Gibson ES300N - 1948 A$4900

I love these old full bodied 17 inch Gibsons. This model was the top of the line for Gibson immediately after the war. This guitar is one of the last with a single pickup, towards the end of 1948 they changed to having two pickups. This one is natural (rarer - only 83 made that year) and is all original. The case is original although it is mainly held together with duct tape. The ES300 was discontinued in 1952.

I have an irrational love of these old ES300's. Just something about them. I have three of them, so far.... One is one of the first post-war ES300's with an all mahongany body and one of the very first P90 pickups with no exposed poles. The other is a 1951 flametop, with a very deep flame - it is absolutely beautiful. Both are all original, even the tuners are. I'll try and get images up here when I can.

Dimensions: 17 inch (W) by 21 inch (L) by 3 3/8 inch (D). Laminated Maple top reinforced with 2 parallel braces, a laminated maple back and rims, triple binding on top and bottom edges, unbound f-holes, 20 fret bound rosewood fingerboard with double parallelogram inlays, 25 1/2 inch scale length, one-piece mahogany neck, bound peghead with Gibson logo (this logo introduced in 1947) inlaid in pearl, 5-ply black pickguard with a bevelled edge (introduced in 1948), rosewood bridge with pre-set compensating saddle, nickel trapeze tailpiece with pointed ends and three raised parallelograms, individual kluson deluxe tuners. Single black covered p90 pickup in the neck position.

I've decided after much anguish to offer this ES300N for sale. I don't really need to keep three ES300's and I have other purchases in mind. This guitar is rare and all original except that the binding on the bass side of the neck has been replaced. When I first bought it the binding was coming off and was in pieces. I had Jim Cargill put new binding on and he has "aged" it so that unless I had told you you could not tell that it has been replaced. I have kept the old binding if that is of interest to anyone. It also has a repaired finish crack around the jack input, it was like that when I bought it and does not detract from the beauty of this instrument. Otherwise this guitar has the normal checking and a few dings and small scratches but nothing that detracts from it. It plays wonderfully as expected for a quality 60 year old instrument.

It is one of the last ES300's with a single pickup. The FON is in the 3000's range which dates it to 1948. This is confirmed by the Gibson script that began in 1947, the pickguard that was changed to this type during 1948 and that the ES300 was updated during the later part of 1948 with two pickups. One of only 83 made in 1948. Only about 450 single pickup ES300's were made of which about 150 or less were naturals (shipping records for 1946 and 1947 are not available - so it is an educated guess given the numbers produced from 1948 to 1952).

Very rare AND beautiful, what more can you ask for... If you are seriously interested I can get more pictures to you, although every inch is covered by the images below.

Contact me by email in the first instance.
Copy this address into your email program: mark@endsongs.com