Gallery
1933 Gibson Nick Lucas Special
This one-owner Gibson Nick Lucas Special from 1933 was brought to the shop by a family member of the original owner recently for restoration. The guitar was bought new in '33 by Sammy Pitrone, who fronted his own band in which he played the guitar (a photo of Pitrone with the band and holding this very guitar is posted here). Pitrone died in the late 1940s, and though no one else in the family played the guitar the family kept the guitar around because of their fondness for their relative. According to the family the guitar spent the bulk of the last 6 decades stored in a basement pretty much ignored, and without the benefit of a case. When it was brought to me it needed quite a bit of work but it actually fared quite well for having been neglected for so long. It needed a lot of work to be playable again, but little of what was needed was beyond the realm of what may be required for any 80 year old guitar that hasn't been maintained. The list of repairs completed were as follows:
- reglue of several loose top braces
- reglue of several loose back braces
- glue of back crack
- loose center seam (top) repair
- repair worn bridge plate
- make and install replica bridge in Brazilian rosewood
- remove and reset neck
- remove frets, plane fret board to correct unevenness, refret, fill fret board deficits
- fit and install replacement bone bridge pins
- remove worn/mis-matched period tuners and install Waverly relic reproduction tuners
- thorough cleaning of the entire guitar
Finally, we (of course) obtained a good quality hard shell case from Gibson, the same case they used in 2016 when they re-issued this guitar.
The Nick Lucas is, as most vintage guitar enthusiasts know, one of the rarest and most desirable acoustic guitars ever made. But among Nick Lucas models this one is among the rarest, as it was one of the few that was made with rosewood back and sides. Below you'll see a few photos of the Nick Lucas as it was when it came into the shop, followed by the guitar after all the work was done.
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