All of the Gospels I've seen so far have been quite ornate in their styling with deluxe features. They have multi-layered binding, deluxe tuners, deluxe pickups, phase buttons, unique pickguards. They were made from the Celebrity-I bodies which are 2 3/4" deep. I'll point out more features as we go along.
Now comes along this Gospel and I was thrown for a loop as it departs from most of the conventions of the Gospels I've seen. In fact, when I first saw it I thought it was a forgery or parts right guitar. In talking with Adam however, now I'm thinking it could be one of the earliest Gospels.
The things that threw me for a loop are: thinline body, Celebrity-III binding, Celebrity-III pickguard, Celebrity-III pickups, Celebrity-III neck, Celebrity-III tuners, Celebrity-III serial number, non-Gospel headstock, non-Mosrite knobs. If not for the logo on the headstock, I would say this is a Celebrity-III.
The headstock does not look like it's been refinished so it is likely that it was labeled as a Gospel from the factory. Joe tells me that there are holes at the end of the bout that would suggest that the tremolo was added later and this makes sense as the bridge is not a roller bridge found on tremolo equipped Celebrities. Perhaps the tremolo was added on by Semie if he encountered the guitar again. I don't know about the string hold down bar on the headstock. We've seen that on a bass recently as well. He also told me that the orange decal inside the F hole has been tampered with as if someone trying to remove the serial number. Perhaps the serial number of the body did not match the neck, or some other reason. The serial number of K0718 suggests to me that this is a late 1966 or early 1967 guitar.
I wonder if Semie built a "budget" Gospel to give to a church or someone. I wonder if this could be one of his earliest Gospels, a prototype if you will. This guitar also has the original Victoria Luggage case so obviously someone took care of it. It does not match the literature in the 1967 catalogue at all.
