The Gibson SG Supreme was built from 1999 to 2009 and features a figured Maple cap on a Mahogany slab body, paired with a Mahogany neck and bound Richlite fingerboard. At first, the SG Supreme was equipped with a pair of P-90 pickups, but these were phased out in favour of Humbuckers over the year 2000 and into 2001. In 2002, the ‘Fireburst’ finish seen here started rising from the tail of the guitar, rather than the traditional burst with dark edges and lighter center.
Kalamazoo
Originally produced for only the years 1958 to 1960, the Gibson Les Paul Standard overcame its lack of commercial success and became one of the influential guitars ever. The Les Paul Standard appeared in 1958 as a ‘new’ version of the Les Paul model and carried Gibson’s new hum-bucking pickups designed by Seth Lover, and was adorned with a sunburst finish showing off what was normally a nicely figured Maple cap.
Built from 1989 to about 2017 at the historic Parsons Street plant in Kalamazoo Michigan, the Heritage H555 evokes the higher end, groundbreaking thinline archtop electrics of the late 1950s. The Heritage Guitar Company was founded in 1985 by a number of former Gibson employees who chose not to relocate when Norlin, then Gibson’s parent company, moved operations to Nashville in 1984. They stayed behind, purchased the plant and began producing professional and higher grade instruments clearly influenced by their experiences.
The Gibson J200 VS, for Vintage Sunburst, is one of the largest production acoustics and continues the reign of “The King of the Flat-Tops”. First appearing in 1938, the J-200 was immediately adopted by major country players. The original selling price was $200, with a $50 upcharge to have your name inlaid in the fingerboard. The J-200 has sometimes been named the SJ-200 (Super Jumbo), and outside of the war years 1944 to 1946, has been in regular production since its introduction.
Here’s a real beauty – a Gibson ES350 Electric Archtop built during 1951 at the historic Parsons Street shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The ES-350 was built from 1947 to 1956, and for 1957 received a thinner body and new name – the ES-350T, the T standing for Thinline. This model was played extensively by top artists like Barney Kessel, Chuck Berry, B B King and Tal Farlow. At its 1947 introduction, the Gibson ES350 was named the ‘ES-350 Premiere’ and was a full body, single cutaway archtop with a single P-90 pickup in the neck position. For 1949, it received a second pickup. Construction was typical of Gibson’s electric archtop production, with Laminate Maple for the top, sides and back, part of an attempt to reduce feedback at stage volumes.