Nouveau Collection Archtops
Sometime around Norlin's 1987 sale of Gibson, the decision was made to produce the Nouveau line of guitars. The Gibson Nouveaus were going to consist of cost-effective necks and bodies made in Japan and assembled and finished in Nashville and branded as American Made. Although the original sales literature introduces these as purely Gibson guitars, somewhere between manufacturing and finishing, they became the known as the Epiphone Spotlight series, resulting in an Japanese-made, USA assembled Epiphone. The first Nouveau guitars introduced by Gibson were a line of flat top semi-hollow guitars under the "Nouveau by Gibson" brand in 1986. In 1987 electric guitars joined the line. By September 1987 Gibson moved the flat top Nouveaus to the Epiphone line, under the brand "Nouveau by Epiphone" and the electrics were moved to Epiphone by February 1988. By early 1989 the entire Nouveau line was discontinued. |
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Contents |
Models
NVT
Body:
- Single cutaway thinline hollowbody guitar
- Maple top, back & sides
Neck:
- Set maple neck
- Rosewood fretboard with pearloid geometric-shaped inlays
- Open-book headstock with diamond "Gibson" inlay.
- "Nouveau" inlay on headstock
Binding:
- 7-ply body
- Single-ply neck, f-hole & headstock
Electronics:
- One humbucker pickup mounted in neck position
Hardware:
- Gold hardware
- Rosewood bridge base
- Tune-o-matic bridge with trapeze tailpiece
- Elevated pickguard
Colors:
- Natural (NA)
- Vintage Sunburst (VS)
NVJ
Body:
- Single cutaway full-depth hollowbody guitar
- Maple top, back & sides
Neck:
- Set maple neck
- Rosewood fretboard with pearloid geometric-shaped inlays
- Open-book headstock with diamond "Gibson" inlay.
- "Nouveau" inlay on headstock
Binding:
- 7-ply body
- Single-ply neck, f-hole & headstock
Electronics:
- One humbucker pickup in neck position (electric model)
- Pickguard-mounted Vol. & Tone controls (electric model)
Hardware:
- Gold hardware
- Rosewood bridge & base with trapeze tailpiece
- Elevated pickguard
Colors:
- Natural (NA)
- Vintage Sunburst (VS)
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