1958 Gibson Country Western Slope Dreadnought Guitar

Gosh, who doesn't love a good old Country Western? These guitars look superb and they conjure-up the best days of the Grand Ole Opry forthwith. This one has the usual finish wear-and-tear but is otherwise in excellent condition for its age and all-original save a couple of pearl dots in the bridge and the bridge pins themselves.

Tone-wise this bruiser has that mid-'50s growl and mids-push that makes these such great flatpickers, but it also has a deliciously-broad low-end to anchor it. It has a more-modern neck profile that I think will suit a lot more paws than the slightly-earlier versions of this same model which tended to have a thicker front-to-back cut and fatter "corners" to the back profile. It'd be a good fit for a player looking for that early-'60s Gibson tone and feel but with mids and highs that deliver more punch.

If this guitar hasn't had a neck reset, then it's actually done really well for itself over time, because I didn't need to do one when it came in and the setup was pretty close. There was some healing to be done, however.

Work included: a bridge reglue, fret level/dress, brace reglues to parts of the top and back, a pickguard reglue, minor hairline crack repair to the back-lower-bout and next to the pickguard at the waist, new pearl dots in the bridge (to replace the ones I had to take out to reglue the bridge), and general cleaning and setup. It plays on-the-dot with a straight neck, working truss rod, and 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret, strung with standard 54w, 42w, 32w, 24w, 16, 12 gauges.

Specs are: 24 5/8" scale length, 1 11/16" nut width, 1 1/2" string spacing at the nut, 2 3/16" spacing at the bridge, 16 1/8" lower bout, 11 1/2" upper bout, and 5" depth at the endblock. The neck profile is a mild-to-medium C-shape with a 12" fretboard radius.

Materials are: solid spruce top, solid mahogany back and sides, mahogany neck, rosewood fretboard and bridge, synthetic nut and saddle, plastic pins and endpin, celluloid pickguard.

Condition notes: the finish shows lots of weather-check and finish-cracking throughout, there's pickwear around the soundhole and use-wear (including a bared patch) on the back and throughout, the finish on the binding has chipped here and there to reveal brighter-cream sections, and there are the two hairline cracks mentioned before -- on on the back-lower-bout and one to the side of the pickguard on the top, both cleated/sealed as possible. The guitar is almost entirely-original (save bridge pins and 2 pearl dots), however, and has a rich, golden-glowing presence.

The frets are the original, smallish, lower Gibson stock from the time -- though they still have a lot of life to give.

The saddle has good height and plenty of room up/down for action changes. I actually had to shim it up slightly from its original height to where it is now. This is the original, synthetic saddle, though I've compensated it to a greater extent than stock.

The back patch where the finish flaked-off (presumably from humidity/skin-contact damage or buckle-bumping?) was sealed with a layer of what looks like clear poly in its past.

It comes with a good, hard, TKL case.