FredZepp Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 The three founders of Heritage Guitars (Marv Lamb, J.P. Moats, and Jim Duerloo ) all hired-in Gibson within two years of each other ( 1956 - 58). They all started in white wood sanding and they all progressed to senior management in the 1970's. They did a vast variety of jobs, hands on, including sanding, carving, finishing, neck sanding, repairs , custom shop, pattern making, tooling, wood inspection, etc. .. Marv Lamb: " My father worked at Gibson. I was working at a bakery in Kalamazoo in 1956. He started in January and I got him to get me a job. Dad started working in the lumber yard, that is where they cut the lumber in the "rough mill". " [ Marv's brother and sister-in-law would also eventually work at Gibson in Kalamazoo also ] Going back to the 50's, where did you go to work after sanding? " After about a year , or a year and a half, I went to work in the neck department. Making necks, belt sanding necks." Was there a saw or something to carve the neck? " It was done by hand. The necks came from the mill room in a rough shape. We would take them and glue the fingerboards on them, glue head veneers on them. Then I would take and shape that neck with s slack-belt sander. And we had a guy that would carve the heels; the heels were kind of square. He'd use a spindle carver; it was like an eight blade knife sticking out on a spindle. He would carve the heel and the flair. Then I would take and roll the neck on that slack-belt sander, and round the neck. Then sand it up. Then I'd go over to a spindle sander, which was basically like a spindle carver. Then I'd have a tube sander, and I'd sand it up some more." Now you had quite a bit of control over the shape of the neck then? " Absolutely. I hand shaped a lot of necks. ....." " We had gauges to measure the thickness and we had radius gauges for the curvature of the neck- the roundness. There were certain gauges for certain necks, and certain fixtures for certain necks. And as much hand work as we did on them, I promise you, they varied. But we got as close as we could, once you learned how to do a thing, you'd get them pretty consistent.' " I was doing all that white wood work and neck work during that period 1956-59 ( on the first floor of the original building ) When I went out to the new area (the 1960 expansion ) I was still a 'line leader'. At that time, we hired a lot more people." [ NOTE: Les Paul Standard 'Burst owners are well aware the the 1960 Les Paul Standards neck has a pronounced flat profile verses the rounder U-shaped neck of the 1959 'Burst. The neck machines were relocated in late 1959/ early 1960 at the same time the neck profiles changed. Neck profiles changed back to the U-shaped profile in 1963. ] ( Edited from Gibson Guitars: Ted McCarty's Golden Era )
pegleg32 Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 More great history Fred. Thanks for the continued posts.
tulk1 Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 No wonder Marv is the neck king. I asked Marv to hand carve the neck on my Millie NFH.
pressure Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 I also have asked for Marv to carve the neck on a Mille.
NoNameBand Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 Fred, great stuff. You never cease to amaze me with your historical information and perspective. Thank you
Dasherdave Posted March 25, 2011 Posted March 25, 2011 Wow, awesome history lesson! What an important job those guys had in the neck department!
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