My mate had a couple, he loved them but ended up selling them and buying a Gretsch chet atkins. I thought they were awful, same as an SG Special i had from that era as well, slab of wood with a fat neck, lacklustre pickups... Gibson put some real bad stuff out in the 70's, they turned it round in the 80's.Doog wrote:Interestiiiing, have you played one/some of them, Franster? I've not actually played a real one, I kinda wonder if the copy I had wasn't so far from the real deal..Fran wrote:Awful guitar. Take the rose tinted glasses off.
This model epitomizes why companies like Ibanez, Yamaha and Tokai were producing better quality guitars than Gibson by the late 1970s. The Peavey T-60's put these to shame and its only the decal that kept this guitar alive. It was a budget model and considering Les Pauls and SG's of that era are the most undesirable in Gibson history you'd assume this little fella has fuck all going for it. You'd be right too.
It just combines a lot of what I like in a guitar- solid tuning, angled bridge pickup, slightly odd cosmetics without being fugly. Maybe a custom DIY job is a better idea.
I can understand why some people like the Marauder, a bunch of cool players used them because they were an affordable Gibson, but to think they were an hidden gem would not be accurate. The early Juniors were the hidden gem as current price tags now demonstrate.
If you like the aesthetics i cant think of a direct rip off, although a single cut Gordon Smith could maybe be modified. Interesting point on angled pickups; apparently some companies did this because the pole pieces did'nt line up with the bridge string spacing. Not sure if this is one of them examples.
