1946(?) Gibson ES-300 Electric Guitar, Killer Jazzbox, WWII Top of the Line! - $3,789 - (Montpelier, VT)

Gibson introduced the ES-300 in 1940, as the new flagship and most expensive of the pre-war electric line, selling for $300. That may not sound like much, but $300 in 1940 is equivalent to $5253 in 2017 dollars. Gibson made the prewar ES-300 from 1940-42, then after WWII from 1945-53. This big jazzbox has the 17 inch body. It has no serial number, so exact dating is difficult. The horizontal pearl script Gibson logo is a pre-war feature. The triple-bound front and back indicate postwar, probably 1946. The trapeze tailpiece with three parallelograms could indicate pre-war or 1945-46. In Duchossoir’s Gibson Electrics—The Classic Years we read “....the very first post-war samples may present distinctive features. Some early instruments were thus built with an all-mahogany body and feature a pickup without visible polepieces.” This is a very rare pickup I’ve only ever seen on this particular guitar. The neck and body does appear to be all mahogany. This ES-300 is lacking its original pickguard. I don’t know if the Kluson Deluxe tuners on this instrument are the “open-back individual tuners with plastic keystone buttons” called for in 1946-48 (since I don’t know what a keystone button is), but the pre-war specs called for individual Klusons with metal buttons. Anyway, this guitar has Klusons with plastic buttons I would call “ovoid-roundish” or just “the regular kind”. From 1940 through 1948, estimates are that only about 650 of these single-pickup ES-300’s were produced. You won’t see many of these survivors. This one comes in its original case. Your buddies won’t believe it when you bring this over, open it up and crank on it. This big Gibson jazzbox does have an interesting non-original feature, which is a ¼ inch hole crudely drilled into the back of the headstock down low, so that the trussrod cover on the front covers it (see pics). I imagine this feature allowed the original owner to hang the guitar from a nail in the wall of the…

Posted in Montpelier, VT, Music Instruments
From ebay.com - 1 month ago