Serial Number: 90204

Year shipped: 1934

FON:

Headstock: Horizontal ‘The Gibson’ logo

Neck/fingerboard: 19 fret fingerboard with pointed end, dot inlays from the fifth fret

Body: Maple back and sides, kerfed braces

Hardware: Gold-plated metal parts including regular tailpiece and individual open-back Grover 98G ‘Sta-tite’ tuners with butterbean keys (not original to the guitar but period correct). Ebony bridge and long bound pickguard

Notes: There are two small cracks in the top and a small, repaired crack in the back.

This example is unusual in having a 19-fret dot inlaid fingerboard with a pointed end (see also serial number 89511, which was shipped in 1933). We would expect an example of this vintage to have a 19-fret block inlaid fingerboard.

A simple explanation is that the original block inlaid fingerboard has, at some point, been replaced with the dot inlaid one seen here. However, Gryphon Stringed Instruments assure us that the fingerboard is original. In addition, Laurence Wexer, who, at the time of writing, owns the guitar, also says that the fingerboard appears to be original (factory).

Interestingly, serial number 95498, which was shipped in 1938, also has a dot fingerboard with a pointed end – though this time with 20 frets.