The Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III, the last iteration of the Howard Roberts models, appeared in 1991 and was built until the model was discontinued around 2010, though it went out of production between 2003 and 2005. The first Fusion models appeared in 1979. Howard Roberts was a prominent American jazz guitarist, session player and teacher, born in 1929 and died in 1992. As part of the key LA session crowd The Wrecking Crew, Roberts played on many recordings, TV show and movie scores.
Nashville
In 1963 the Gibson Dove Natural Top was second from the top of the Gibson catalog, with a square shouldered dreadnought body and distinctive hand painted and inlaid pickguard. The Dove first appeared in 1962 with a cherry sunburst finish. Until the 1960 Hummingbird, Gibson dreadnought acoustics used a round or ‘slope’ shouldered design, differentiating it from the square-shouldered Martin design. The classic J-45 has been a prime example of the slope shoulder, though it too shifted to square-shouldered in 1968 (and was discontinued in 1982; when reintroduced in 1984 it was again slope-shouldered).
The Gibson SG Special first appeared in 1959, but as a Les Paul model featuring a slab body with rounded double cutaways. For 1961, the Les Paul line was completely redesigned and by 1963 the SG name replaced Les Paul’s. Here we’re looking at a Gibson SG Special in the classic Gibson cherry finish, with the short Vibrola tailpiece and compensated ‘stop bar’ bridge combination.
Introduced in 1938 and in constant production since then, the Gibson SJ200 is one of the largest and most recognisable steel string models. Here we’re looking at a very nicely preserved Gibson SJ200 dating to 1951 and built at the Parsons Street plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It is in overall rather good condition with some wear, but less than we often see on guitars approaching the 70 year old mark.
Guitar makers and players sometimes don’t want to go for an understated approach, and the Gretsch Sparkle Jet G6129T is a case in point. Featuring a wildly metallic sparkle layer on top of chambered, single cut Mahogany body with Maple laminate top, the Sparkle Jet is anything but subtle. The Gretsch Jet models were introduced in 1955 as a response to the Gibson Les Paul. At the time, Gretsch was resistant to solidbody designs and so the Jet is heavily chambered. The Mahogany back has spaces routed into it, and a Maple laminate top is applied.