just paste it into your message if you want your pic to appear on the board.
Tim.
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March 19, 2008 at 4:55 am #77175Bo BadlyParticipant
1bass
At your suggestion and with your advice and that of others, I’ve uploaded a photo of my wine red Midnight Special onto the web. I hope I did it right. Anyway, following is the link to it. If this doesn’t work I can try something else. (I imagine you’ll have to cut and paste the link into your browser.) Let me know what you think.
http//i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/BoBoBadly/DSC01809.jpg
Bo
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March 19, 2008 at 3:56 am #77142Lou_RankoMember
[quote]I’d be happy to post a picture but, to be honest, I’m not quite sure how to do that with this site[/quote]
Post a link to it. Upload it to this site:
http://www.b3ta.cr3ation.co.uk/upload/
and post the link.
you thicko
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March 14, 2008 at 2:52 am #77140TimParticipant
Yeah, Photobucket is great http://photobucket.com/
TBH, that thread is a bit out of date (and mostly off-topic 😀 ) but only because Photobucket have made it so much easier…it really is a 3-click process now…as long as you can find the pics on your PC; for a photographer my filing is pants 🙄
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March 13, 2008 at 6:40 am #771021bassleftParticipant
Bo, there is a “sticky” at the top of this category; “How to post pics on Guitarsite”. Since the thread was started, Sony has dropped Imagestation as a pic-holder. If you use Photobucket instead, that should work fine.
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March 12, 2008 at 10:23 am #76922Bo BadlyParticipant
1bass, I’d be happy to post a picture but, to be honest, I’m not quite sure how to do that with this site. I email photos but I’ve never posted one on a website. If I can figure it out, I’ll certainly do it.
Bo
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March 12, 2008 at 7:18 am #768741bassleftParticipant
🙂 , again, glad to be of help. If you ever find the time, Bo, try to pop up a permanent pic of your Midnight Special here on G-site. It would be the only Wine Red pic I know of on the whole web, and I’ve certainly hunted around for one 🙂
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March 11, 2008 at 10:15 am #76878Bo BadlyParticipant
1bass — I actually checked out both sites you sent me to. I have no doubts left about what I have. The dealer’s site with the blowup shows my guitar exactly but for the color (albeit in better condition). The Gibson site describes the guitar perfectly. I have to say, I don’t play the guitar much anymore, preferring the feel and sound of my Les Paul, but I still play the Midnight Special now and then. Mostly, though, I really like the way it looks — pretty cool sitting in a stand in the corner, something most people have never seen (and a Gibson, no less).
Thanks again. Nice to be sure of exactly what I’ve got.
Bo
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March 11, 2008 at 9:44 am #768981bassleftParticipant
You’re welcome Bo. Go to that dealer’s website I mentioned:
http://www.guitarattic.com/ug.htm and scroll down all the way to their Gibson guitars. You’ll see a pair of L6S Gibsons, selling at $695 and $595 respectively (IIRC). The second one is a Midnight Special, albeit not in Wine Red. Click on the little thumbnail and you’ll get a huge blowup of it.As you say, the fact that it’s not worth a huge amount isn’t the biggest deal; it can still be a quality guitar. Guitarists generally expected Gibsons to have set necks, humbuckers, mahogany (or, just maybe, walnut) bodies and necks, rosewood fretboards etc. Everytime Gibson ventures from this, they tend to be snubbed and I did see some forum comments elsewhere like “they’re a POS” but probably from people who wouldn’t be seen dead with a Tele Deluxe, even though lots of others would love one.
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March 11, 2008 at 9:18 am #76939Bo BadlyParticipant
Mike, — I’m new to the site and didn’t know I could attach pix. Good tip.
1bass — thanks for your reply. I do think it’s a bolted neck. Still can’t seem to find a picture of this guitar anywhere, but I think you and your info helped confirm that this is a Midnight Special. Seems like a rare guitar in that it’s unusual, but not rare because it’s valuable. Seems more like a failed experiment than anything else. It’s not even in the best shape so I never thought to sell it. Also, it’s worth more to me for memories of playing it in my high school garage band 28 years ago than the money I could get for selling it. But I have been curious about it.
Thanks again for responding.
Bo
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March 11, 2008 at 8:32 am #769611bassleftParticipant
It sounds like one, Bo. The maple-bodied Gibson L6S sold from 1973 to 1979 and the “Midnight Special” is the only one with a natural headstock and “Gibson” in black, instaed of the usual white logo on a black headstock. Yours sounds like the Wine Red with a maple fretboard (also a bit unusual for Gibson).
Here’s Gibson’s page (no Midnight Special pic I’m afraid):
http://www.gibson.com/allaccessfeatures.aspx?aliaspath=/AllAccess/Know%20Your%20Gibson_%20The%20L-6SThe guitar was also discussed here on Guitarsite back in 2004:
https://www.guitarsite.com/discussion/messages/62392.shtmlGuitar Attic has both an L6S Custom and a Midnight Special for sale. You may notice they sell relatively cheaply because they’re not seen as your typical Gibson; too many deviations from the norm for their conservative market. Weirdly, their MS for sale has a “rare” bolt-on neck, which would make it even less desirable to Gibson types. Is yours bolted in? Anyhoo, here’s the shop’s URL:
http://www.guitarattic.com/ug.htmYou’ll need to goto the website linked above to click on a pic of their Midnight Special (a link of the pic here was barred). Well worth going to it, though – it’s a huge pic.
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March 11, 2008 at 7:16 am #76974MichaelParticipant
Hi Bo,
Adding some photos will help other members when they come across this thread.
– Mike
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