"One Of The Great Aristocrats Of The Guitar World…"

This early September 1956 eighteen inch-wide, full-depth archtop weighs just 7.80 lbs. and has a comfortable nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Two-piece carved close-grain spruce top, two-piece carved curly maple back, and maple sides. A wonderful medium profile two-piece highly-flamed curly maple neck with a single mahogany center strip. Ebony fretboard with 20 original medium jumbo frets and inlaid pearl split-block position markers. The top has nine-ply binding, the back has five-ply binding, the f-holes are triple-bound, the neck is triple-bound, the headstock is multi-bound, and the fretboard has double white lines on each side. Headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl five-piece split-diamond inlay. Black laminate headstock back with pearl three-piece split-diamond inlay. Individual Kluson Sealfast tuners with tulip-shaped 'single-ring' keystone buttons. Black plastic truss-rod cover with a white border and a parallelogram on its face. Two original single-coil Alnico-V pickups with nicely balanced outputs of 8.61k and 8.48k. Multi-bound tortoise shell-like plastic pickguard with mottled plastic overlay. Four controls (two volume, two tone) plus three-way selector switch. Gold plastic bell-shaped "Bell" knobs. Later ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic retainer bridge with metal saddles on two-footed rosewood base, standard postwar Super 400 brass tailpiece with 'Varitone' control at the end. All hardware gold-plated. Orange oval label inside the bass f-hole, with the model "S-400-CES" written in black ink and the serial number "A 23912" stamped in black. Inside the treble f-hole the FON (factory order number) "V 4813 2" is stamped in black. Although the ABR-1 bridge is of a later type, it was most likely fitted to replace a 'preset' rosewood bridge which was often still used on this model through 1956. Apart from a few miniscule surface marks, this exceptionally rare guitar is in near mint condition. The original frets show slight wear but have plenty of life left in them. Housed in the original Gibson four-latch brown "Lifton" hardshell case with pink plush lining (8.75).

THANK YOU ALL FOR A KICK ASS YEAR!! From all of us at Fretted Americana! PhilX, David Brass, Caroline Brass and Dusty!!!