Anyone know of a Chet custom guitar from the late 80's or 90

Posted:
Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:27 am
by JJFreelove
That was advertised in Musicians friend for the low price of $25000.00 and only 40 were made.I have a vivid memory of the magazine and the thought of 25k for one new guitar.Please I could really use some help here any facts to support this memory.If not I guess maybe its time to let go and tell the doc may as well give me all you got cause I cant remember anyway.Thanks and even to disprove me at this point will acctually give me perspective.
Re: Anyone know of a Chet custom guitar from the late 80's o

Posted:
Mon Jan 30, 2012 12:52 am
by Norm
Gibson made a carved top acoustic for him that was a limited edition
"...Gibson’s Jim Hutchins and myself designed the Gibson 4000. Gibson wanted the most expensive guitar they sold to be a Chet model. Hutch and I tried to do something different.
If you had the 4000 and the Super 400 side by side, you would see a lot of difference. The color is different and the 4000 has wider binding. The pick guard is bigger with no screws in the top.
Anyway, they were going to make twenty five of them but I don't know if that is cast in concrete. As for price, Gibson charges what ever the market will bear. A week after it was brought out the price of the carved top guitars doubled
so I think will be mostly doctors and lawyers and people who buy those kind of guitars for investments rather than pickers. Maybe if Chet had got to play it more on TV the 4000 would have been a big seller. I believe he only played it twice on TV before he got sick. I think the 4000 is the best looking guitar Gibson makes...." Paul Yandell cgp
That may be it
There was also talk about recreating the L-10 with the extended fingerboard like the one brother Jim got from Les Paul and passed on to Chet but I don't know if that ever was produced. Those would have been limited editions also. The original idea was they were to include a hardcover version of MAMG book
Re: Anyone know of a Chet custom guitar from the late 80's o

Posted:
Mon Jan 30, 2012 9:53 am
by Ray Bohlken
Norm wrote:Gibson made a carved top acoustic for him that was a limited edition
"...Gibson’s Jim Hutchins and myself designed the Gibson 4000. Gibson wanted the most expensive guitar they sold to be a Chet model. Hutch and I tried to do something different.
If you had the 4000 and the Super 400 side by side, you would see a lot of difference. The color is different and the 4000 has wider binding. The pick guard is bigger with no screws in the top.
Anyway, they were going to make twenty five of them but I don't know if that is cast in concrete. As for price, Gibson charges what ever the market will bear. A week after it was brought out the price of the carved top guitars doubled
so I think will be mostly doctors and lawyers and people who buy those kind of guitars for investments rather than pickers. Maybe if Chet had got to play it more on TV the 4000 would have been a big seller. I believe he only played it twice on TV before he got sick. I think the 4000 is the best looking guitar Gibson makes...." Paul Yandell cgp
That may be it
There was also talk about recreating the L-10 with the extended fingerboard like the one brother Jim got from Les Paul and passed on to Chet but I don't know if that ever was produced. Those would have been limited editions also. The original idea was they were to include a hardcover version of MAMG book
You're right about the L10, Norm. Gibson produced a few of them. Here is a link to a blond L-10 photo. The 2nd link is to a photo of a Super 4000. Both of them are great looking guitars.
Ray
L-10 link
http://www.guitarsale.com/node.aspx?ID=24Super 4000 link
http://www.gruhn.com/features/S-4K/AR3488.html