San Diego, CA, United States
About this listing
A beautiful example of the Gibson custom shop. The guitar is original finish vintage sunburst and in excellent condition. Mint would be pushing it, but it is close IMO. All original electronics and pots are noiseless.It includes the original case (it's a newer black Gibson case rather than the original tan case). Players generally don't care, but collectors often prefer the original brown/tan Custom Shop case ... your call. The guitar was purchased new from Guitar Center in San Diego before it moved to the new location in La Mesa around 2002. I am the only owner. I have had the frets dressed and the intonation set at Mose Guitar shop in La Mesa. This Wes Montgomery L5 is serial number 20072004. According to ChatGPT, Gibson did not release a production Wes Montgomery model until the 1990s, and valid Wes Montgomery signature L-5 serial numbers usually follow the Gibson Custom Shop format. An 8-digit numbering system is standard: Format: YDDDYRRR, where Y is the year, DDD is the day of the year, and RRR is the instrument's production rank. Valid L-5 Wes Montgomery models use 8-digit formats. Also, the serial number and "Wes Montgomery" signature are found on the tan/orange oval label inside the f-hole (see picture). The logical interpretation is: Year: 2002, Day of year: January 7, 2002 , Sequence: 004 = the fourth neck stamped in that production sequence that day.Many Gibson enthusiasts consider the late 1990s through about 2005 to be a particularly good era for Gibson's high-end archtops. During that period the carved spruce tops and figured maple backs were generally of very high quality. The fit and finish from the Custom Shop was consistently excellent. The Wes Montgomery model was still being built in relatively small numbers, and the model retained the classic specifications: Single neck humbucker, carved solid spruce top, carved maple back and sides, ebony fingerboard, 17-inch L-5 body, scale length of 25.5 inches and Wes Montgomery tailpiece engraving. Apparently, Gibson has never published production totals for the Wes Montgomery L-5 (if you know they did please let me know). Buzz from dealers and collectors suggest they were made in very limited numbers, likely only a few dozen per year during much of their production. That makes them considerably less common than even the standard L-5 CES(1).This guitar has spent 99% of its life in the case. It was never used at a gig and was babied when seldomly played. It is a very fine example of the series and is priced competitively. I am selling as I am reducing the number of things I own and would like this to go to someone who will appreciated it for what it is.The designation stands for L-5 Custom Electric Spanish. The L-5 itself is Gibson’s flagship archtop guitar, introduced in 1922. The "CES" designation was added when Gibson began electrifying their acoustic archtops in the 1950s. Montgomery preferred bolting the pickup directly to the top rather than using a "floating" pickup because he used his thumb to play the strings, and the setup gave him his signature fat, articulate sound.
Price$9,900
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from San Diego, CA
Predicted to Sell Soon
Only 1 available and 2 other people have this in their carts
