were you a NORLIN user in your Teens? - I still am today!

[zak9990]

I have Four Norlins To me there REAL GIBSONS
all 1972's except the L5S is a '73 -
I do not own Modern Day Gibsons -
I can afford the good ones $6k $8k range -
I don't have that in all these. and
I'm used to Norlin's the L6-S was Free came as a Husk with Tuners and bridge
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All very nice........ sweet Deluxe LP.

 

[DeafDumbBlind Kid]

I was too poor as a teenager to afford a Norlin.

 

[Becker34]

I got both of my Norlin LPs when I was a teenager.

First one was my 85 LPC. Was either 14 or 15. My dad agreed to get me any used electric in the store where I took lessons. This was the cream of the preowned crop.

The LPC was and still is a beautiful guitar. I figured I needed a POS beater LP. Scored this from a teacher at the shop (not the one I took lessons from) because he needed "rent money" really bad. Practically stole it even by 1990 or '91 standards. It's an '80. It looked like it hadn't been wiped down since the mid '80's but cleaned up nicely. It became my #1. No idea why it has witch hats. My guess is he swapped the speeds it should've came with with a LPC because he was disgusted by it.

Still have both.

 

[1allspub]

Funny…I ran across these random pics from a show somewhere, probably around ‘98/‘99. We were hard rock and I used to rock the F out, so yes, this was my ‘gig face’. lol. I’m mellower on stage nowadays…sort of. Down below is a link to a video we did in 2002 where I used both guitars. The video helped us to almost get signed to MCA. Unfortunately, Napster killed the industry at that time and we were left w/o any path forward that the others were willing to take (self promotion, releases and touring).

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Killer tune!

 

[AJK1]

I’m pretty sure I was 18 or 19 when I bought my first Gibson, a new Explorer E2 in Brown Sunburst, I also bought a new Hamer Blitz from Paul Hamer himself at the same time so I was rocking two Explorers in the same band
I then bought a ‘72 Black Custom, a Yellow L6s and then a walnut The Paul but they were when I was 22

 

[01GT Eibach]

I was 15 when I bought my first good guitar, a 1983 SG Special II with a chainsaw case. So a Norlin, but a later one.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. In 1981, as a 15-year-old I bought my first good guitar, a used 1979 SG Standard being sold by Mike Varney who lived down the street from me and was selling his #2 guitar to help fund his start-up of his Shrapnel Records empire. A few years later after a huge amount of success, he wanted it back, but I was not selling -- I still own it. Although I really had no idea at the time, it is a Kalamazoo one-piece body guitar, a real player for sure.

 

[fernieite]

Yep, I had a 1971 sunburst deluxe back in the early 80s as a teenager. Sold it, and my tweed Deluxe amp in 1987.
I miss that rig!

I think this is my only photo of it. This was in a guy's apartment the day I traded my '63 Tele for it.

 

[moreles]

Absolutely not. No one I knew had anything by Gibson except perhaps one or two of the rich kids -- you know, the ones who took guitar lessons, had their own nice amp, etc. because their parents actually had money and bought that stuff for them. The rest of us paid our own way, and the idea of buying a new Les Paul was ridiculous. We never bought or played Norlins not because we didn't like them -- they were inconceivably nicer than the crap we had -- but because they were entirely out of reach. We resented and disliked fancy-pants peers who had professional-level instruments and amps. So no, we didn't play Norlins during the Norlin era.

 

[mudface]

Absolutely not. No one I knew had anything by Gibson except perhaps one or two of the rich kids -- you know, the ones who took guitar lessons, had their own nice amp, etc. because their parents actually had money and bought that stuff for them. The rest of us paid our own way, and the idea of buying a new Les Paul was ridiculous. We never bought or played Norlins not because we didn't like them -- they were inconceivably nicer than the crap we had -- but because they were entirely out of reach. We resented and disliked fancy-pants peers who had professional-level instruments and amps. So no, we didn't play Norlins during the Norlin era.

You're right,...my parents didn't have any money either,... I worked for everything i got. I had many jobs as a kid....paper route (that sucked)....mowing lawns and landscaping....washing cars....a carpenters helper....painting.....and my least favorite picking fruit and nuts. Including skipping lunch at school and pocketing the money. (don't tell my parents).

My parents had bought me one guitar for christmas (a '79 Gibson The Paul Deluxe for $300) and encouraged my musical ambitions but i had to do the hard work myself including paying for lessons. 1 hour a week for $9. Layaway and payment plans at every music store that would let me.

It all started when i was 12 years old when the only guitar i had was a $15 Teisco Del Rey.....had my first Gibson Les Paul Custom when i was 15.

You can't get there staring through a window.