Unique Barney Kessel Custom Hand-Painted by Super-Guitarist April Lawton.

This one-off guitar was owned, played and hand-painted by April Lawton of the 'Seventies 'super group' Ramatam, which featured Mitch Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Mike Pinero of Iron Butterfly. April played this guitar, which she designed and painted in 1973, on two Ramatam albums. The guitar is signed and dated on the top "April Lawton 9-73." This original cherry sunburst "Barney Kessel Custom" guitar weighs just  6.80 lbs. and has a nut width of 1 9/16 inches, a scale length of 25 1/2 inches and a really comfortable medium neck profile. With a unique 17 inch wide and 3 inch deep body with double Florentine cutaway and laminated maple top with two parallel braces, it possesses beautifully flamed laminated maple back and sides. Two patent number humbucking pickups with outputs of 7.88k and 7.32k. Ebony 'Gretsch' style bar bridge on adjustable ebony base. Trapeze tailpiece with raised diamond and rosewood shield featuring a black plastic nameplate with "Barney Kessel" engraved in white. All hardware gold-plated. Housed in the original Gibson four-latch black hardshell case with yellow plush lining (8.50). This is one of the most unusual of all the Gibson 'Artist' models with just 740 guitars being produced between 1961 and 1973. This guitar is one of just 57 guitars shipped in 1966.