1952 Gibson ETG-150 Electric Tenor Guitar

I wish I'd had time to grab a soundclip of this one. Suffice to say -- it's a gem and has that relaxed, moody, mellow P90 sound (think early '50s jazz) you only really hear from the late '40s and early '50s. A customer dropped by with this for show-and-tell and to get the pots sprayed-out, but other than that it was ready to go. Someone had already done a good setup on it and aside from the replacement tuner buttons, it's a totally-stock guitar.

The bodies on these are all ply and while the focus is on the electric side, the acoustic sound is more than good enough in a thunky way for mild jamming and practice. The neck is a thin, fast cut with a C-shaped rear. I'm always surprised at how quick Gibson tenor necks are -- you can get around on one like they're mandolins which means for very speedy lead playing if you desire it.

As you can see, the 4-pole pickup has been balance-adjusted for standard CGDA tuning which means the D string pole is set way back and the A string pole is set as close to the string as possible.

These are the older, taller version of the Gibson speed knobs.

Let's not forget the incredible case that it rides in  -- a '60s-era Gibson case, but one that fits it nicely.