Gibson hawaiian hg series
Thanks in advance
/peki jansson
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ned Knepp on
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Guess what just turned up on Ebay.... 1932 HG. I've read that these have never been too popular and that it is not one of the more valuable of Gibson's designs. I don't know what the production numbers were but my impression is that they were not build in great numbers.
As I write this, the bid is at 89.00 with a reserve that hasn't been reached. I have no idea how high it might go but it certainly is a chance for you to own an an original that you could use to make measurements.
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Permalink Reply by Kerry Krishna on
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I cant see how it would even be restoreable. At least it is strung up though.
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Permalink Reply by charley erck on
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Kerry, restoreable? The e-bay H G ? I thought it looks in pretty good shape. ?
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Permalink Reply by PER-ERIK JANSON on
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Thanks Ned, have to check it out. Wouldn´t it be sweet...
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Personally, I think it's fixable but I don't know at what cost. As I mentioned before, it seems to me that these don't bring all that much money but I could be wrong.
I think this one has been refinished and there may be some distortion around the end of the fingerboard/ soundhole area. Of course there are the holes in the top and anything else that may not show up in the pictures.
I was pointing it out because having one to inspect and, perhaps, disassemble would be better than blue prints IF it could be purchased at a low enough price.
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Painted top..
Still a historical oddity. I imagine there are a few of us here that could tackle it and get it up and running. I certainly would not be able to do the job justice though.
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I'm on it... It would be relatively easy to disassemble the back and put it back together since there is no bindings.
The seller doesn't ship international so have to figure something out in case i land it... and the price is right
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Beeing outbid all the time, guess i have to wait till closing..
Anyway the pics show some of the baffle construction inside, maybe i go with that and a set of j-45 plans from stewmac. The bracing is probably same as the j-45 maybe a bit stiffer...
...And futhermore THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU FOR THE REPLIES!! :-)
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This is what I could find in my small reference library.
According to "Gibson's Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars" the HG -22 and 20 is 14 1/2 inches at the lower bout, 10 3/8th inches at the upper bout and 9 5/8th at the waist.The scale length is 24 1/4 inches and the body is 4 1/4 inches at the tail block and 3 1/2 at the neck block. The back and sided on these models is maple or, maybe, beech but the inner baffle is mahogany. It is the same shape as the sides but set in about 2 inches from them. It is attached to the top and extends to about 1 inch from the back. The bridge is a narrow rectangular bridge with a straight saddle.
The HG-24 was made in the same manner but it was a "Jumbo" size with rosewood back and sides. The information I have said that the maple guitars seemed to be more pleasing to most people. BTW, they also mention that none of the guitars sound very good setup and played as a standard guitars and that they should be setup and used as slide guitars only. Used that way they are among the best sounding of all wood only slide guitars made.
All of the models had a small round sound hole in the standard location with the "f" holes cut between the sound well and the outer sides. The upper bout "f" holes were pretty small. They don't really address the neck placement but there are some notations about the Jumbo flat-top being developed from the HG-24 but with a 14th fret neck set. They also say that the "Roy Smeck" Hawaiian guitar was the same jumbo body with the neck 12 frets long. This guitar also had a neck width of 2 1/4 inches at the nut to help with slide playing. Naturally the shorter neck means that the bracing and the bridge were moved from their location in the Jumbo. Unfortunately, they don't elaborate in this. I'm not sure but this guitar may not have had the sound well or the "f" holes. They comment that the changes made to the Jumbo to turn it into a "Roy Smeck" were only what was needed to make it a Hawaiian guitar.
Everything else is about production finish and general opinions about the guitars. There are a couple of models made in the late 30s that were based on the L-00 flat-topl. Both the HG-00 and the HG-Century were basically the L-00 with heavier bracing, a straight bridge and a high bone nut. Neither had the sound well or the "f" holes.
Hope this helps.
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Hi Ned! Thanks for the info, i have the book ... great piece of work, sorry I didn't mention that. your help is very appreciated, shows you care about the community and fellow guitar geeks...
I bought Roy Smeck drawings from flip scipio some years ago in order to build replicas of them, and I must say that flips drawings are a pice of art in it self. I find the smeck body to differ a bit from the hg bodies, the smeck soundhole is, because of the 12 fret neckjoint, a bit "aft" to the hg guitars that more resemble the modern j-45.
I tried to contact some luthiers reg the hg hawaiians, f scipio, rick turner, dan erlewine but no-one has to this date been able to help, altough they have replied most promptly, the hg seems to be a oddity in the vintage guitar world.
The first replica I made is a "hawaiian" style smeck, and it sound as big as promised in the litterature, here is a link to some pics. Two more smecks are in the making, a regular and a hawaiian style
http://gallery.me.c…rerikjansson/100379
The Smeck is also hailed as a fantastic spanish style guitar as well, ie Jackson Browne owns a number of them and also has a signature guitar out by gibson, as you probably know. Ry Cooder, my hero, has recorded with one.
The reference to the hg-20 beeing a great lapstyle instrument made me explore more about it and led me to this community...
cheers
/peki
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Looks like you built a nice guitar. My brother and I shared a mid 50's J-45 that had that sloped shoulder look. Your's looks like a nice clean design. I like that. I haven't seen any of the smeck models but it stands to reason that they would sound good setup as a standard guitar.
I remember seeing a HG in a pawn shop a couple of decades ago but I didn't know what it was then. I remember think it was a shame to do that to an old Gibson. I don't remember how much they wanted because I didn't care enough to take it down an look at it. I'm not a slide player (yet) but you have me wondering if I should have paid more attention.
It seems to me that the HG's haven't been too popular so it may be that you are one of the few people that is interested in copying them. You have be embarking on a journey to save a bit of history for Luthier posterity.
Ned
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Thanks for watching Ned, I guess I'll have to heat up the sidebender and see where it takes me. I find that the old luthiers and guitarcompanies had a spirit of exploring that seems to be a rarity today amongs modern builders. Who would think of putting out models like these today, other than a limited run maybe.
The market is far more bigger today, more players, music beeing spread around the planet in seconds emphasis in visual looks, and yet all you see is d-shaped acoustic or maybe a smallbodied guitar.
There is deffinitely a market out there for someone to grab...
Thanks again, keep you posted.
/peki
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