1956 Gibson Country Western

[sixx]

I don't have much vintage guitar knowledge and I've run across a local '56 Country Western in excellent shape, original finish but with a replaced bridge. I'm clueless as to what a fair person to person price might be given original condition minus the new bridge. I'm not sure about the bridge plate itself, or even what the original is supposed to look like so I suppose if you could address the effect on value of a new bridge plate as well - so 2 different scenarios. 1) excellent original condition with new bridge only, 2) excellent original condition with new bridge and plate.



Thanks very, very much for any assistance you can provide. Jon

 

[Grassdog]

Wow - '56 is the first year of production for the CW in the heart of a very well regarded era for Gibson acoustics. An all original one in excellent condition would easily fetch $5K. If the bridge isn't original, well I'm guessing that might knock $1 - 1.5K off the price. A lot depends on whether the replacement bridge is of similar vintage and the workmanship. There's a pretty robust market for Gibsons of this era. If someone else doesn't chime in here there should be some folks over on the Gibson acoustic forum who can give you a good estimate. I have an all original '64 CW but by that time they had gone to a square shoulder and adjustable porcelain saddle. I paid a little less than $3K for mine and that was a great deal. Just an outstanding acoustic.

 

[evenkeel]

I think Grassdog is spot on. $3,500 - $4k given the replacement bridge. Usual caveats; neck angle, overall condition, original case, etc..

 

[gilded]

One value issue is whether the new bridge on your guitar is the same size/shape as the original, or a little bigger, or a lot bigger!

I was talking to a seller last week who has a mid '20s 'O-something' Martin. Those guitars always had small foot-print, non-belly ebony bridges with with diamond shapes cut into the wings of the bridge. But on this guitar, some previous owner/luthier put a large rose-wood belly bridge on this O-sized guitar!. The owner said it was hard to put a value on it, because nobody would even consider buying it with the huge modified bridge!

His solution was to send it to a luthier, replace the bridge with an original size bridge and re-spray the top as 'discreetly' as possible around the void left by the newer bridge on the top.

One other thing. Another friend bought a '53 Gibson SJ a couple of years ago. It had a huge bridge on it and everybody who knew vintage Gibsons thought it was a Gibson replacement bridge from the '70s...

Everybody except a guy who has plethora of old Gibsons. He looked at it and said he'd seen a small number of those big bridges on '50s Gibsons before! Egad! It fooled me!

So, you might want to compare your current bridge with some google pics of a 1956 Gibson Country Western original bridge. You also might want to break down a get a professional valuation from a place like George Gruhn's or Walther Carter's vintage stores.

Final thing. Vintage prices aren't in free-fall descent, but they sure aren't going up. I'd rather be buying than selling right here in the middle of this economic downturn. There might be a big difference between 'current value' and 'normal value' the-way-it-was-3-months-ago.

What do you think?

gilded

 

[Brad Little]

.... If the bridge isn't original, well I'm guessing that might knock $1 - 1.5K off the price. A lot depends on whether the replacement bridge is of similar vintage and the workmanship. ....

Maybe knock off even more if it's one of those god-awful plastic bridges Gibson used in part of the 60s, or(heaven forbid) an adjustable bridge that they used on some during that period.

 

[Quantum Strummer]

Maybe knock off even more if it's one of those god-awful plastic bridges Gibson used in part of the 60s, or(heaven forbid) an adjustable bridge that they used on some during that period.

My Gibson B-15N features both those abominations (plastic bridge, adjustable saddle) and it sounds great.

-Dave-

 

[bobouz]

My Gibson B-15N features both those abominations (plastic bridge, adjustable saddle) and it sounds great.

Yup, absolutely. I've had three vintage Gibsons with the plastic bridge & adjustable saddle (still own one), and they've all had a very satisfying tone. I also currently have 2005 Epi Texan ('64 McCartney reissue) with the rosewood bridge & adjustable saddle setup - and it produces a similarly great tone.

These bridges come in for gobs of hate, and often from luthiers because of their overall weight & because they're so far removed from what one would consider to be an ideal guitar construction method. Also, you have folks who may have played a Gibson with this setup & it sounded like a dog - but in those cases I'd bet the guitar would've sounded like a dog with a standard bridge because it was not a good piece to begin with. Finally, you have people who just like to pile on & have no serious experience with these bridges.

Note > The only one to totally avoid is the NON-adjustable plastic bridge, because string vibrations must travel from the saddle, through the plastic, and then to the spruce top. Here's the scoop on the adjustable saddle setup:

With the adjustable saddle & plastic bridge, string vibrations travel from the ceramic (or sometimes rosewood) saddle to a metal structure that is essentially similar to an archtop guitar's adjustable bridge. The metal structure is directly coupled to the spruce top. The plastic bridge portion is basically a hollow shell that ends up serving only one function > To hold the bridge pins.

As stupid of an idea as it originally was, what ended up happening along the way was that the adjustable saddle structure produced a unique metallic overtone that has appealed to many players over the years (myself included). Yes, some of these bridges have not held up over time, but neither do all standard type bridges. If the adjustable saddle setup has remained structurally stable over time, it's always worth trying one of these instruments to see if the tone produced appeals to you. The plastic bridge & adjustable saddle on my '66 Epiphone Cortez (Gibson B-25 clone) is completely stock & remains totally stable after 54 years.

To out-of-hand dismiss an instrument with this setup is simply a missed opportunity.

 

[gilded]

I have had friends with good ears who have enjoyed Gibson guitars with the plastic/adjustable bridges.

I have had a lot of plastic/adj bridges 'changed out' over the years. Some of the guitars sounded better, some did not.

That said, unless a guitar was dead mint or sounded great, I would still change the bridge out.

Finally, one of the things I don't like about Country Western is the thick pick guards. Granted, you'll see those thick guards on other Gibson models from the mid-'50s.

By the way, I think we must have told the original poster everything he needs to know, because he hasn't been back since the original post!

 

[Quantum Strummer]

By the way, I think we must have told the original poster everything he needs to know, because he hasn't been back since the original post!

Scared off another one…

-Dave-

 

[sixx]

Scared off another one…

-Dave-

Ah geez.... i'm sorry guys. LOTS of great info in this thread. The guitar was gone later that night...my window to act was about 3 hours and i wasnt confident enough to plunk down the cash. My old gibson knowledge is weak.

Sorry to ghost yall....didnt intend to do that at all.