The One-Off Prototype L-5CT - The George Gobel For George Gobel
The Very First Gibson Guitar in Cherry Red!

1958 Gibson L-5C "Special" George Gobel Prototype.

This L-5C "Special" that was specially made for and presented to George Gobel has a 17 inch wide and 2 5/8 inches thick body. It weighs just 4.90 lbs and has a nut width of 1 11/16 inches inches and a standard L-5 Gibson scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Carved spruce top, highly figured curly maple back and sides, three-piece curly maple neck, and bound ebony fretboard with 20 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl block position markers. The top of the guitar has nine-ply binding, the back of the guitar has five-ply binding, the f-holes are single-bound, the neck is triple-bound, the headstock has five-ply binding, and the fretboard has double sets of white lines going down it. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl flowerpot inlay. The back of the headstock is laminated black. Individual Kluson Sealfast tuners with bell-shaped metal buttons. Tortoiseshell pickguard with five-ply binding. Rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle on rosewood base and L-5 trapeze tailpiece. The oval orange label visible through the bass 'f' hole has the model designation as "L5 - C - Special" written in black ink and the serial number "A 27318" (March 1958) stamped in black. Inside the treble 'f' hole is the FON (factory order number) "T 3885 1" stamped in black. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in exceptionally fine (9.00) condition. Housed in the original Gibson five-latch brown hardshell case with pink plush lining (9.00).

The unique "Lonesome George's wear marks, due to his style of playing, are on the top - if you watch the Youtube video of George Gobel and Dean Martin doing a duet… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uXIhC9JcpM you can clearly see how these 'wear' marks occured.

“Lonesome” George Gobel, the low-key, high profile, wildly popular nightclub comedian and television star of the mid-1950s-early 1960s was indeed lonesome. The Gibson Super 400 had been his guitar of choice, integrating it into his act and performing with it for many years. But the Super 400 was a huge guitar for this short and stocky man; it was like Tom Thumb married to a Valkyrie – them big women are great but a small man could get lost in their embrace. With the Super 400 in front, there wasn’t much George behind. For Gobel, the Super 400 was a row-boat with strings, perfect for use while fishing, not so much for playing. George needed a guitar that he could strum, not one that could strum him. One night after a club date at Chicago’s Palmer House, George hoisted a few with Gibson’s Andy Nelson. He asked if Gibson had a guitar of equal quality but of smaller dimensions. And so, inspired by drink, the two dreamed up the L5CT – with shorter scale, thinner body, and cross bracing rather than the parallel bracing that Gibson preferred. In sum, a guitar that George could comfortably hold and play and not look like he was strumming a bass fiddle in his lap. The bright cherry finish was meant to allow the guitar to show well and “pop” on stage. It showed very well indeed and popped like crazy on television when the legendary Tennessee Ernie Ford officially presented the guitar to Gobel on Ford’s hit T.V. variety show, April 3, 1958.

This is it, the “one-off” custom-built especially for Gobel by Gibson, with Serial Number 27318, which the Gibson archive dates to March 20, 1958 and hand-notes “Lonesome George Gobel Spec.” The Gibson label inside this guitar notes the serial number and “L5 C- Special” as model. The guitar is slightly thicker (2 5/8 in.) than the production model and has a standard 25 1/2 inch scale to the production model’s 24 3/4 inches. This instrument is identified and pictured on page sixty-six of Adrian Ingram’s The Gibson L.5, which provides the entire history of this guitar.

Only forty-five of these beauties were manufactured between 1958 and 1962, when the model was discontinued. The L5CT was never officially named the George Gobel model, it just came to be as closely identified with him as Gobel’s original scratch marks are on this unique instrument. George Gobel famously quipped: “Did you ever get the feeling that the world’s a tuxedo and you’re a pair of brown shoes?” We have no idea how Gobel’s footwear stacked up but this guitar was and remains a high class, custom made set of threads.

The L-5CT was a "thin line" L-5 with a 2 3/8 inch deep body (instead of a 3 3/8 inch for the standard L-5) and a shorter scale length of 24 3/4 inches (instead of 25 1/2 inches). "It was expressly developed by Gibson for comedian George Gobel (hence the 'George Gobel' nickname) who asked for the guitar to be finished in a gleaming cherry red. The L-5CT was manufactured from 1959 to 1961 in fairly small quantities (43 in all) but a few of them were factory equipped with humbuckers or bar pick-ups, although it was primarily introduced as an acoustic guitar next to the L-5C" (A.R. Duchossoir, Gibson Electrics from the Origins up to 1961, p. 132).

Gibson produced many Artist models in the 1950s and '60s -- the Les Paul, Byrdland, Tal Farlow, Barney Kessel, Trini Lopez, and Johnny Smith are probably the best known. This model, the L-5CT, is one of the rarest of the Artist models. The CT is a variant of the venerable L-5 (which has a "long" scale length of 25 1/2 inches) with a thinline body and cutaway, and was originally designed for comedian George Gobel. In 1958, Gobel was big-time -- he had his own TV show, and the first L-5CT was presented to him by Tennessee Ernie Ford on Gobel's show. The comedian wanted a thinline, shorter-scale guitar to fit his somewhat rotund and short-armed body, and the CT design was Gibson's answer. The production model of the L-5CT had the thinline body and a "standard" 24-3/4" scale length. Another unique feature of the guitar was the cherry red finish, which was the very first use of that color.

The thinline L-5 design has an easy feel and good balance, but the real value of this instrument is its collectibility -- not only is it a celebrity guitar, but it's also the prototype of a Gibson rarity. According to Larry Meiners's Gibson Shipment Totals 1937-1979 (pp. 33-34), only 43 L-5CTs were built between 1958 and 1961. The above-mentioned 1958 L-5CT 'Prototype' with serial number "A-27318" and two other L-5CTs that were shipped in November 1962 (serial numbers "61308" and "62179" makes a total of 46. Now that's rare!