NGD: Orville by Gibson LP Standard

Dave L

Dave L

Well-known member
I´ve been snooping around for a Les Paul Standard-style for years, the only LP I´ve had for a long time is a Greco LP Custom with a Kahler and that´s really something else than a nice, timeless Standard. Anyhoo, I think a lot of the japanese stuff is great bang for the buck and decided to jump on this mid 90s Orville. It´s their LPS-57C model, essentially the same as the ´59 reissue but with a solid plain-top. Gibson 57 Classics bridge and neck, which I guess is where half the name comes from rather than the model year 1957. Looks real sweet and seems like a quality piece, just like I hoped for.

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Well worth tracking one down, I´m still dialing in the set-up here but it feels like a very solid guitar.
 
Sweet axe and 57's are a sweet pickup so you don't even have to mess around you can just get straight to jamming on it. Congrats.
 
Yeah, early returns on those 57s are nice and I was hoping/planning to keep this stock. I have a chrome Dimarzio Air Classic (if they had a cover I think they were called PAF Classics for a while) in the pickup box that would be my next choice, but I think I´m good with the 57s for now.
 
Yeah, I´m not sure how long they were around, ten years maybe? Early 90s to early 00s, perhaps.
 
Congrats!!! Not just an Orville, but an Orville By Gibson as well! If you’re on FB there’s an Orville group where they’ll be able to tell you exactly which factory built it. Most were made out of Fujigen, but some of the earlier ones were made elsewhere. I want to say they ran from ‘88-‘98 and only ended because they decided to improve the Epiphone line.

Mine is my best sounding humbucker guitar and the first guitar I’ve ever played I’d give any “mojo” credit toward. I always believed ya just happened to get a guitar you really dug and people attached the word “mojo” to it, I think I had 14 guitars when I got it and almost immediately said “Oh, this is different….” The sustain is just insane and it sounds fucking huge, to the point that it isn’t the best guitar for a 2-guitar band or recording next to other guitars without some heavy EQ tweaks to get them playing well together. The Suhr Aldrich definitely lends a hand to that, but I’m not touching it because I don’t want that thing changing at ALL.

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I didn’t know these were fotoflames until after I bought it, which didn’t really bum me out too hard. If it ever starts cracking I’ll just have MJT refinish it as a gold top.
 
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Dave L said:
Yeah, the fretboard is probably one of the best pieces of rosewood I´ve ever had. Seems like they took great care in building these.
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RevDrucifer said:
Congrats!!! Not just an Orville, but an Orville By Gibson as well! If you’re on FB there’s an Orville group where they’ll be able to tell you exactly which factory built it. Most were made out of Fujigen, but some of the earlier ones were made elsewhere. I want to say they ran from ‘88-‘98 and only ended because they decided to improve the Epiphone line.

Mine is my best sounding humbucker guitar and the first guitar I’ve ever played I’d give any “mojo” credit toward. I always believed ya just happened to get a guitar you really dug and people attached the word “mojo” to it, I think I had 14 guitars when I got it and almost immediately said “Oh, this is different….” The sustain is just insane and it sounds fucking huge, to the point that it isn’t the best guitar for a 2-guitar band or recording next to other guitars without some heavy EQ tweaks to get them playing well together. The Suhr Aldrich definitely lends a hand to that, but I’m not touching it because I don’t want that thing changing at ALL.

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I didn’t know these were fotoflames until after I bought it, which didn’t really bum me out too hard. If it ever starts cracking I’ll just have MJT refinish it as a gold top.
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Killer looking axe Dru!!!
 
If the serial number starts with a G, I think those were Fujigen and the serials that are just numbers were Terada.

That might not exactly be a 57C because I thought those had fret-end binding, but especially the early Orville's didn't seem particularly standardized, so it might just be an off catalog model or a 57C without the FEB.

Regardless, that is one of the best looking (and I'm sure best built) LPs you could get.
 
This had the nibs but has been refretted and lost them there, as sometimes is the case, so you´re absolutely right. You can sort of tell by looking real close.
 
So I had it backwards:

Terada used a G or J letter at the start of the serial number and Fuji-Gen used a serial number consisting of only numbers and no letters. The Terada G serial number letter basically stood for "Gibson pickups" and the Terada J serial number letter basically stood for "Japanese pickups".

Both obviously make great guitars.
 
Cool, thanks for the info (y)

I´ve got it dialed in real good now, but I´m gonna have to let my tech put a new nut on there. The slots for the A and D strings are filed too low, but that´s not a lot to address on a thirty year old guitar. Should help with tuning stability too, I hear some pings going on in a few of the slots so they´re not great.
 
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