I am now the proud father of twins!
I picked up my second Gibson Victory Standard today (Lizzy, the one on the left). She's was actually born in Nashville on 22nd November 1981, exactly one week earlier than her sister (Vicky, the one on the right) who was born on 29th November 1981.
I rescued Vicky from an abusive previous owner - you can see I currently have her partly disassembled for refurbishment to near-original condition. She was originally candy apple red, but the previous owner refinished in her white. The refinish is a decent job, and I will probably keep it, but I still think it's sad. He also carved his freaking name in the pickguard and stripped most of the black paint off the headstock, which is pure and simple sacrilege. Rest assured, I am getting a new pickguard built (as close as possible to original specifications) and the headstock repainted.
Lizzy needs a bit of a clean-up, a set-up and some new strings but is otherwise in great condition.
Victory basses were only built from 1981 to 1986, during the last dying days of the Norlin-era, as an attempt to wrestle sales away from the Fender Precision bass. While the Norlin-era is often denounced as producing poor quality guitars, as far as I can tell the Gibson Victory is a rugged, well-built exception.
Anyway, this is my humble contribution to preserving the history of bass guitars (and not just another Fender).
I picked up my second Gibson Victory Standard today (Lizzy, the one on the left). She's was actually born in Nashville on 22nd November 1981, exactly one week earlier than her sister (Vicky, the one on the right) who was born on 29th November 1981.
I rescued Vicky from an abusive previous owner - you can see I currently have her partly disassembled for refurbishment to near-original condition. She was originally candy apple red, but the previous owner refinished in her white. The refinish is a decent job, and I will probably keep it, but I still think it's sad. He also carved his freaking name in the pickguard and stripped most of the black paint off the headstock, which is pure and simple sacrilege. Rest assured, I am getting a new pickguard built (as close as possible to original specifications) and the headstock repainted.
Lizzy needs a bit of a clean-up, a set-up and some new strings but is otherwise in great condition.
Victory basses were only built from 1981 to 1986, during the last dying days of the Norlin-era, as an attempt to wrestle sales away from the Fender Precision bass. While the Norlin-era is often denounced as producing poor quality guitars, as far as I can tell the Gibson Victory is a rugged, well-built exception.
Anyway, this is my humble contribution to preserving the history of bass guitars (and not just another Fender).
