[GEO]

Has anyone ever seen (either in the flesh or in pics or vids) a (1963) Gibson Thunderbird II that in place of the white plastic pickguard had a custom ebony pickguard with an abalone T-bird inlay?
Also, according to this site, only 2 1963 T-bird II's were "shipped" Exactly what does this mean? Shipped where? To the UK? /Anywhere? And how does that relate to actual production/sales that year? Any clearing up on these questions would be greatly appreciated.

Curious Geo

[guitarshark]

Nah, that's gotta be done by somebody after the fact...never heard of a factory ebony pickguard wth a pearl T-Bird insignia from Gibson.
"Shipped" means simply sent from the factory to a dealer. Anywhere.

[guitarshark]

Oh, to address the last part of your question, it means that however many instruments were manufactured in '63, two left the factory. So there could've been more T-Birds produced that year but not shipped until '64.

[GEO]

The ebony pickguard on the 63 T-bird in question was in fact not factory, but custom made. (by me) Still wondering if it's ever been seen by anyone as it would be hard to miss. It's a long story in terms of background and the instrument itself only speaks bass.

As far as the second inquiry, that would explain how there could have been only 2 shipped in 63. I then assume that serial numbers would determine the year produced even if shipped in the following year?

Thanks for your input.

[guitarshark]

Yes, the serial # and possibly pot codes would determine the year on manufacture.

[jules]

Hi Geo
Instrument manufacture takes several months. The serial number may not be stamped until quite some time after the process starts. The pot codes are the date that the pots were made. Shipping figures, as already stated, are related to when the guitar leaves the factory.

In the sixties this all happened relatively quickly for most models, though there are exceptions - the EB2s in the second half of the sixties were hanging around whilst they had finishing problems, and the Thunderbirds were notoriously slow-selling, and may have said unshipped for some time. Later Gibson decided to stop the situation where they made before they were ordered, because they were loosing too much money on unsold stock.

The concept of 'year' for a bass is tricky if it is one of these that didn't have a fast turnaround... in reality it may be several years!

[guitarshark]

Right, pot codes are the date that the pots were manufactured. As you said, in the sixties, most guitar companies were moving a lot of product, so the pot codes are often only a few months earlier than the shipping date of the instrument.
In the case of Fender, I've seen lots of original '66 date code pots as late as '72 because CBS cut a deal with CTS and bought mass quantities for a cheaper price.
Many of the non reverse Thunderbirds I've examined had mid '65 date code pots, even ones with chrome (not nickel) hardware, so I suspect what you said about slow sales of T-Birds is right.
I can clearly remember an NOS Cardinal Red non reverse T Bird II for sale in a local music shop when I first started playing in 1974...

[Raven1844]

I jammed with a group once who had a black Thunderbird sitting in their practice room which had a pearl/abalone T-bird logo and the word "Riley" inlaid into the pickguard. They said one of their old bass players just left it there, and they had no idea if it was custom or anything about it's origins.