The Gibson Marauder was an electric guitar model produced by Gibson between 1975 and 1979. Designed to compete with guitars made by Fender, it had limited success and was discontinued after only 7,111 had been sold.
History
The Marauder was introduced as an attempt to break into the single coil pickupbolt-on neck guitar market, which was dominated by Fender at that time. To design the pickups, Gibson tapped Bill Lawrence, who had joined in 1972 and had already produced the L6-S. His design was reminiscent of the Fender Telecaster, though it in fact it had two humbucker pickups. The Marauder was officially introduced in 1974 and began shipping in 1975, supported by endorsements from Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley. Minor modifications were made in 1976 and in 1978. The model was cancelled in 1979 though some were still made until 1982. In all, only 7,111 were ever made.
Description
The Marauder sports a contoured single cutaway Les Paul-shaped body, and a bolt on a maple neck with a headstock similar to the Flying V's. Marauders were made with alder, maple, or mahogany bodies. The fretboard was produced both in the traditional Gibson rosewood, or a more Fender-like maple, both with 22 frets. Most had dot markers, "though some may have had trapezoid." In fact, rosewood fretboard could be bound and have typical to Gibson trapezoid markers. Such can be seen, for instance, in the and Gibson advertising materials. Every Marauder featured custom-designed Bill Lawrence pickups sealed in clear epoxy. The guitar had a regular-sized humbucker pickup in the neck position and a small humbucker, in a blade style resembling a single coil, was mounted at an angle by the bridge. This arrangement resembled the Fender Telecaster Custom and the resulting tone was closer to the Fender sound than that of most Gibson guitars, with more higher frequencies than regular Gibsons. Early Marauders had a three-way toggle switch on the treble side of the upper bout of the body, to select either one or both pickups. In 1976, a rotary potentiometer was introduced which allowed a range of blends between the two pickups. In still later Marauders, the potentiometer was positioned between the volume and tone knobs, now with a "chickenhead" knob to avoid confusion with the "speed" knobs used for the volume and tone. All Marauders had a Schaller-made "Harmonica" tune-o-matic" style bridge and the standard Gibson "stopbar" tailpiece. They had enclosed "Gibson Deluxe" tuners and typical Gibson strap buttons. Most common was the natural satin finish on 4,758 of the Marauders. 1,368 were finished in the colour wine-red, 460 were finished in Ebony, and 240 in tobacco sunburst. 202 Marauders without specified finish were mentioned in Gibson's shipping lists, and 83 Marauder Customs were made only in the tobacco sunburst finish. A handful more were built until 1982.
