John Lennon's Favourite…

1954 Gibson J-160E Electric Flat Top.

This 16 1/4-inch/wide "Dreadnaught" electric "Jumbo Flat Top" guitar weighs just 4.70 lbs. Laminated spruce top with 'ladder' braces, Solid mahogany back and sides, triple-bound on the top, single-bound on the bottom. One-piece mahogany neck with a medium-to-fat profile, and a very comfortable nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a standard scale length of 24.75 inches. Bound Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 20 original thin frets and pearl trapezoid position markers. Headstock with Inlaid pearl "Gibson" and pearl crown inlay. Single-layer bell-shaped black plastic truss-rod cover with two screws. Individual 'single-line' Kluson Deluxe  'no-name' tuners with single-ring Keystone plastic buttons (with "2356766 / Pat. Appld." stamped on the underside). Tear shaped tortoiseshell pickguard. Solid rosewood bridge with two pearl dots (one at each end) and adjustable bone bridge bar and six ivory string pins. Single 'cover-less' P-90 pickup with six individually adjustable pole-pieces and an output of 7.88k. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on lower treble bout with gold plastic 'speed' knobs. Serial number "X 8847 9" stamped in black on wooden plate at end of neck inside body. This totally original guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. There is a small area of 'pick' wear on the top near the treble side of the bridge and a few marks/indentations from a capo on the back of the neck behind the first and third frets. Otherwise this wonderful example is as close to near mint as one could ever wish for. Housed in the original Gibson four-latch, shaped brown hardshell case with brown padded-velvet lining (9.00).

"… The story goes the Gibson J-160E was originally going to be the "Les Paul Flattop", but Les would not sign-off on the model with the solid spruce top (which would feed back much more than a laminated 3-ply top). So by 1955 Gibson changed the J-160E's top (and back) to plywood (but Les still never endorsed the model). The Beatles liked and used them, hence they have some collectibility for pretty much that reason alone."

Our guitar does have a solid spruce top and mahogany back and sides - so this must have still been an available option - certainly up to 1959 - FA

"…In 1954, an electric "Jumbo Flat Top" guitar made its appearance under the J-160E name. For Country and Western musicians it was basically a J-45 --- with a body of 16 1/4" x 20 1/4" x 4 7/8" --- that is a "Dreadnaught" acoustic model electrified by a small single coil pick-up installed at the end of the fingerboard. This pick-up was fitted with adjustable poles, and completed by volume and tone controls on top with a lateral out-put jack.

The J-160E had a laminated spruce top with mahogany back and rims while the bound fingerboard was made of rosewood with trapezoidal (or "crown") position markers… The rosewood bridge was adjustable and like other Gibson "Flat Top" guitars of this period it had a belly facing the fingerboard.

The J-160E complemented the CF-100E introduced earlier [1951], and it enjoyed a much longer career since it was not discontinued until 1978… From the time of its introduction, several hundred J-160E guitars were produced each year, clearly evidencing the interest aroused by such an electric… John Lennon used his J-160E a lot in the early days of the Beatles." (A.R. Duchossoir. Gibson Electrics, p.108).