1929 Gibson HG-24 historical 14 fret Jumbo Brazilian, only 5 left, HC, VG/EC

Gibson HG-24, 1929, serial The Gibson HG-24 was produced from 1929 to 1932 in very limited numbers. It was the top of the Hawaiian line and the most expensive guitar Gibson produced at the time. Gibson introduced its "round shouldered" dreadnought 14 fret to the body shape in 1929, two years before a dreadnought appeared under the Martin brand, so this guitar is believed to be the earliest example of a modern Dreadnought built for steel strings. Only aproximatly 5 are known to have survived over the years, and this is one of them. It has four f-holes and an internal inner sound wall to produce a loud voice. The internal sound chamber will ingeniously forces the low frequencies out of the f-holes and the high ones out of the round hole. It's still in the guitar and not removed as most have. The top is built under tension with a slight arch. The sound chamber gives this instrument a fat treble with lots of reverb and sustain, very bright and lots of brazilian deep and serious bas. Nothing like the other Hawaiians who sounded much more dry. The neck is a one piece mahogany with elevated ebony fretboard, adorned with rectangular pearloid blocks like those used on the L-5 model of that same year. Original Grover G-98 tuners. It has stunning looking Brazilian rosewood back and sides, adjustable truss-rod and a compensated saddle. the Bridge is shaved a bit, but still original, the saddle leaves room for lowering the action more if you need to, the set-up however is excellent. The Gibson label which can be seen through the soundhole is intact. It tells the model HG-24 and the serial number 88717 which place it in 1929.

This guitar is completely restored after we found a bad refin and badly performed crack-repairs. there were aprox 5 cracks in the back and 2 in the top, also there was a soundhole crack running parrallel to the fretboard. Restoration work took a year and was expertly performed by Gerard Oudenaller who took the time to carefully remove the old refin, and repair the cracks, use a thin nitro refin in 1929 Gibson blackburst style.

The result is really stunning! 2 small pieces of binding are missing. But we will try to restore those before delivery. The neck is all intact, no breaks or repairs and except for overspray completely origininal including original peghead finish, also the tuners are original Grover. Oddly one of them lost most of the nickel protection, or perhaps one of them has been replaced for another era correct one. This guitar is now in a playable and collectible condition and has a great,  unique tone, very Gibson jumbo like, punchy and powerful, Advanced jumbo like.  It is infact one of the rarest guitars, but also historical significant guitars on the planet.

Considering it's infact the earlierst known 14 fret, and fewer thn 5 examples of these are still known to exist! It's believed to be the earliest example of a modern Dreadnought built for steel strings. In the famous book “Gibsons fabulous flattop guitars” page 69-71 you can read the story of the Gibson HG-24 with lots of details and it`s companions HG-22 and HG-20 (witch were built the same way but in concert-size and no brazilian). They were only built between 1928 – 1934 when the Roy Smeck model took over. The Gibson HG-24 was Gibson top of the line hawain, selling for 160 $ in 1932 (35$ more than the Nick Lucas model – the most expensive so called Spanish guitar) Comes with a Deluxe Italian leather Guitar case.

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