How many 74s WHITE Customs Gibson did?

[LesAdrian]

That is a good question

[dwagar]

AFAIK there are no shipping totals by color available.

[Gregzy]

Originally Posted by LesAdrian

That is a good question

Strangely there are no figures given for 1974 but in "American Guitars" by Tom Wheeler the shipping totals listed for white 1975 LPCs is 2745...more than were shipped that year in ebony (2006). The figures for white LPCs in 1976 is 159..in 1977 only 47 and 441 in 1978. Somewhere I have some scans from the late 70s of the actual ledgers re: shipping totals and if I can find them I'll post what they state..but I think the scans only cover K-Zoo production. I seem to recall reading where in 1974 they shipped a huge number of white ones...over 4000 if memory serves me. I researched this because I happen to own a non-Anniversary white 1974...I'll see if I can locate the scans...

[LesAdrian]

Originally Posted by Gregzy

Strangely there are no figures given for 1974 but in "American Guitars" by Tom Wheeler the shipping totals listed for white 1975 LPCs is 2745...more than were shipped that year in ebony (2006). The figures for white LPCs in 1976 is 159..in 1977 only 47 and 441 in 1978. Somewhere I have some scans from the late 70s of the actual ledgers re: shipping totals and if I can find them I'll post what they state..but I think the scans only cover K-Zoo production. I seem to recall reading where in 1974 they shipped a huge number of white ones...over 4000 if memory serves me. I researched this because I happen to own a non-Anniversary white 1974...I'll see if I can locate the scans...

Can you imagine how many are in the bed,i think that there are a lot

[HOT-BRIT]

it is hard to determine how accurate any of the statistics are

[Gregzy]

Originally Posted by HOT-BRIT

it is hard to determine how accurate any of the statistics are

and this too. I think Gibson/Norlin kept this information pretty close to the vest to prevent competitors from figuring out their costs and margins.

[dwagar]

I think it was more that they never imagined there'd be a day anyone would really care about this stuff.

I'd be surprised if the number was 4,000. They shipped about 7500 Customs in '74, I think Black was the most common color.

[Gregzy]

Originally Posted by dwagar

I think it was more that they never imagined there'd be a day anyone would really care about this stuff.

I'd be surprised if the number was 4,000. They shipped about 7500 Customs in '74, I think Black was the most common color.

Yes, my resources show that 7563 total LPCs were shipped in 1974 (still third to 1973's 8322 and 1978's 10,850 (combined K-Zoo and Nashville production)) but I don't have a by color break down of those figures...Being that 1974 was the introductory year for both the white option and the Anniversary model I wouldn't be surprised at the 4000+ figure for white '74s. According to Wheeler, black was the most popular color except for 1975 and presumptively 1974 (and I'm adding my presumption of 4000 (of 7563-about the same color to color ratio as 1975's 2745 white to 2006 black sales) as well considering the known popularity of white '74 Anniversary models). As far as anyone knowing about this stuff or wanting to...the man who got me started in the vintage thing back about 1978 started collecting Loar mandos in the 40s and Martin pre-war "Bones" in the 50s so there's always been active collectors...it's just that since the late 80s that everyone else wants to be Scott Chinery which has done nothing but drive up the price of quite ordinary instruments and made collectibles out of some Asian crap I wouldn't even have owned "back in the day". It's a finite supply so as the collector base grew the bar kept dropping as to definition of "collectible"

[HenryHill]

Originally Posted by Gregzy

Yes, my resources show that 7563 total LPCs were shipped in 1974 (still third to 1973's 8322 and 1978's 10,850 (combined K-Zoo and Nashville production)) but I don't have a by color break down of those figures...Being that 1974 was the introductory year for both the white option and the Anniversary model I wouldn't be surprised at the 4000+ figure for white '74s. According to Wheeler, black was the most popular color except for 1975 and presumptively 1974 (and I'm adding my presumption of 4000 (of 7563-about the same color to color ratio as 1975's 2745 white to 2006 black sales) as well considering the known popularity of white '74 Anniversary models). As far as anyone knowing about this stuff or wanting to...the man who got me started in the vintage thing back about 1978 started collecting Loar mandos in the 40s and Martin pre-war "Bones" in the 50s so there's always been active collectors...it's just that since the late 80s that everyone else wants to be Scott Chinery which has done nothing but drive up the price of quite ordinary instruments and made collectibles out of some Asian crap I wouldn't even have owned "back in the day". It's a finite supply so as the collector base grew the bar kept dropping as to definition of "collectible"

A 'bubble'. I remember how in the mid to late 80's and just into the 90's that Italian sports cars jumped 20 and 30 fold, then it collapsed again. Prices on desirable, deserving stuff pulls up the prices on other 'not so' stuff, too.

History repeats itself, so everyone needs to always consider that what you could be pulled into paying now, thinking of Appreciation, may not even hold it's value down the road and in other cases you may lose your ass and need to own it forever or face the devastating fact of value implosion.

Henry has so capitalized on this market bubble, thanks to his background...he thinks it 'cause he's the chit.

'What it's worth' can change; the direction of change mostly follows which side of the 'not so' line it's on.