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

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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