A Very Fine 1969 'Blond' Johnny Smith Double…

This exceptionally beautiful seventeen inch wide, 3 1/8 inch deep Johnny Smith DN weighs just 7.00 lbs. X-braced carved spruce top with a superb heavily flamed tiger-maple back and sides. Three-piece curly maple neck with two walnut strips and a wonderful medium profile, a nut width of just over 1 3/4 inches and a scale length of 25 inches. Ebony fretboard with 20 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl split-block position markers. The top of the guitar has seven-ply binding, the back of the guitar has five-ply binding, the headstock has five-ply binding, and the fretboard has three-ply binding with two lines on each side. Headstock with 17 degree peghead angle, inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl five-piece split-diamond inlay. Two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover. Black-painted headstock rear face with serial number "543792" lightly impressed into the back. Orange label inside the bass f-hole with the style "J.S-DN" and the serial number "543735" in black ink. Individual Kluson Sealfast tuners with bell-shaped metal buttons. Two Gibson "Johnny Smith" floating mini-humbucking pickups with outputs of 6.35k and 6.97k. Marbled pickguard with five-ply binding. Five controls (two volume, two tone, plus three-way pickup selector switch) on pickguard. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6646" (CTS June and November 1966). Black plastic knobs (the pickup selector with a metal top). Adjustable ebony bridge with pre-set compensating saddle and small L-5 style Varitone Johnny Smith tailpiece with ebony insert and plastic nameplate. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition. There is a very small area on the pickguard which has oxidized as usual. There is a "FON (factory order number) "48291" stamped in black on the underside of the spruce top. Complete with the original 'hang-tag', the original "Gibson Seal of Approval" (which shows that the guitar was sipped on May-12-1969", the original "Lifton" case hang-tag and the original receipt/order dated April 22, 1969 and showing the delivery date as being "5/16/69". Housed in the original Gibson black 'four-latch' "Lifton" hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.25).

One of only 17 'Natural' Johnny Smith 'Doubles' produced in 1969 out of a total of 55 guitars shipped between 1963 and 1970.

"Jazz guitarist Johnny Smith endorsed a Guild in the 1950s, then moved to Gibson in 1961. His namesake model in the Gibson line is a fully acoustic guitar with a solid carved top and 'floating' pickups. It has the body size, X-pattern top bracing, and 25-inch scale (none standard Gibson specifications) of Smith's personal D'Angelico guitar. Gibson introduced a single-pickup Johnny Smith in 1961, followed by the double-pickup model in 1963. It remained Gibson's top 'artist' model until Smith's endorsement agreement ended in 1989" (George Gruhn and Walter Carter, Electric Guitars and Basses: A Photographic History, p. 77).

Introduced in 1961 (with one pickup), the Gibson Johnny Smith combined classic body styling with unprecedented technical innovation. The JS debuted the world's first floating humbucking pickup, and resurrected the classic X-braced top, a design used by Gibson in the 1930s. This model also revived the more generous 1 3/4" fingerboard, a favorite of finger-style players, and introduced a 25" scale (similar to that of Smith's D'Angelico guitar), to facilitate stretch voicings without sacrificing response. Finally, the body was an 3 1/8" depth, making it just that much easier to hold. The result is an instrument unique in playability, tonal response, and aesthetics. The visual design of the Johnny Smith is drawn from a number of top-of-the-line models as well. The 17" Venetian cutaway body and deco tailpiece are those of the L-5C, the neck and peghead are from the Super 400, and the opulent 7-ply body binding recalls the classic Epiphone Emperor.