1940 Gibson ES-300 - Natural incl. black hardshell case

Beautiful and super rare first year 1940 Gibson ES-300 archtop acoustic guitar in very good condition. Only 47(!) of these have been made in 1940 and this one is very likely one of the very first ones ever made. In Duchossoir's Gibson Electric book (p.158) serial number #96384 was mentioned as registered October 1940. This one is #96382 which is 2 number earlier! With it's 17" non-cutaway curly-maple body and arched solid spruce top this was Gibsons "Top of the line" guitar and the first electric-guitar featuring a pickup with adjustable polepieces! The oblong diagonal pickup only existed from 1940 until spring 1941. The original frets are still in perfect shape, since they have been played with flatwound strings exclusively. The big 2-piece flamed maple neck is very comfortable to play and the big 17" non-cut body has a great, rich and warm sound. Great action and superb sounding guitar! There is a professionally repaired crack around the output jack but it's definitely stable. Comes in orig. 60s black hardshell case.

Specs:

• Serial number #96382
• 17" archtop with carved top and back
• Solid, carved spruce top
• Bound - 17" non-cutaway flamed maple body
• 2-piece flamed maple neck
• Bound rosewood fretboard with double parallelogram inlays and 20frets
• 6 orig. Kluson "open-back" tuners
• 1x óblong diagonal singlecoil pickup with adjustable polepieces and 16K
• 1x Volume + 1x Tone control
• Adjustable rosewood bridge on wooden base
• Bound tortoise pickguard
• Gibson fixed trapeze-tailpiece
• Incl. orig. 60s brown hardshellcase