belleswell
Tele-Meister
Old Guitar Day and some Maestro goodies
On the road in the early 70's with a '63 SG Special. Either Tulsa or Austin iirc.
This guitar is one that has had me on the phone 3 times with Gibson in the
last dozen years. Basically I wanted to know the date. The walnut finish on the
SG Customs were a release that began in '69. Before that, the color offered was an
Alpine White. However my last call to them a little over a year ago answered my questions.
Apparently some of the records had been locked away in a safe for decades and finally saw the light of day. The first couple of times I talked with reps at Gibson, they told me records were a bit sketchy for customs made in the 60's and they were not much help. What they should have said the first couple of times was that they did not have the records as they were locked away.
It was made in late '68 for one of the early releases of these for '69.
The body is mahogany, but the finish is "walnut".
It was made in Kalamazoo, my home state. I bought it in '72 from a girl who had
bought it for her church band, but her words when selling to me were, "It's
too much guitar". Lol
It is now worth many fold what I paid for it. I used it with an Echoplex, Cry Baby wah
made by Thomas Organ, and fuzz pedal, Maestro Phase Shifter, and a 100w Marshall JMP full stack I bought new at Zoppi's in '72.
This guitar has seen more road and play time than any other in my collection.
It was my one and only for many years and has enough mojo to where every other one
of my guitars are jealous.
'86 Special on the left. It came with a factory installed Kahler.
'68 Custom on the right
Here they are making a goldtop sandwich.
Some old fx that are now high priced collectables.
These also were used with the Custom
Maestro Phase Shifter - Slow - Medium - Fast
Maestro Rhythm n Sound
If bass only was selected, the blue rocker switch, then the guitar
would play an octave below it's normal notes. Pretty cool for the
late 60's. My mouth fell open when I saw what these are selling for
nowadays. Wow wow, Echo, Fuzz, even some cheap sounding percussion instruments.
Maestro Echoplex EP-3 made by inventor Mike Battle. RIP
I bought a few extra tape cartridges from his estate sale
when he passed.
The trick to keeping these sounding good was too clean the three
heads often with Q tips and alcohol.
Under the hood of one of them
On the road in the early 70's with a '63 SG Special. Either Tulsa or Austin iirc.

This guitar is one that has had me on the phone 3 times with Gibson in the
last dozen years. Basically I wanted to know the date. The walnut finish on the
SG Customs were a release that began in '69. Before that, the color offered was an
Alpine White. However my last call to them a little over a year ago answered my questions.
Apparently some of the records had been locked away in a safe for decades and finally saw the light of day. The first couple of times I talked with reps at Gibson, they told me records were a bit sketchy for customs made in the 60's and they were not much help. What they should have said the first couple of times was that they did not have the records as they were locked away.
It was made in late '68 for one of the early releases of these for '69.
The body is mahogany, but the finish is "walnut".
It was made in Kalamazoo, my home state. I bought it in '72 from a girl who had
bought it for her church band, but her words when selling to me were, "It's
too much guitar". Lol
It is now worth many fold what I paid for it. I used it with an Echoplex, Cry Baby wah
made by Thomas Organ, and fuzz pedal, Maestro Phase Shifter, and a 100w Marshall JMP full stack I bought new at Zoppi's in '72.
This guitar has seen more road and play time than any other in my collection.
It was my one and only for many years and has enough mojo to where every other one
of my guitars are jealous.


'86 Special on the left. It came with a factory installed Kahler.
'68 Custom on the right

Here they are making a goldtop sandwich.

Some old fx that are now high priced collectables.
These also were used with the Custom
Maestro Phase Shifter - Slow - Medium - Fast

Maestro Rhythm n Sound
If bass only was selected, the blue rocker switch, then the guitar
would play an octave below it's normal notes. Pretty cool for the
late 60's. My mouth fell open when I saw what these are selling for
nowadays. Wow wow, Echo, Fuzz, even some cheap sounding percussion instruments.


Maestro Echoplex EP-3 made by inventor Mike Battle. RIP
I bought a few extra tape cartridges from his estate sale
when he passed.
The trick to keeping these sounding good was too clean the three
heads often with Q tips and alcohol.

Under the hood of one of them

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