1940 Gibson ES-100 Sunburst with Original Case

Summary: This is one of Gibsons very first electric guitars and the white bobbin blade-pickup sounds fabulous! It’s in excellent shape for its age, has a nice slim V neck, plenty of finish checking and the original Bakelite knobs are too cool! There have been a couple of cracks professionally re-glued and cleated, the repairs look great and are holding up with time. It ships in its original hardshell case which is also in impeccable condition.

Body: Solid X-braced carved spruce arch top with sunburst finish, mahogany sides and maple back. Fully bound.

Neck: Slim neck with pronounced v shape which is extremely comfortable. The Brazilian rosewood fingerboard is rich and beautiful, 14 frets to the body, pearloid dots, 25” scale length and 1 23/32” nut width almost 1 ¾”. The Gibson logo looks fantastic and the guitar does not appear to have ever had a neck reset.

Pickups/Hardware: one single blade style pickup, volume and tone, Bakelite knobs, trapeze tailpiece, rosewood floating bridge, original Kluson tuners with amber pegs.

Cosmetics: This guitar is in great shape for its age. There are a few cracks that have been professionally repaired and cleated in the top, lots of finish checking, pick scratches, minor dents and dings, some finish worn off the back of the neck, scalloping in the fingerboard in between the frets from years of use and some finish worn off the edges of the headstock. There are some hairline cracks by the output jack that feel stable and do not move when you apply the pressure of a cable. Maybe something to just be careful about when you have it plugged in… maybe quite an obvious point to make to someone looking at a guitar from 1940.

Playability: Our in-house guitar tech has just inspected & setup this beautiful vintage guitar. This old Gibson is currently setup with some flatwound strings. The neck is straight, the truss rod is fully functioning and the action has been setup low and comfortable. The frets are in great shape with no major grooves or divots from use and it plays beautifully up and down the fingerboard with no dead spots or choking out. The guitar sounds really good acoustically and is just hard to put down! The V neck feels nice and worn in and the fingerboard edges are rounded over.

Modifications: Some of the wires inside the guitar have been replaced and one of the mounting screws were changed but is included in the case.

Weight: 4 lbs, 12 oz.

Case: This rare Gibson comes with the original hard-shell case & we will ship it professionally packed and fully insured!