Scarf joints are much stronger, since you don’t get the short grain, where headstocks will break. Meaning a scarf joint has a better chance to survive a fall. So they really shouldn’t be considered wrong or lesser. If mahogany neck Les Pauls had scarf joint, we would see far less player grade instruments.
Thank you! I wanted to say something similar and you put it better than I could have worded it. It gets tiring to hear people go on about how "inferior" a guitar is because of a scarf joint.
With distortion the bridge pickup sounds best, the neck and middle positions sounded a little muddy. In the clean setting they sounded pretty good with the bridge pickup still being my favorite. This is one of if not my favorite version in this series I'd have to say, cool guitar even though I'd probably never buy one but still a neat piece of Gibson history and lore. Love how these had the V headstock and harmonica bridge too 👍
Never thought I would see this one covered. I have a 78 mahogany w/the 3-piece maple neck....neck pickup was missing and bridge was dead so mine is now fitted w/Seymour Duncan pickups in a custom black pickguard with a nice new harmonica bridge. Like the neck shape and it's quirky enough it's fun to haul out.
That's so sick! I've been hoping to find a beat up one of these puppies for cheap for a while but unfortunately I haven't found the right one yet. I'm really infatuated with obscure failed Gibsons right now for some reason lol
Stuart Adamson of The Skids (later of Big Country) briefly played a Gibson Muarauder when he was with the skids in the late 70s. There are pictures on the Internet.
From a visual standpoint, my favorite feature is that headstock. I should think that the Flying V headstock and how the strings practically don't bend at all after crossing the nut on their way to the tuning machines would make it a much more practical shape than the traditional Gibson headstock. That's partly why I feel thankful to own a Flying V that is top-loaded.
Marauder Custom cleaned up nicely and sounds awesome. Gibson's use of fragile 28 gauge pickup lead wire really annoys me, it's fiddly and not just with these epoxy pickups.
Around 1985 I was a college student in Southern Oregon & would frequent pawn shops. I used to see these all the time between $180-$300, never anymore. With the right features they look pretty cool & wish I would have snagged one back then!
I'm a drummer who dabbles on Guitar for song writing purposes. Even I knew enough that when I saw an all original Gibson Victory MVX at a Pawn shop for $300 about 5 years ago that I better get it, and I did. I've been offered $2,500 cash for it many times since.
Kiss used to buy factory seconds of these guitars from Gibson for $65 to smash at shows. Former manager Bill Aucoin conformed this. They got the guitars they played for free, but purchased the ‘smashers’ and Paul would sometimes take free endorsement guitars and sell them to music stores in nyc to help pay his bills.
Paul Stanley never seriously used Marauders, only for smashing. And the guitar would have their necks sawn almost completely through, so they'd snap on impact. When Kiss had their endorsement deal with Gibson Paul was mainly using Flying V's and Midnight Specials, the latter of which he described as sounding "Tinny". Of course, he would later soup up his guitars with DiMarzio Super distortions, again a world apart from what a Marauder sounds like.
In the mid 90's I had a custom marauder but mine had a maple board with dot inlays and did have binding - everything else was the same. I could believe the neck had been swapped out except the guy I bought it from bought it new and I'm 100% sure he didn't mess with it. Mine was sunburst with the toggle switch, and the frets where not flat like the one here - they were just normal frets. If I remember correctly the action was pretty low, so I think this one just needs a good set up. Think I sold it for about £200 lol - back then no one wanted them.
Lots of fret buzz! Those frets look like they sound. I've played a few of these over the years. They sound nothing like a gibson to my ears and I never played one I liked. I don't know what the msrp was back then, but it couldn't have been much. It's almost like they created em to smash on stage. Cool collector piece for sure.
Lol. Mines a regular old 79 with the blend knob but I got it for 200 bucks at a pawn shop like 30 years ago, it was “my” first guitar even tho dad had a few . Glad I hung on to it.
Always thought these were so cool looking. I wish they would make a proper set neck version now, or a LP custom with the Flying V custom headstock, and a Floyd? One of my dream guitars Damn those frets look super wide too, nice looking guitar. Might have to spring for one at some point
Isn't the "rotary switch" actually a potentiometer ("pot" ) with the hot leads from the pickups on each end and the center "wiper" output connected to the volume control? This allows you to blend pickups.
4:30 you never know, that could be one of the marauders paul stanley was given that he sold off as soon as he got them. He said Gibson kept sending them to him so he'd take them to mannys, sell them to buy other equipment
I own several Marauders and there is a ton of variation in quality. I use mine. The real magic is the pickups. The epoxy coating makes them super quiet in the studio, especially just for your DI. The black covered aren’t quiet and don’t sound nearly as good. The bridge pickup is a sideways blade humbucker and not a single coil. Looking at the neck pocket for a tight well crafted fit will tell you a lot about the individual build. If it’s a shitty pocket pass it up. Lots of shitty necks out there. The wine colored ones and natural ones are better in general quality than all of the others including the Custom. And I own one of those as well. I’m 60 and got lucky with a good quality one I bought gently used in 1976😎
I played recording demos in the early nineties with one, I loved the sound (my other guitar was a tele), but the neck assembly was not very stiff, difficult to say if it was the wood or the joint, so tuning was an issue. You could do tremolo by just pulling gently on the neck ! After a few month starting the day tuning it again and again, before getting it to stabilize, I understood that when starting in the morning I should play for at least a quarter of an hour *before* tuning it, waiting for the neck to warm. It would sound way out of tune at the beginning, and gently come back in tune by itself after this initial warmup period ! From there on it stayed stable with only minor adjustments
Evening all!! Huge KISS fan here. I have a poster of Paul Stanley standing in front of a stack of Gibson Marauder boxes that all have "for breaking only" written on them. Gibson caught wind of that and stopped giving them to him.
I've got a '76 Custom model myself!! Oddly enough, among a small handful with gold knobs. The KISS endorsement is so awesome, but it was Mac from Superchunk whose iconic playing of one inspired me to track one down... my white whale for more than a decade. It looks like yours is '76 as well as long as the serial starts with 00 - but I think they started producing the parts in 74?? Such a wild piece of Norlin history.
Dear Trogley; I know you like guitars that are in perfect condition. But after you removed decades of gunk off of the neck, you could tell how much someone loved playing this guitar. It’s a Bolt on neck Gibson For God sake! This is the bottom as you can get. Paul Stanley wanted the kids to have a real Gibson at a price they could afford. Good for you Paul. We were that little kid when we began. But at the same time , somebody just Rocked this guitar to death. They even put a little epoxy from the garage on the finish to protect it. Love it. That’s not nice to a vintage collector , but to a Road warrior it shows that this guitar has been thru battle and earned it’s stripes.
12:22 - "Someone was lazy and scratched the headstock" Says man who ruined the headstock of a pristine 1962 Gibson Les Paul because he poured glued all over it instead of waiting a few days for a professional to repair the nut.
I did see an S-1 Custom with clear covers but it had black bobbins. I have never see black bobbins on the grabber / S-1 pickups before or since. Was about 15 years ago on ebay.
Oh Shit my first Guitar. I bought mine at EM Shorts for $200. About 6 months Later. Paul Stanely gave me one he had it already cut neck! Wondeful Lifetime
Sed to visit a friends music store way back when and he had the exact promotional poster with the Marauder near by. Was an interesting guitar but not exactly what I liked at the time. The head stock reminds me of another gibson model that isn't bolt on I believe to be on the V. But this combination looks like they were going after the Stratocaster market.looks like the part of the G string tuner that is the tuner key might be slightly bent also. It would not have been good if KISS didn't play Strutter when I saw them. Glad you went to it when you did the playing part of the review. I'm happy with my Greenburst Studio.
I want one. My main guitar us a Memphis era sunburst 335. But Im obsessed with the idea of having the weirdest iddball Gibsons ever. I REALLY want a MKIII super(non)strat so bad. Thats tge guitar I would have wanted in tge 80s. And I completely want a Gibson Nighthawk with all tge pickup configurations. Seems so versatile(on paper anyway.) unironically
That was my first guitar. Early maple with maple fretboard. It played really well and sounded good through my Ampeg flip top. I regret selling everything I've ever let go. But, hey! You gotta move on.
Might have a third custom for you. I'm sure there was a clear pickup jobbie in a local music shop in the mid 80s that was natural. Despite there being very few Gibsons for sale locally back then, I didn't pay it too much attention.
Well Austin your enthusiasm for all the Gibson makes up for your musical styling, I get a straty type tone or vibe from the pickups, keep up theQuest for the Holy Grail , and be weary of killer rabbits, keep the holy handgrenade of Antioch at your side
A Friend of mine that owned a Guitar Shop actually bought a guitar from Paul Stanley that he was going to smash at a concert in Fayetteville NC. He put in on display in his with a "Not For Sale" sign on it. So I never made an offer on it. Two weeks later he sold it. Dammit.
Got my 1975 standard for a buck and a half in 1989, gigged it playing post-punk, new wave, pigfuck, grunge, and hardcore and it always sounds killer w/the right amp and a Rat or Russian Muff. And I can count on one hand the times some guitar dork HASN'T come up to me and asked "hey, what's that guitar?" It's probably paid for itself several times over in free drinks from these interactions alone. PS I had a friend who owned and gigged a later one with the blend knob - felt totally different. Clunkier neck.I think at the time these were self-consciously cheaper to compete w/Fenders at price point and that manifested itself in looser QC. But maybe it's just the Norline era was fucked.
I'd like to see you document a Kustom K200 hollowbody. My Uncle has one that he will not depart with and he doesn't even play Guitar. Nor will he loan it out. But I like to know more about from a Professional.
I’m a little surprised that Trogley isn’t into 70’s, early 80’s Hamers and Deans. I hate the Dean headstock but the early ones were quality Gibson type guitars. Probably both better quality than the same era Gibbsons.
Cave in plays one as does Mac from superchunk. I have a custom one I bought in med school in 2008 for like 800$. Love the look, don’t love the sound. Mine is pretty heavy but better condition than this one.
Same here... I'm a professional guitar repairman and I got LOTS of these on my workbench over the years because they're more affordable than the pricier ones of the same era ( or at least they used to be ) so after a good setup and maybe a new nut these sounded okay but that's just it... As the man says : As rhythm guitars they do the job but as lead guitars not so much... I did re-fret many of these too because these flat frets always felt like chewing gum wrappers which made them more manageable... I own 170 guitars and I have some vintage gems but this one isn't really my thing...
Austin, I'm surprised that you didn't pass on a very important bit of information about this guitar for NON KISS Fans and that is even though Paul Stanley of KISS officially endorsed the "Marauder" and smashed one every encore of every KISS show he NEVER actually played one. He never had one "Wired" into any amp or PA system and only used these guitars as part of the "Show". Paul has given several interviews with different Guitar magazines about NEVER actually playing a Marauder even though he's held one more than any other guitar he has ever owned or played. These guitars are so horrible and won't stay in tune long enough to perform even one song with but since KISS had a long time endorsement deal with Gibson, Paul was given a very good deal to use these as his 'Smash" guitar at the end of every KISS show since the early 1970s.
Well I love this video and the kiss theme to it. I bought my tobacco sunburst les Paul standard after seeing kiss early 1976 and ace was playing his. Then when my band started to travel we needed backup guitars. So we went to our local guitar store my rhythm guitarist and myself and we bought 2 Paul Stanley style guitars. He bought a natural l6s and I bought a marauder just like you have here. Tobacco burst to match my 76 les Paul. We never had a bit of trouble outa either. Certainly better guitars than any of those fender strats that everyone wants now from the 70s. Pieces of crap those are. We paid brand new with case 400 bucks for the l6s and marauder each. My 76 les Paul was 575.
My first guitar was a Peavey T-15. It wasn’t the guitar I really wanted (wanted a Fender Strat but we didn’t a Fender dealer at that time in my hometown). Even though it wasn’t what I really wanted I can say without a doubt that the entire T Series was better than any bolt-on neck guitar Gibson ever made. My biggest (actually only) guitar regret is trading that T-15 for a Japanese made Explorer copy.
Guitar Addiction is a real thing
I hear you and I feel you 143 and climbing
G.A.S.
Gear acquisition syndrome .
Everybody knows I have gas .
But it sure beats my old addictions !
@@Davidckennedymusic yea no shit its a fn miracle I made it to 1990
@@Davidckennedymusic ha!! Same !
Cheers from NZ 😎🎸🤘
Yes it absolutely is
Scarf joints are much stronger, since you don’t get the short grain, where headstocks will break. Meaning a scarf joint has a better chance to survive a fall. So they really shouldn’t be considered wrong or lesser. If mahogany neck Les Pauls had scarf joint, we would see far less player grade instruments.
Thank you! I wanted to say something similar and you put it better than I could have worded it. It gets tiring to hear people go on about how "inferior" a guitar is because of a scarf joint.
With distortion the bridge pickup sounds best, the neck and middle positions sounded a little muddy. In the clean setting they sounded pretty good with the bridge pickup still being my favorite. This is one of if not my favorite version in this series I'd have to say, cool guitar even though I'd probably never buy one but still a neat piece of Gibson history and lore. Love how these had the V headstock and harmonica bridge too 👍
Never thought I would see this one covered. I have a 78 mahogany w/the 3-piece maple neck....neck pickup was missing and bridge was dead so mine is now fitted w/Seymour Duncan pickups in a custom black pickguard with a nice new harmonica bridge. Like the neck shape and it's quirky enough it's fun to haul out.
That's so sick! I've been hoping to find a beat up one of these puppies for cheap for a while but unfortunately I haven't found the right one yet. I'm really infatuated with obscure failed Gibsons right now for some reason lol
Stuart Adamson of The Skids (later of Big Country) briefly played a Gibson Muarauder when he was with the skids in the late 70s. There are pictures on the Internet.
From a visual standpoint, my favorite feature is that headstock. I should think that the Flying V headstock and how the strings practically don't bend at all after crossing the nut on their way to the tuning machines would make it a much more practical shape than the traditional Gibson headstock. That's partly why I feel thankful to own a Flying V that is top-loaded.
That neck would solve a lot of Gibson’s problems, but the fan boys would complain even more!
Everyone needs to grow up a little bit in their lives, @@honkytonkinson9787.
I’ve been surprised Gibson doesn’t use the Snakehead more for the same reason. Plus it goes back pretty far n their history.
Marauder Custom cleaned up nicely and sounds awesome. Gibson's use of fragile 28 gauge pickup lead wire really annoys me, it's fiddly and not just with these epoxy pickups.
Interesting! Thank you for sharing.
Those Marauders are wild! Although, I’d like to see more about that Billy Gibbons SG.
Around 1985 I was a college student in Southern Oregon & would frequent pawn shops. I used to see these all the time between $180-$300, never anymore. With the right features they look pretty cool & wish I would have snagged one back then!
I'm a drummer who dabbles on Guitar for song writing purposes. Even I knew enough that when I saw an all original Gibson Victory MVX at a Pawn shop for $300 about 5 years ago that I better get it, and I did. I've been offered $2,500 cash for it many times since.
Had a marauder but had to sell it, loved it. Have had an S-1 for about 10 years now and again, love it.
Kiss used to buy factory seconds of these guitars from Gibson for $65 to smash at shows. Former manager Bill Aucoin conformed this. They got the guitars they played for free, but purchased the ‘smashers’ and Paul would sometimes take free endorsement guitars and sell them to music stores in nyc to help pay his bills.
LOL now Paul charges $5,000 for a smashed guitar
To me that guitar/amp combo is one of the best sounds I’ve heard you get.
Paul Stanley never seriously used Marauders, only for smashing. And the guitar would have their necks sawn almost completely through, so they'd snap on impact.
When Kiss had their endorsement deal with Gibson Paul was mainly using Flying V's and Midnight Specials, the latter of which he described as sounding "Tinny". Of course, he would later soup up his guitars with DiMarzio Super distortions, again a world apart from what a Marauder sounds like.
Yep, and at that time there’d be full page ads with Paul Stanley endorsing Marauders. What a joke. I love Kiss, but that’s just sleazy.
In the mid 90's I had a custom marauder but mine had a maple board with dot inlays and did have binding - everything else was the same. I could believe the neck had been swapped out except the guy I bought it from bought it new and I'm 100% sure he didn't mess with it. Mine was sunburst with the toggle switch, and the frets where not flat like the one here - they were just normal frets. If I remember correctly the action was pretty low, so I think this one just needs a good set up. Think I sold it for about £200 lol - back then no one wanted them.
Lots of fret buzz! Those frets look like they sound. I've played a few of these over the years. They sound nothing like a gibson to my ears and I never played one I liked. I don't know what the msrp was back then, but it couldn't have been much. It's almost like they created em to smash on stage. Cool collector piece for sure.
Lol. Mines a regular old 79 with the blend knob but I got it for 200 bucks at a pawn shop like 30 years ago, it was “my” first guitar even tho dad had a few . Glad I hung on to it.
Mine is a 1976. The Tobacco Sunburst is more brown . All original, no rash on the back. Plays great and I even take it out to gig every now and then!
Always thought these were so cool looking. I wish they would make a proper set neck version now, or a LP custom with the Flying V custom headstock, and a Floyd? One of my dream guitars
Damn those frets look super wide too, nice looking guitar. Might have to spring for one at some point
You might enjoy this episode then ruclips.net/video/QlaqgmwITYU/видео.html
Isn't the "rotary switch" actually a potentiometer ("pot" ) with the hot leads from the pickups on each end and the center "wiper" output connected to the volume control? This allows you to blend pickups.
That sounds amazing. One of my local shops in Yokohama has Marauders - I saw them the other day and I wondered what they were…
I actually like the way it sounds
4:30 you never know, that could be one of the marauders paul stanley was given that he sold off as soon as he got them. He said Gibson kept sending them to him so he'd take them to mannys, sell them to buy other equipment
I own several Marauders and there is a ton of variation in quality. I use mine. The real magic is the pickups. The epoxy coating makes them super quiet in the studio, especially just for your DI. The black covered aren’t quiet and don’t sound nearly as good.
The bridge pickup is a sideways blade humbucker and not a single coil.
Looking at the neck pocket for a tight well crafted fit will tell you a lot about the individual build. If it’s a shitty pocket pass it up.
Lots of shitty necks out there.
The wine colored ones and natural ones are better in general quality than all of the others including the Custom. And I own one of those as well.
I’m 60 and got lucky with a good quality one I bought gently used in 1976😎
I played recording demos in the early nineties with one, I loved the sound (my other guitar was a tele), but the neck assembly was not very stiff, difficult to say if it was the wood or the joint, so tuning was an issue. You could do tremolo by just pulling gently on the neck ! After a few month starting the day tuning it again and again, before getting it to stabilize, I understood that when starting in the morning I should play for at least a quarter of an hour *before* tuning it, waiting for the neck to warm. It would sound way out of tune at the beginning, and gently come back in tune by itself after this initial warmup period ! From there on it stayed stable with only minor adjustments
Evening all!! Huge KISS fan here. I have a poster of Paul Stanley standing in front of a stack of Gibson Marauder boxes that all have "for breaking only" written on them. Gibson caught wind of that and stopped giving them to him.
Wonder over the years how many marauders were smashed at shows
@@chrisderway5631 not enough for my money should have smashed them all
Had 2 70ts marauders, loved both and wish I still had them plug through my then Marshall 50w master vol stack they sounded fab
Love that tone!
Longtime S1 player here, would love a Marauder someday.
Deryck Whybley of Sum 41 played a wine red Marauder with white pick guard for years. It was his first guitar
I've got a '76 Custom model myself!! Oddly enough, among a small handful with gold knobs. The KISS endorsement is so awesome, but it was Mac from Superchunk whose iconic playing of one inspired me to track one down... my white whale for more than a decade. It looks like yours is '76 as well as long as the serial starts with 00 - but I think they started producing the parts in 74?? Such a wild piece of Norlin history.
The clean neck position tone is perfect I need one of these
Dear Trogley; I know you like guitars that are in perfect condition. But after you removed decades of gunk off of the neck, you could tell how much someone loved playing this guitar. It’s a Bolt on neck Gibson For God sake! This is the bottom as you can get. Paul Stanley wanted the kids to have a real Gibson at a price they could afford. Good for you Paul. We were that little kid when we began.
But at the same time , somebody just Rocked this guitar to death. They even put a little epoxy from the garage on the finish to protect it. Love it.
That’s not nice to a vintage collector , but to a Road warrior it shows that this guitar has been thru battle and earned it’s stripes.
Used to be able to pick these up for 400 bucks
Would love to see these reissued in a set neck!
Aloha, I had Marauder back when I first started in 1979. Never thought I would see a review of one!!
12:22 - "Someone was lazy and scratched the headstock"
Says man who ruined the headstock of a pristine 1962 Gibson Les Paul because he poured glued all over it instead of waiting a few days for a professional to repair the nut.
Strutter! Sounds real good! 🤘
I have a 1976 Marauder Custom and I really like it! 🎸
But I haven’t payed even close to the amount of money for a new Gibson - lucky me I guess.😅
I have one,a 1979 maple neck and fretboard,mahogany body in a very good shape and sound great!
Neck with distortion kinda muddy but clean sounds good. But oh boy, that bridge with distortion is killer
I bought mine in 1980 wine red maple neck and the chicken head selector, my first real nice guitar.
Sounds great!!
I did see an S-1 Custom with clear covers but it had black bobbins. I have never see black bobbins on the grabber / S-1 pickups before or since. Was about 15 years ago on ebay.
The lastest produced ones in late 70s and early 80s got the black plastics
Interesting
You won 🍪 🍪 🍪
Congratulations on climbing to the summit of the Mole Hill and earning a Gold Medal Some Random Dude.
🥇
The harmonica bridge was used because of the less neck pitch 70's designs
Gotta love the "Motherbucker" triple coil pups! I think Jerry Garcia's guitar had one... don't quote me on that...
How many do we have to buy? I've never seen one in a guitar shop or a pawn shop.
Oh Shit my first Guitar. I bought mine at EM Shorts for $200. About 6 months Later. Paul Stanely gave me one he had it already cut neck! Wondeful Lifetime
Just a great loved and played classic guitar.
The V headstock works on this guitar. I like it.
I got the S1 and Marauder ... very good guitars, try one if you can
Sed to visit a friends music store way back when and he had the exact promotional poster with the Marauder near by. Was an interesting guitar but not exactly what I liked at the time. The head stock reminds me of another gibson model that isn't bolt on I believe to be on the V. But this combination looks like they were going after the Stratocaster market.looks like the part of the G string tuner that is the tuner key might be slightly bent also. It would not have been good if KISS didn't play Strutter when I saw them. Glad you went to it when you did the playing part of the review. I'm happy with my Greenburst Studio.
Sounded like Strudder. Seen one of these at a swap meet back in the early 80s. Looks familiar. Take care 😎👍👌🎸🎸
Yes!! You got a model I’ve wanted for years!!
If PRS ever made a bolt-on version of their Starla… 😂(the Starla even has it’s own unique pickups with exposed pole pieces)
when my wife saw a Starla - and she's no musician but knows of my love for my Marauder - she said "they shouldn't be allowed to rip it off like that."
I want one. My main guitar us a Memphis era sunburst 335. But Im obsessed with the idea of having the weirdest iddball Gibsons ever. I REALLY want a MKIII super(non)strat so bad. Thats tge guitar I would have wanted in tge 80s. And I completely want a Gibson Nighthawk with all tge pickup configurations. Seems so versatile(on paper anyway.) unironically
The neck pickup sounds great! The bridge is a bit harsh, and the middle just sounds way too thin for my liking
Slapped a custom p90 on mine with custom pickguard, plays punk greattt, still have the og pickups
Marauder and S-1 are great guitars for sure.
I had the black L6S at the 2:39 of video...
That was my first guitar. Early maple with maple fretboard. It played really well and sounded good through my Ampeg flip top. I regret selling everything I've ever let go. But, hey! You gotta move on.
I love the Invader
Might have a third custom for you. I'm sure there was a clear pickup jobbie in a local music shop in the mid 80s that was natural. Despite there being very few Gibsons for sale locally back then, I didn't pay it too much attention.
it looked like you had fun playing it. esp with the toggley. : )
I like these.
My dad had a Sonix in ‘82-‘83 … he hated it.
Look at the last digit closely. You can see it is a five.Appears a hard stamp got excess ink around that end of the stamp.
Best video I've enjoyed in a while from you because 45 years ago I enjoyed this one new
Jesse Stewart plays" marauder" song , in a bar video on mandolin dude puts in work drops his pick, and just keeps rippin, metal on mandolin rip Jesse
Well Austin your enthusiasm for all the Gibson makes up for your musical styling, I get a straty type tone or vibe from the pickups, keep up theQuest for the Holy Grail , and be weary of killer rabbits, keep the holy handgrenade of Antioch at your side
All in all, I likey. Nothing special, but nothing bad either.
You’re not kidding when you call it a swimming pool route !! That’s huge ! Is it resonant when you play it un plugged ?
It sounds a lot better than I thought it would. Those low pickup readings had me worried.
Strutter!! I had the 8 track of Kiss first album in my Mom's Maverick back in what, 73 or 74.
Mike Bloomfield also played one of these a bit.
When I see a Gibson Marauder, I think of Masafumi Gotoh from Asian Kung-Fu Generation and Deryck Whibley from Sum 41 using them.
I always liked these..
A Natural Marauder was one of the first electrics i ever played..( my buddy's)
Nice job of Strutter
A Friend of mine that owned a Guitar Shop actually bought a guitar from Paul Stanley that he was going to smash at a concert in Fayetteville NC. He put in on display in his with a "Not For Sale" sign on it. So I never made an offer on it. Two weeks later he sold it. Dammit.
Bizarre period for Gibson culminating in the 50 pound “resin wood” Sonex. I played one. Once.
great episode, where can i send you a picture of my rare kiss marauder poster?
Got my 1975 standard for a buck and a half in 1989, gigged it playing post-punk, new wave, pigfuck, grunge, and hardcore and it always sounds killer w/the right amp and a Rat or Russian Muff. And I can count on one hand the times some guitar dork HASN'T come up to me and asked "hey, what's that guitar?" It's probably paid for itself several times over in free drinks from these interactions alone. PS I had a friend who owned and gigged a later one with the blend knob - felt totally different. Clunkier neck.I think at the time these were self-consciously cheaper to compete w/Fenders at price point and that manifested itself in looser QC. But maybe it's just the Norline era was fucked.
I'd like to see you document a Kustom K200 hollowbody. My Uncle has one that he will not depart with and he doesn't even play Guitar. Nor will he loan it out. But I like to know more about from a Professional.
WHat are the odds this is the exact headstock template they used on the 70s SGs and just used it for the Marauders as well.
I’m a little surprised that Trogley isn’t into 70’s, early 80’s Hamers and Deans. I hate the Dean headstock but the early ones were quality Gibson type guitars. Probably both better quality than the same era Gibbsons.
Cave in plays one as does Mac from superchunk. I have a custom one I bought in med school in 2008 for like 800$. Love the look, don’t love the sound. Mine is pretty heavy but better condition than this one.
I have only played a couple of these, and they were horrible. Maybe they just needed a good set up but the ones I used had zero tuning stability.
Same here...
I'm a professional guitar repairman and I got LOTS of these on my workbench over the years because they're more affordable than the pricier ones of the same era ( or at least they used to be ) so after a good setup and maybe a new nut these sounded okay but that's just it...
As the man says : As rhythm guitars they do the job but as lead guitars not so much...
I did re-fret many of these too because these flat frets always felt like chewing gum wrappers which made them more manageable...
I own 170 guitars and I have some vintage gems but this one isn't really my thing...
I want one
Austin, I'm surprised that you didn't pass on a very important bit of information about this guitar for NON KISS Fans and that is even though Paul Stanley of KISS officially endorsed the "Marauder" and smashed one every encore of every KISS show he NEVER actually played one. He never had one "Wired" into any amp or PA system and only used these guitars as part of the "Show". Paul has given several interviews with different Guitar magazines about NEVER actually playing a Marauder even though he's held one more than any other guitar he has ever owned or played. These guitars are so horrible and won't stay in tune long enough to perform even one song with but since KISS had a long time endorsement deal with Gibson, Paul was given a very good deal to use these as his 'Smash" guitar at the end of every KISS show since the early 1970s.
There was 2 at my local shop recently. They didn't last long.
Well I love this video and the kiss theme to it. I bought my tobacco sunburst les Paul standard after seeing kiss early 1976 and ace was playing his. Then when my band started to travel we needed backup guitars. So we went to our local guitar store my rhythm guitarist and myself and we bought 2 Paul Stanley style guitars. He bought a natural l6s and I bought a marauder just like you have here. Tobacco burst to match my 76 les Paul. We never had a bit of trouble outa either. Certainly better guitars than any of those fender strats that everyone wants now from the 70s. Pieces of crap those are. We paid brand new with case 400 bucks for the l6s and marauder each. My 76 les Paul was 575.
I enjoy the daily dose daily,,, not all of it, but daily, yes
Marauders remind me of Peavey t-series guitars.
My first guitar was a Peavey T-15. It wasn’t the guitar I really wanted (wanted a Fender Strat but we didn’t a Fender dealer at that time in my hometown). Even though it wasn’t what I really wanted I can say without a doubt that the entire T Series was better than any bolt-on neck guitar Gibson ever made. My biggest (actually only) guitar regret is trading that T-15 for a Japanese made Explorer copy.
I had a black S1, back then.
When’s the episode on melody makers??😢
Black light the date stamp, it might show up better.
✌️
They should make smart heaphones where we plug straight in them 😶😮😯
And how many of those wound up with Paul Stanley as smashers?