Musical Stuff

Over on the right you can see the prize of my modest guitar collection--a near-mint special-order 1962 Gibson ES-175D, built in Gibson's Custom Shop apparently for a "Billy Warner". It features two legendary "Patent-Applied-For" (PAF) pickups--I looked--and a real oddity, Gibson's quirky Stereo Varitone circuit, generally seen on their higher-level Electric Spanish (ES) semi-hollowbody models, an addition that is original, in that it is noted by a stamp on the oval-shaped orange ID label located under the left (upper bout) F-hole. On the trapeze-style tailpiece you can see a wood and plastic engraved nameplate that says, "Custom Made for Billy Warner".

I bought this guitar from the second owner--a great guy neamed Joe--who had owned it ever since he fell in love with it in the basement guitar store at McCoy's Music in Norristown, PA back in 1965 and subsequently bought it on the spot. So Billy Warner, whoever he is (or was), apparently got tired of this special order beauty pretty quickly, or else needed money--who knows? How I came to hear of it is another story--Joe walked into Franzone's Pizzeria, which was located two blocks from where I used to live in Bridgeport, PA, and asked the cook if he knew anyone who wanted to buy a Gibson ES-135. I was friendly with the cook, so he gave him my number then called me with his, and as I recall I ended up calling him, completely unaware of what he had (he just couldn't quite get the model number right). So off I went to see what he had. When I got there, Joe greeted me and ushered me into his living room, where on the couch was a mint original hardshell case and outer protective canvas cover, opened to reveal the mint plush yellow interior lining and a beautiful sunburst-finished ES-175D. I literally lost my breath, and it was a minute or two before I could speak. In the distance, Joe was telling me that the guitar never quite sounded right, although it looked fine to me. I thought that the Varitone circuit was the culprit so thought that, what the heck, I'd take a flier on it and we agreed on a price. That night, back at home with the guitar and my Korg DT-1 tuner, I discovered that the wooden bridge was installed backwards! None of the strings could possibly be intonated properly, so I reversed the bridge, and voila! Perfection. Well, there were some belt-buckle indentations in the back, but that was the extent of it. Otherwise, the only piece missing was one of the leather pulls from a cover zipper, which Joe had dutifully saved in a paper envelope. Amazing.

Joe was just a super guy, who I think knew he had limited time left here with us. I was later told that he had just sold a collection of 61 guns, mostly Lugers and other collectible pistols, and had another couple of guitars he was going to pass on to his son. I still pass his house every once in a while and wonder whatever happened to him.

By the way, I emailed Gibson and asked about this particular guitar, which from the serial number they were able to tell me came from a batch made in July of 1962, and to the best of their knowledge, the only ES-175D model ever delivered with a Stereo Varitone circuit. And they have no idea who Billy Warner was (or is). Billy--come in please!

And so it goes. Frankly, I'm running out of steam here, so I'm going to cut my favorite musical links out of my Netscape bookmark file and put them up here. In fact, I'm going to be doing a lot more of this in the near future in the other sections as well. I should just post the whole bookmark file somewhere, but that might not be prudent, now that I think about it.

No special order here. And you may notice that these are first music and then audio-related links. I'll straighten it all out when I get a chance. By the way, for those of you that came this far--thanks. I appreciate it.

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