Jon Pearson
SS.org Regular
Since I was but a lad flipping the pages of big music store catalogs, I have often thought to myself "man I'd love to have a Les Paul!"
I took quite a few detours on a count of fallen down the rabbit hole of S and near-S shaped objects for many years, but I've finally come home. Good people of SS.org, I present a guitar named Orville:
(One seller photo to show a bit of the subtle figuring of the top, hard to capture):
An Orville LPS-75 (allegedly)!
For those who aren't familiar, back in the late 80s, Gibson sought out Yamano Gakki (music distributor/retailer) of Japan to have guitars made for the Japanese market (as far as I know, these weren't officially distributed outside Japan). There were the "Orville by Gibson" models which often came with some Gibson parts (such as the Bill Lawrence pickups Gibson was using in the late 80s), and then simply the "Orville" guitars, which were all Japanese parts (often Gotoh produced). There is some debate about the use of nitro finishes on the ObG guitars, I've seen claims that it was used on all of them but then there are clear examples where that wasn't the case. Most folks agree that the Orvilles were all poly (mine looks to be based on the way it dents and dings).
There were two different factories involved during the whole period, Terada and FujiGen. I think mine is what is referred to as a "K" series which, from best I can tell, would have been from earlier runs out of the Terada facility that were stored at the Kuramae warehouse facility. These had stickers instead of inked or stamped serial numbers (or perhaps none at all?). Mine either never had a serial or the sticker fell off long ago.
Specs (as best I can tell):
Mahogany body with full thickness maple top
Rosewood fingerboard
Japanese (Gotoh?) ABR1 style bridge and tailpiece
Japanese pickups (Gotoh?)
"Medium" tenon neck joint (looks like long tenon with the tongue cut off)
This thing is a player. Out of the box, the tuners were definitely worn out, but I had a spare set of Wilkinson tuners that fit the bill. After the new tuners, a tune and intonation, this thing is rocking. It's got short, wide frets that I thought I wouldn't like, but I can't stop playing this thing. My only real gripe is purely aesthetic - I don't like the looks of speed knobs. They work great, but there just too big and clunky for my tastes.
A few dings and the top of the headstock has the typical rough edges from wear. For what would have been a budget-friendly guitar that's over 30 years old, not so bad as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks for reading! It's super cool to finally have what I consider to be a "proper" Les Paul.
I took quite a few detours on a count of fallen down the rabbit hole of S and near-S shaped objects for many years, but I've finally come home. Good people of SS.org, I present a guitar named Orville:
(One seller photo to show a bit of the subtle figuring of the top, hard to capture):
An Orville LPS-75 (allegedly)!
For those who aren't familiar, back in the late 80s, Gibson sought out Yamano Gakki (music distributor/retailer) of Japan to have guitars made for the Japanese market (as far as I know, these weren't officially distributed outside Japan). There were the "Orville by Gibson" models which often came with some Gibson parts (such as the Bill Lawrence pickups Gibson was using in the late 80s), and then simply the "Orville" guitars, which were all Japanese parts (often Gotoh produced). There is some debate about the use of nitro finishes on the ObG guitars, I've seen claims that it was used on all of them but then there are clear examples where that wasn't the case. Most folks agree that the Orvilles were all poly (mine looks to be based on the way it dents and dings).
There were two different factories involved during the whole period, Terada and FujiGen. I think mine is what is referred to as a "K" series which, from best I can tell, would have been from earlier runs out of the Terada facility that were stored at the Kuramae warehouse facility. These had stickers instead of inked or stamped serial numbers (or perhaps none at all?). Mine either never had a serial or the sticker fell off long ago.
Specs (as best I can tell):
Mahogany body with full thickness maple top
Rosewood fingerboard
Japanese (Gotoh?) ABR1 style bridge and tailpiece
Japanese pickups (Gotoh?)
"Medium" tenon neck joint (looks like long tenon with the tongue cut off)
This thing is a player. Out of the box, the tuners were definitely worn out, but I had a spare set of Wilkinson tuners that fit the bill. After the new tuners, a tune and intonation, this thing is rocking. It's got short, wide frets that I thought I wouldn't like, but I can't stop playing this thing. My only real gripe is purely aesthetic - I don't like the looks of speed knobs. They work great, but there just too big and clunky for my tastes.
A few dings and the top of the headstock has the typical rough edges from wear. For what would have been a budget-friendly guitar that's over 30 years old, not so bad as far as I'm concerned.
Thanks for reading! It's super cool to finally have what I consider to be a "proper" Les Paul.
