The "King of the Flat Top Guitars"

This 17-inch-wide "King of the Flat Top Guitars" weighs just 5.80 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Highly figured curly maple back and sides, with a "zipper" stripe down the center of the back, close-grained "X-Braced" spruce top. Three-piece curly maple neck with mahogany center-strips and a lovely medium profile. Brazilian rosewood fretboard with 20 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl crest position markers. The top has seven-ply black and white binding, the back has five-ply white and black binding, and the soundhole rings are in two groups of seven white and black and three white and black. Black headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl double-crown inlay. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with "Custom" engraved in white. Serial number ("62966") impressed into the back of the headstock. Individual Super Kluson tuners with bell-shaped metal buttons. Brown celluloid pickguard elaborately etched in a floral design. ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic 'retainer' bridge with nylon saddles. "Closed moustache" rosewood tailpiece with pearl inlays. With the Gibson 'Kalamazoo' orange oval label inside the sound-hole with style ("J-200") and the serial number ("62966") stamped in black. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition with some light checking and just a few insignificant surface marks on the top and sides. Housed in the original Gibson four-latch black hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.00).

"Called 'King of the Flat Top Guitars' for its dramatic beauty, booming resonance, and penetrating carrying power...built with an extra large tone chamber and many exclusive design features. Very showy in appearance, flawless in workmanship, outstanding in performance"

"It's doubtful that any guitar, flat-top or archtop, acoustic or electric, or any combination of same, can surpass the Super Jumbo 200 in distinctiveness of appearance...The allure of the Super Jumbo 200 indeed ranges far and wide, touching rock, pop, blues, gospel, country, folk, hillbilly, and of course cowboy (as in country-western). Ray Whitley...was the prime mover behind the creation of this famous model...The J-200's dramatic beauty, booming resonance, and penetrating carrying power have again made this famous model a much-in-demand guitar, especially among those performers who require the ultimate in a stage guitar. Over the decades Gibson catalogues have accurately referred to the Super Jumbo/SJ 200/J-200 model as 'King of the Flat-Tops'" (Eldon Whitford, David Vinopal, and Dan Erlewine, Gibson's Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars, pp. 76-84).

Artists who have played J-200s include: Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, David Crosby, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, The Everly Brothers, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley, Stephen Stills, Townes Van Zandt, and Ray Whitley, the singing cowboy, among many others.

"The J-200 has a unique place in musical history, bridging the gap in all different kinds of music, from western to blues to folk to rock to country. It's sturdy and yet so very musical, a guitar tonally unique, big, and absolutely beautiful. To me, this guitar represents the best of American art, and in some ways the J-200 transcends art, although in a sense it's only a tool. The J-200 is my guitar of choice. It has such a distinctive sound, feel, and look. It is simply a thing of beauty -- an American original with its shape and appearance. Nothing else even comes close" (Emmylou Harris, quoted in Eldon Whitford, David Vinopal, and Dan Erlewine, Gibson's Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars, p. 76).