I’m sitting here strumming a Gibson Hummingbird Guitar that is owned by my brother, who says it was made sometime in the mid to late seventies (serial number 72227076 on the back of the headstock), and he insists it is all original. I’ll take him at his word. But the inlay around the soundhole is almost invisible, as it is covered by a reddish finish, as is the back of the body, the inlay of which has inlay joining the two back parts of aforementioned body. My question is: has this guitar been refinished, or did Hummingbirds always look like this?
I strongly recommend that you go to Google groups at google.com - go to either rec.music.makers.guitar or alt.guitar (or both), and ask your question. You’ll get more guitar geeks than you could ever hope for…
Best of luck.
Gibson’s web site - hummingbird guitar
Gibson’s site is actually pretty cool… lots of info including how to decipher the serial numbers. Hope this helps. The pic is pretty clear.
Max. 