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Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III?
This coming week, I will be looking at a late 90s Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III semi-hollow body archtop. From what I understand, sometime around the early 90s, Gibson switched from a hard tail to the gold fingers. I have heard mixed comments about restringing with those gold fingers being a hassle.
Anybody here with experience with these guitars care to comment on whether that model is worth a look? I don't hear/read much about these, but since one is available locally (I don't buy guitars mail order), I thought it would be interesting to check it out. I am getting really comfortable with my Ibanez AF95FM archtop (see the thread about cheap archtops), but when a Gibson comes along, I do take notice. There is a local shop that stocks Eastman archtops, but unfortunately they seem to have closed for now since COVID came along. The way it is worded on their reverb.com page, it seems they intend to come back at some point. However, as much as folks around here rave about Eastman acoustics, I just can't seem to take to their necks so I am not at all sure how I would like their archtops, nice as they may be. It may well be that the Ibanez is good enough for me after all, but it is fun to window shop, especially since my wife seems to support my decision if I decide to buy. What I am finding is that while I have played fingerstyle acoustic for quite some time, I seem to be much more intrigued by chord melody and the opportunities for exploration that jazz guitar affords. I have been working with a number of master classes from the Mike's Master Class and the My Music Master Class sites, and really enjoying that. So for me, an archtop seems to be my main guitar at this point in my life. Thanks... Tony
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“The guitar is a wonderful thing which is understood by few.” — Franz Schubert "Alexa, where's my stuff?" - Anxiously waiting... |
#2
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Don’t forget, Tony - if the Ibanez is looking for a new home, I’m definitely interested
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Martin 0-16NY Emerald Amicus Emerald X20 Cordoba Stage Some of my tunes: https://youtube.com/user/eatswodo |
#3
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The Howard Roberts is at Willie's' new store. I bought a bunch of packs of light gauge electric guitar strings from Willie yesterday at their "garage sale" and he told me that you still have to make a reservation to go to the new store. This apparently is due to a combination of COVID careful and shortage of available staff. I will call there on Tuesday. The new store is much closer to me, off 280 and Como on Eustis. They had a 1970s Ibanez "lawsuit" ES-175 copy that I looked at. It seemed to be typical good quality for the price as Ibanez does so well, but the strings were really close together with a 1 5/8" nut. I can't imagine being able to manage that cleanly, but apparently some folks can. Tony
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“The guitar is a wonderful thing which is understood by few.” — Franz Schubert "Alexa, where's my stuff?" - Anxiously waiting... |
#4
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I believe that the Howard Roberts Fusion III is a semi-hollow, isn’t it? While this model is a very nice electric guitar but it may disappoint if you are looking for a prototypical hollow bodied archtop.
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#5
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I don't know yet if I will like the guitar or not until I play it. I have always been a "try before I buy" type, so I will reserve judgement until I actually play it. I am interested in hearing from others who have experience with these because there may be good reasons to not get it or to get it that I am unaware of. What I want in an archtop, whether hollow body or semi-hollow, is short scale and smaller body. The Howard Roberts has a 14 7/8" body and a 24.75" scale, so it should be similar in size to my Ibanez. Tony
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“The guitar is a wonderful thing which is understood by few.” — Franz Schubert "Alexa, where's my stuff?" - Anxiously waiting... |
#6
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I would also suggest ES-135 and ES-137 as nice single-cut semis.
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#7
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Right now, there is a Heritage copy of the ES-335 at one of the local Music Go Rounds. I am not sure why, but the few Heritage guitars I have played, I didn't really take to. They were decent quality, so that wasn't the issue. For some reason, they just don't feel comfortable for me. Tony
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“The guitar is a wonderful thing which is understood by few.” — Franz Schubert "Alexa, where's my stuff?" - Anxiously waiting... |
#8
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Tony
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“The guitar is a wonderful thing which is understood by few.” — Franz Schubert "Alexa, where's my stuff?" - Anxiously waiting... |
#9
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Gibson Howard Roberts Fusion III?
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And his new Howard Roberts is an absolute gem - but I’m not going to steal his thunder. I’m sure he’ll comment on it here, if he is so moved. IMG_2288.jpgIMG_2287.jpg
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Martin 0-16NY Emerald Amicus Emerald X20 Cordoba Stage Some of my tunes: https://youtube.com/user/eatswodo |
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Congratulations, David. Edit: After posting the above, I realize that David left commenting on the Gibson Howard Roberts to me. I bought it at Willie's as mentioned earlier in the thread. Like David's Ibanez, this model has a short scale and a small 14 1/2" lower bout. It is a 1998 Fusion III. These are a decent semi-hollow body guitar, relatively light at 7.5 lbs, and reasonably priced on the used market for a quality Gibson. They were discontinued some years ago (2010?) but seem easy to find on the used market. This will be my "jazz" guitar (though certainly versatile enough for other styles too) for a long time to come, as I have no reason to look for anything better without having to spend a lot more money. My intention was for the Ibanez to stay with me a long time too, since it is certainly nice enough. But when the Gibson showed up, I couldn't pass up the opportunity. David let me know when I got it that he would be interested if I ever wanted to sell it since we live in the same area, so win-win! Tony
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“The guitar is a wonderful thing which is understood by few.” — Franz Schubert "Alexa, where's my stuff?" - Anxiously waiting... Last edited by tbeltrans; 06-01-2022 at 06:00 PM. |
#11
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Congratulations! - Glenn
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My You Tube Channel |
#12
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Thanks Glenn! This is my guitar directly on Willie's web site. They have not yet taken the entry down, but do show it as out of stock.
Tony
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“The guitar is a wonderful thing which is understood by few.” — Franz Schubert "Alexa, where's my stuff?" - Anxiously waiting... |
#13
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That’s a Cool Red Gibson Jazzer! Looks nothing like the original Howard Roberts from the 60s. Enjoy!
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Sage Runner |
#14
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Reading some discussion in various forums via google, there seems to be some confusion as to what the Fusion II really was, since it seems to share similarities with both the Fusion and Fusion III. As I understand it, the first Howard Roberts model was built by Epiphone rather than Gibson. For me, this could easily be my only archtop even though it is semi-hollow like the 335 rather than hollow like the 175. Tony
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“The guitar is a wonderful thing which is understood by few.” — Franz Schubert "Alexa, where's my stuff?" - Anxiously waiting... |
#15
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Sage Runner |