skydog52

Marv made an all walnut Marvbird for CJ Stanley from wood that he provided to Marv. CJ owns probably about 1/3 of the Marvbird's out there. Part of his collection.

Marv told me he never made a prototype. They are all Marvbirds to me. According to Marv he made them all. He did all the tooling and templates for them. His best estimation of how many he made was around 75. He told me he wished he would have kept a complete list of them. He said he named the model a 357 was a little dig at Gibson for their Firebird 3, 5 and 7.

Finally found a picture of mine.

I had one almost identical to that one. That Bigsby on this guitar was added after. Look at the bar they put in to deal with the holes from original stop tailpiece. Just give them a call and tell them you want more detailed pictures and ask if there are any issues at all with this guitar. H-555s are the cream of the crop of their semi hollow humbucker guitars. Good Luck!

That looks familiar.

I reached out to Ren. He said they never were used as floaters.

Staying on the history of Marv at Gibson and Heritage. Marv sent me this picture last night. He made this one off when Gibson was still at Parsons St. He called it his Bo Diddley guitar. There is a lot more story behind it. He told me it has the original strings on it from around 1980. I told him it's time for a string change. We had a chuckle about that.

I talked to Marv last night. He sounds good and said he is feeling well. He told me he will be turning 86 this year. He is enjoying life and his offspring that is getting extensive. We were talking about H-357s and the one he is holding. That is one of the Korina models he did. Came from California. He brought up Ron Warren and he hadn't heard he passed. He loved the picture Ron did for him.

Marv's granddaughter posted this on Facebook. Rare Bird Sighting! A few weeks ago, I posted looking for leads on a MarvBird—a special guitar made by luthier Marvin Lamb, who also happens to be my grandfather. My husband became obsessed with the hunt and started digging everywhere. And thanks to one of YOU, we were blessed with the opportunity to bring one home to the family! Thank you for all the love you continue to show for Marvin’s craft and legacy—it means the world to us.

Not a big fan of pick guards. Back in the day of the Custom Shop I would have them leave it off and put it in case. Options

Rich Severson with Pete Farmer. Interview starts around 1:53. It's a good one.

If it has a belly cut it is probably a H-150 Deluxe. They were numbered.

This one does not have a huge neck. Very comfortable medium C.

They made 40 of these.

Ultimately the tone and playability are the true test to a model like this. At the price point of this one, I would have liked to have seen at the very least some nice fret markers. The build I think is elegant.

You sure do make that Sweet 16 sing! Nice rendition of that classic song.

A new model. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I talk to Marv regularly. He is doing well. Enjoying his daughters and grand and great grandchildren. Always fun to talk to him. He has so much knowledge.

Pete Farmer is a great luthier. I'm sure he could handle it with no problem. I'm sure they have a few that could build these, especially with the CNC they have in place now. They just wouldn't have the mojo of Marv's hands, IMO. Marv didn't keep a real good count of how many he made. I've asked him a few times and he guessed 70-75 made.

I have seen those. Good luck to the seller if they get anything near that. That is not the normal pricing. You never know.

Pulled the trigger on this one. Nice fit and finish. Played it a little bit and pickups are a hotter than the 535 type. Here is an honest review on them. I agree with everything he said.