Gibson Custom Shop 1957 SJ-200 Light Aged Acoustic Guitar, Dark Natural

Gibson Custom Shop 1957 SJ-200 Light Aged Acoustic Guitar, Dark NaturalPulling from the lengthy legacy of Gibson flat tops, today's Gibson Custom Shop 1957 SJ 200 Light Aged is a royal recreation. The guitar, following in the example set by Gibson's '50s flat top classics, assumes the essence of Gibson's original "King of the Flat Tops" for the players of today. The Gibson Custom model that we have with us here today throws it over to pre war and Depression era Gibson models of the time. The Great Depression, exerting

Pulling from the lengthy legacy of Gibson flat-tops, today's Gibson Custom Shop 1957 SJ-200 Light Aged is a royal recreation. The guitar, following in the example set by Gibson's '50s flat-top classics, assumes the essence of Gibson's original "King of the Flat-Tops" for the players of today.

The Gibson Custom model that we have with us here today throws it over to pre-war and Depression-era Gibson models of the time. The Great Depression, exerting its weight on the musical instrument market of the day, drove Gibson to swap its SJ-200s' rosewood back and sides to maple as the company moved into a post-war moment. Gibson's Super Jumbo SJ-200 became an icon for the new '50s Hollywood cowboys, folk artists, country stars, and rock movers and shakers. Today's 1957 SJ-200 Light Aged assembles with reverence toward the 1950s originals.

The Gibson Custom Shop 1957 SJ-200 Light Aged is a faithful recreation with accurate material choices and ornate appointments. This all kicks off with a Gibson Super Jumbo body brought together with a thermally aged Sitka spruce top and AAA flame maple back and sides. The AAA flame maple, appearing here for the historic use of maple in '50s SJ-200s, contributes to an excellent sonic profile. With the superb voice Super Jumbos are known for, the AAA flame maple and Sitka spruce play wonderfully as the thermally aged spruce imparts a lived-in quality usually reserved for much older guitars.

Moving on, the 1957 SJ-200 introduces a two-piece AAA maple neck in a Rounded profile. This neck fits comfortably into the palm, making for seamless playing. A walnut stringer appears along the length of the neck alongside a stinger on the back of the headstock for a geometric motif. The guitar's bound rosewood fingerboard features twenty standard-sized frets with Mother of Pearl graduated crown fret inlays.

This Gibson Custom Shop model is decked with ornate appointments and hardware to make the model a visual and tangible masterpiece. First, multi-ply top and back binding wraps the curvature of the Super Jumbo body. Second, a bone nut, saddle, and bridge pins grounds strings stably. The model's tortoise pickguard features classic SJ-200 graphics while a rosewood SJ-200 Four Bar Moustache bridge with Mother of Pearl inlays grounds strings at the base of the scale.

Wrapping this all up, we have the "Light Aged' in "1957 SJ-200 Light Aged" with a particular contribution from the Gibson Custom Shop's Murphy Lab division. The Murphy Lab's Light Aged finish treatment works to visually and tangibly age the guitar's lacquer into a rich and refined result. This Gibson Custom model travels with an included period-correct hardshell case.

For fans of '50s acoustics, there's little place else you can go to get closer to an original than the 1957 SJ-200 Light Aged acoustic.

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• Thermally aged Sitka spruce top with multi-ply binding
• AAA flame maple back and sides with multi-ply binding
• Traditional scalloped X-Bracing pattern with hide glue construction
• Two-piece AAA maple neck in Rounded profile
• Walnut neck stringer and headstock stinger
• Bound rosewood fingerboard with twenty frets and Mother of Pearl graduated crown inlays
• Bone nut, saddle, and bridge pins
• Rosewood SJ-200 Four Bar Moustache bridge with Mother of Pearl bars
• Gotoh tuning machines with Keystone buttons
• Tortoise SJ-200 pickguard
• Gibson Custom Shop Murphy Lab Light Aged finish treatment
• Gibson period-accurate Pre-War Red Line hardshell included