My Vintage Lee Gibbs Concertone Archtop Guitar

I purchased my vintage Lee Gibbs Concertone archtop guitar more than thirty years ago. I still love to play it and my youngest daughter Erika has taken an interest in it, so I wanted to get the binding repaired because it was cracking.

I travel the Chicago metropolitan area for work and end up in Evanston quite often. It can sometimes be a two hour drive to and from Geneva during rush hour. So, I sometimes wait for rush hour to wind down and visit Guitar Works. I have come to know the folks there over the years and decided to trust them with my vintage Lee Gibbs Concertone archtop binding repair.

Terry from Guitar Works in Evanston Illinois, spent over an hour with me detailing the work to be done. Because the binding is wider than normal, Terry had to rip a wide stock piece to get the correct width. I also requested 2 pickguards, one normal and another one so I could install a Kent Armstrong humbucker pickup on it. The binding and pickguard was made from the same cream color material.

Rick Cremer from Cremer Guitarworks in Aurora, Illinois, helped me find the correct pickup and end-pin jack. Rick suggested I go with the thicker Kent Armstrong HJGS-1 Side Mount Jazz pickup. He agreed to let me swap it for the Ultra Thin HJGS3 model if it was too thick. There was plenty of room for the thicker pickup and it sounds fantastic! I put some DR “Pure Blues” nickel electric strings to get a more even sound, and wow!

I promised to followup with with the results, so here are some before and after pics...