TRM is excited to present such a stunning example of this very early example of a humbucker loaded Gibson Super 400. This guitar can be seen as plate 10 in the Tom Van Hoose "The Gibson Super 400" book and was sold to Scott Chinery to reside in his colleciton which was one of the finest guitar collections in the world at that time.
1958 was the first official year of production of Super 400s with PAF pickups. They continued to have Alnico V "staple" pickups until the middle of that year, only receiving PAFs for the last half. This guitar is one of just 15 Super 400 CESN examples shipped in 1958, this guitar at the very end of the year, clearly making this guitar among the first 10 examples of the Super 400 CESN ever made with humbuckers.
This amazing piece of guitar history has been maintained in beautiful condition in its over 65 years of existence. The guitar remains in all original condition with its original case. The finish shows some light checking, expected for nearly any guitar of this age and there a some scattered small 1-2 mm) finish chips in the top, shown in photos. There is a very shallow dent in the back of the neck around the level of the 8th fret, shown in the neck photo with an arrow. The original pickguard has a prior repaired crack, and a piece of missing binding that has been gone since at least the 1990s, as can be seen in the Van Hoose book. There is light wear to the gold plating on parts, and the neck pickup has wear to a lacquer coating that was applied to it.
The guitar plays beautifully with great action and level frets. The neck has a full C-shape that is very comfortable, being nicely sized for its era, noticeably thinner that the typical 1958 neck carve, that year being typically among the largest necks in Gibson history. The tone oozes PAF with the neck pickup being a noticeably hot PAF at 9.45K. The bridge pickup is a more typical 7.89K.
Weight - 7.81 pounds
Nut width - 1.69 inches
1st fret depth - 0.88 inches
10th fret depth - 1.01 inches
The orginal case is included and is in great condition.
The guitar ships free in the United States, and for very reasonable rates worldwide.