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.
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.
The Gibson Custom CS356 was the top level version of the Gibson Custom CS336, and was built from 2002 to 2008. Like the CS-336, it was based on a carved Solid Figured Maple top on a chambered single-piece block of Mahogany, routed out to provide the sides, back, center block and tone chambers. Based on its 5-digit serial number with an 8 as its first digit, this example dates to 2008 and as such would be one of the last built. It has very little wear, and is in great condition with only a few minor bumps.
Introduced in late 2001 and built until 2010, the Gibson CS336 is based on a scaled-down ES-335, but there are some significant differences. The body blends a carved, two piece solid Maple top with a solid piece of Mahogany, shaped and routed to provide the inner resonant chambers and the solid center block. In the ES-335 design, the top, sides and back are built traditionally using Maple laminate, with a solid Maple center block added. On this model, the bound fingerboard is Indian Rosewood with dot position markers.
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