Gibson Vintage Wes Montgomery L5 CES Archtop Jazz 1998 Guitar

Manufacturer

Gibson Guitars

Guitar Type

Archtop Hollow Body

Lower Bout Width

17″

Body Depth

3.3125″

Nut Width

1.69″

Fingerboard Scale

25.50″

Wood Composition

Carved Solid

Tonewoods

Maple, Spruce

Fretboard

Ebony

Pickup Type

1 Set Humbucker

Finish

Sunburst

Best Price Guarantee

Our goal at Guitars ‘n Jazz is to find you the best possible instrument that not only matches your personal requirements and play-style, but is also a guitar that you enjoy playing and look forward to picking up.

We strive to price our instruments as competitively as possible in order to give our customers the best possible value for their dollar. And as a guitarist myself I would never sell an instrument that didn’t live up to my own high standards and expectations.

All of our instruments are thoroughly inspected, tested, professionally set up, and carefully packed for shipment. And all instruments are sold with our 72 hour satisfaction guarantee.

We encourage you to call us for the best price possible. We routinely have demos, closeouts, blemishes, and used instruments available for purchase. And if you happen to find a lower price please let us know.

And please keep in mind that it’s difficult comparing various instruments on the Internet. Since many of our guitars come standard with upgraded woods and tone controls shopping by price alone won’t tell the whole story.

Since our inventory changes so frequently it’s best to call us to find all of your available options. With over 500 archtops in stock you can be assured that we have unbelievable guitars to fit any budget.

SKU: Gibson L5 1971. Category: .

A vintage Gibson L5 carved archtop is difficult to beat in tone, playability, projection and value!

Product Description

Initially produced as an acoustic in 1922 under the direction of famed Gibson luthier Lloyd Loar, the L-5 was Gibson’s first guitar with f-holes. In the 1940s the model became the rhythm box of choice for big band players and later the standard guitar for Wes Montgomery, who would eventually receive a custom model. And it was already one of the world’s most popular guitars when Gibson first electrified the model in 1951.

Gibson put a pair of P-90 single-coil pickups and a rosewood bridge on the first 31 L-5 CES models to emerge from the original Kalamazoo plant in ’51. Although the guitars never went into high production, the company’s engineers continued to work on numerous modifications. In 1958, 21 examples of the classic version of the L-5 CES that’s produced today by Gibson’s Custom Shop emerged, beefed up with two humbucking pickups and an ABR-1 bridge.

This Wes Montgomery L-5 CES is a truly classic instrument with great tone and craftsmanship  . Its appearance is both imposing and graceful, with a stylish single cutaway, block inlays, and artfully crafted headstock. The headstock is itself a work of art, bearing a pearl inlay inspired by the urns of ancient Greece. The L-5 CES has a high-grade spruce top and maple back and rims. Its body is a substantial 17-inches wide, 21-inches long, and 3 3/8-inches deep – dimensions key to its rich, dark, woody tones. Multi-ply binding in black or white accents the top and back, and single-ply white binding outlines the f-holes

The guitar’s neck is made of high-grade maple and walnut supporting a 20-fret ebony fingerboard with pearl block inlays and multi-ply black or white binding. The ES rounded profile neck has a 25 1/2-inch scale length with a 1 11/16-inch width at the nut.

The electronics array is pure Gibson, with one patented Gibson humbucking pickup, one volume knob and one tone knob. The Custom Shop’s L-5 CES is outfitted in all gold hardware and features Schaller M6s tuners. The instrument’s ABR-1 bridge has an ebony base and there’s an artfully rendered L-5 trapeze tailpiece. This guitar is in great condition, no dings, or dents, but a few small impressions on the front, and a bit more on the back, but nothing seen easily or thru the finish. The neck, playability and tone is equal to the best that we have ever had in the shop.

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