1989 Orville by Gibson Progress Report.....Where I got to tonight.

[d1 guy]

Hello everyone. As you know, I bought this gorgeous 89 OBG off of eBay. It has an amazing solid flame top instead of the more common veneer.

I bought this guitar because it was inexpensive so I could do with it whatever I want. Here is a pic after I unpacked it and unstrung it.

So I ordered an RS guitarworks kit, Gibson m69 pickup rings, Gibson back plates, Seymour Duncan custom shop pickups, and tone pros. Anyways, the wait on the Duncan's is 5-6 weeks and the tone pros aren't here yet either....so I bought 1 used pickup from a gentleman on this forum. It reads in the mid 14s and will be placed in a different guitar when the Duncans get here. The neck pickup is some Japanese dumpster and the bridge is a dubya bee FW. Soooo I started working on her yesterday. This thread is for those of you interested in following me in this little journey.

I placed her on my bench and went to work. The first picture is after I replaced the rings and installed the pickups ill be using for now.

So I ran into a bit of the problem here. The RS Guitarworks pots wouldn't fit through the original holes........oh no.

Remember, I bought this guitar to beat on and enjoy...... So I drilled them out to make the RS kit fit. I haven't finished fitting them nor have I soldered the kit in yet, so ill be posting those pics tomorrow as I progress.

I sorted all the wires, presoldered the wires, and taped them to the back so i can work on each at a time. Here are a couple pics of the back:

Well, that's where I'm at now. She already looks a lot better and sounded great before. I'm sure in a day or two, she will sound phenomenal. Thanks every one for the help you've offered. More pics tomorrow

 

[MauiCliff]

Cool..... Thanks for sharing !!

 

[xnightrainx]

great stuff, keep it coming

 

[3pupLPC]

You have a winner on your hands, congrats. If I remember from your earlier post, that is a G# Terada? If so, it is the best looking back from them I have seen. The top is beautiful- subtle flames.

How is the neck?

Yeah- you typically will always have to open up the pot shaft holes on MIJ's to change out to US. Just for future, it is better to manually bore them out with a round file, than to use a drill... even solid tops can chip.

My 2 cents on aesthestics... aged nickle covers, or double creams. And get rid of the goofy "Standard" TRC!

Your Gibson may become a backup to this one

 

[GammyBird]

Nice to see those cream cavity covers gone too.

 

[d1 guy]

You have a winner on your hands, congrats. If I remember from your earlier post, that is a G# Terada? If so, it is the best looking back from them I have seen. The top is beautiful- subtle flames.

How is the neck?

Yeah- you typically will always have to open up the pot shaft holes on MIJ's to change out to US. Just for future, it is better to manually bore them out with a round file, than to use a drill... even solid tops can chip.

My 2 cents on aesthestics... aged nickle covers, or double creams. And get rid of the goofy "Standard" TRC!

Your Gibson may become a backup to this one

Yes it's a G coded Terada guitar. Thanks for the compliment. The top and back are awesome. The flames are subtle on my work bench but usually jump out a little more under most other lighting. The Birdseye in there looks great too.

The neck is actually quiet chunky which I like. It isn't quiet as big as a 50s reissue but also not nearly as thin as a 60s.

Thanks for the insight on the drilling. The neck tone did chip a tiny bit as I was drilling but it was very small and was covered up by the pointers.

I ordered the Duncan's in zebra so they will be exposed and already put a Jonesy aged truss rod cover on her.

Lastly, that will be ideal if I enjoy this one as much as my 97 R8 flame top. I also have the other 2012 figured and flamed R8 lemon top I just bought from an MLP member. She has big shoes to fill

Thanks for the input.

 

[d1 guy]

Nice to see those cream cavity covers gone too.

Thanks.....she did look kinda ridiculous didn't she

 

[swampblues]

Great job so far but change the caps to Bunble Bee's while you're at it.

 

[Mick51]

You might want to replace the switch with a Switchcraft with braided / cloth wire. Those switches sometimes get flaky, and the better wire will open the sound up a bit.

Congrats on a great catch for an ObG!

 

[d1 guy]

Great job so far but change the caps to Bunble Bee's while you're at it.

Honestly bro I don't think it gets any better than the RS caps. Those things are way better than the bumble bees in my opinion.

 

[d1 guy]

You might want to replace the switch with a Switchcraft with braided / cloth wire. Those switches sometimes get flaky, and the better wire will open the sound up a bit.

Congrats on a great catch for an ObG!

I never thought about the switch. I'll order one of those to install when I get the Duncan's in. Thanks for the input.

 

[Orvillian]

This guitar reminds of one I found on an Oregon Craiglist posting. I am positive it was not a venneer top, looked just like this one. Try as I might, I could not get the seller to sell it too me since I was out of state. I tried and tried but the seller just was too scared that I might be out to scam him. I ended up with an '89 ObG Custom that I love to pieces... bought out of state from Craigslist ironically.

These MIJ guitars are such hidden treasures to the masses.

 

[d1 guy]

This guitar reminds of one I found on an Oregon Craiglist posting. I am positive it was not a venneer top, looked just like this one. Try as I might, I could not get the seller to sell it too me since I was out of state. I tried and tried but the seller just was too scared that I might be out to scam him. I ended up with an '89 ObG Custom that I love to pieces... bought out of state from Craigslist ironically.

These MIJ guitars are such hidden treasures to the masses.

I ran into that a few times when I was looking for a p90s guitar. There are some great deals to be had on Craigslist, but the losers/scammers have given it a bad rep.

 

[3pupLPC]

Yes it's a G coded Terada guitar. Thanks for the compliment. The top and back are awesome. The flames are subtle on my work bench but usually jump out a little more under most other lighting. The Birdseye in there looks great too.

The neck is actually quiet chunky which I like. It isn't quiet as big as a 50s reissue but also not nearly as thin as a 60s.

Thanks for the insight on the drilling. The neck tone did chip a tiny bit as I was drilling but it was very small and was covered up by the pointers.

I ordered the Duncan's in zebra so they will be exposed and already put a Jonesy aged truss rod cover on her.

Lastly, that will be ideal if I enjoy this one as much as my 97 R8 flame top. I also have the other 2012 figured and flamed R8 lemon top I just bought from an MLP member. She has big shoes to fill

Thanks for the input.

Zebra's will look good too... kind of like my LS-80 come to think of it.

 

[GammyBird]

Zebras are the way to go...

My old Bacchus Classic

and ObG 57C...

 

[d1 guy]

Wow guys thanks. That really is the look I'm going for. I think the zebras are so cool. Plus all my others except for my joe perry LP have the nickel covers and the Joe has double black. Thanks again guys.