A story of Gibson and Heritage discards

[Dennis D]

The army surplus story about the bomber jackets reminded me of the ' excess ' Harley Davidson motorcycles used during WWII. Back in the late '50's early, '60's the story was these bikes were just sitting around waiting for new owners and could be bought for next to nothing, by kids just like us............
.......this story had legs almost nationwide, and being from Milwaukee where Harleys were still being manufactured, it seemed worth a try...
.......of course no one we knew ever got one, except this one guy whose cousin knew a guy etc etc......and later on in life I met someone from out East and yup, back then some guy from his school also had the same idea and same story........

.... " just like the one Steve McQueen rode in ' The Great Escape'...."....

[Marty Grass]

I heard that story only it was about Indian bikes.

The army surplus story about the bomber jackets reminded me of the ' excess ' Harley Davidson motorcycles used during WWII. Back in the late '50's early, '60's the story was these bikes were just sitting around waiting for new owners and could be bought for next to nothing, by kids just like us............
.......this story had legs almost nationwide, and being from Milwaukee where Harleys were still being manufactured, it seemed worth a try...
.......of course no one we knew ever got one, except this one guy whose cousin knew a guy etc etc......and later on in life I met someone from out East and yup, back then some guy from his school also had the same idea and same story........

.... " just like the one Steve McQueen rode in ' The Great Escape'...."....

[Dennis D]

I heard that story only it was about Indian bikes.

...and all we supposedly had to do was get a bunch of guys to sign up, etc etc........

......" Ok, so you ask your Dad, and I'll ask my Dad - - - "

[wintermoon]

Pete is not one to exaggerate, but I wasn't there. I don't know why he'd make it up. Walking through his storage area I see tons of old Gibson necks, tuners, tailpieces, and a few bodies. That was before last week's haul.

When I was in the Air Force, the military had an almost uncountable number of excess flight jackets made of leather. Vietnam was over and the style changed. The government could not sell them to any retailer as surplus due to a contract made that protected the manufacturer from having to compete in its civilian leather jacket market with military surplus. The solution was to dig a very large hole and bury them, many hundreds of them, if not thousands, all of them unworn. The PAF story sounds similar.

A band mate of mine got a LP Custom for almost nothing. His mother worked for Gibson. A screwdriver dinged the guitar. Gibson took off the hardware, sawed the body in half, and gave it to her for firewood.

They put a couple of dowels in the body and glued the two halves together. His mother worked in finishing and buffing. The result was a Black Beauty for the cost of some parts, which probably cost next to nothing. While I wasn't there for the PAF story, I got to play the LP Custom quite a bit.

nah, I've spoken to him a few times many yrs ago, seemed like an ok dude.
I don't think he's lying or even exaggerating, I think he just got his pickups mixed up.
as I mentioned before, Gibson used up the last of the PAF's in the early 60s.
which is why as the decade progressed you see instruments w/ both PAFs and Pat #'s in the same guitar.
things like army surplus are a different thing.
sometimes a company retools w/ a new part rendering the old parts obsolete.
but PAF humbuckers were basically the same as early Pat #'s, they're not throwing away something that's the same. makes no sense whatsoever.
but if you get a chance to talk to him maybe he can elaborate.