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GIBSON ES 5N, 1951

natural. One of the rarest and most sought-after vintage guitars: the ES 5 in its pre-switchmaster version with three P90 pickups has tied its name to some of the greatest moments of American Music history. It was the axe of choice of many blues performers... Lowell Fulson, B.B. King (do you remeber his famous '50s bermuda picture?) and most of all T-Bone Walker.
The guitar you see here sounds terrific, from warmer jazz to the classic P90 bite through a full steam tube amp, to the legendary out-of-phase sound of the bridge pickup. Typical early ES 5 circuitry, with three individual volume controls, no pickup selector switch and a single master tone on the cutaway bout. All the parts are original, except for knobs (excellent reproductions): pickups, pots, "Super Kluson" tuners with plastic tulip buttons, pickguard, rosewood bridge, etc. etc. The guitar is solid and beautiful, with normal finish-checking, some gold-plating wear, and normal playing wear on body and neck; we have tried to show in the "wear" pictures a large area in the lower part of the sides, next to the strap-button, where there is a heavier checking which has caused the finish to flake away, probably due to a long stay in a wet environment while standing in vertical position. Very beautiful woods, gorgeous flamed maple on top and back, even better on sides and neck, with a nicely yellowed patina: I hope you can see that from the pictures. Really a killer looking, killer sounding guitar! Non-original but excellent, very solid and properly fitting hardshell case. Please open pictures ONE at a time. 

es5n - body1 - body1a - body2 - body3 - body4 - back - back2 - bodyback - bodyback2 - neck - headstock - hardware - incase - wear1 - wear2 - wear3 - wear4 - case