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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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[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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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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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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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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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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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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