Norah | soldguitars

1985 Gibson Custom Shop Alpha Q-300/Q-3000

"Norah"

#81135619

This one is an entire bag-full of awesome! I'm delighted to have found it ... what a GREAT guitar!

Let's see ... these days, Gibson seems to be content to just do what they do best, and churn out their big name models. And why the hell not ... everyone loves the Lester, SG, Explorer and V, right? When they DO try something different these days, it has a tendency to be a little silly. Remember the Dark Fire? Caee in point. Back in the day though, Gibson seemed intent on taking on the other big names in guitar-building head on, and these "Q-series" guitars would seem to have been a direct attempt to piss off Fender and Jackson/Charvel.

So, this is an "Alpha Q-300". Or rather, it is probably a Q-300, as nobody really seems to know the difference between the Q-300 and Q-3000. Whatever. The Q-series also included the Q-100/1000 (one humbucker), the Q-200/2000 (two humbuckers), and an HSS, which would seem to have been the Q-400/4000. I'm told that these were made in very low numbers (by Gibson's normal standards), and that the Q-3000 (this one) was made in stuidly low numbers. Not that rarity bothers me much, but its cool to think that only a few hundred Q-300's escaped, whereas about 1,700 of the original "Burst" Les Pauls were made between 1958 and 1960. A sobering thought. What is CERTAINLY the case is that I won't be able to find another one of these if it gets stolen! "As rare as rocking horse shit in a hamster cage" (thanks Felix) would seem to describe this quite well. I've contacted Gibson a few times about it ... as a little history would be nice, you know ... and their responses have ranged from "What?" to "Huh?". So ... no help whatsoever from the boys at Gibson.

Anyway, look at the spec! Set neck, a lovely ebony board, three P-90's and an old school Kahler trem. I'm really into these trems nowadays ... they've got a fluidity and sensitivity that you don't get from a Floyd. Very cool. The pickups are still wired as they were when it left the factory (thankfully), which involves lots of clever switching tomfoolery. Let's get this right ... The rotary controls are a straightforward master volume and master tone ... no surprises there. The black toggle and the white toggle (they're meant to be different colours!) is where it gets a bit goofy. Think of the white switch as your bog-standard Gibson three way, and the black switch as a master control for the middle pickup ... that's how I remember it anyway. So. With the black switch in the up position, the white switch operates as your standard 3-way pup selector, and the middle pickup is out of the circuit. So white up is bridge only, white down is neck only, white in the middle is neck and bridge together. Put the black switch in the middle position, and the middle pickup is always on. So, the white switch still works as a normal 3-way, but you get neck & middle, three pups all on, or bridge & middle. Easy right?! That gives some fantastic out-of-phase Strat tones, but altogether meatier. Like a cross between a duck and a cow (quacky, but beefy). Put the black selector to the down position, and you get the middle pup only (the white 3-way is out of the circuit). To ME, that's a pretty awesome way to do things ... and it means that, practically, you can use the black switch to chop and change between a lead tone and a quacky tone ... which is always handy.

Being made in 1985, this escaped shortly before the time that the old Gibson owners (Norlin) were bought out, so this is (as I understand it) still technically a "Norlin" guitar. I'm ok with that. I wasn't aware that Norlin had a Custom Shop, but ... well ... it says "Custom Shop" on the back of the headstock, so whatever. What IS apparent is that the Norlin company must have been pretty turbulent at about that time (with a buy-out just around the corner), so maybe that's why [a] there were so few of these made, and [b] the design is a little goofy.

I asked around on a few forums to see if anyone knew anything about the history of these things, which produced a huge amount of folks looking down at their shoes, and shrugging ... pretty similar to the response that I got from Gibson really! Apart from this ONE guy ... (I owe you, Rick). Now then. Rick is savvy enough to have done his homework, and spotted that the Q-300 is detailed in "The Complete Gibson Book", by Paul Day and Walter Carter. He very kindly copied that page, which I have reproduced below. Now. Look at the flaw in the ebony board on the one in the book ... there is a patch of light ebony on the third and fourth frets. Then look at Norah. Same patch, right?! Given that the flaw is a natural part of the structure of the ebony, the chances of the guitar featured in the book not being my guitar are what? ... a million to one?! So yeah, not only is Norah a big slab of awesome, she's also kinda famous!

And finally, yes ... I'm accutely aware that she's not ... well ... the prettiest girl on the block. But you know what? She REALLY doesn't have to be.

What a great guitar!