Gibson ES-300N (1951)
Hollow-Body/Archtop · SS (2 Single Coils) Pickups · Vintage
One of Gibson's premier 17" hollowbody electrics with some of the nicest curly Maple you'll ever see.
1951 Gibson ES-300N just into the shop!Widely regarded as one of the finest 17" models Gibson produced in the mid 20th Century, the ES-300 combines archtop power and projection with the tonal versatility of a twin P90 electric. While the earliest versions of this model featured a solid carved Maple top, this '51 has a laminated top that provides more feedback rejection for live performance and larger ensembles where higher volumes could introduce more challenges.
We're probably calling out the obvious here, but can you believe the set of Maple on this guitar?! Ridiculous! Now, Gibson always seemed to save the nice stuff for their higher end AND Natural-finished guitars, but the figure in the set on this ES-300 is just crazy!
Between the 17" lower bout, long scale, and nice, full C neck, the guitar has such an impressive acoustic voice. Clear and punchy, with a tight low end and crisp highs, it's a guitar built to cut through a mix. The P90s are sweet and balanced, too. Wired up with independent volume controls and a master tone control, you can fine tune your tone between warm jazz and bright blues/R&B.
The guitar is in great overall condition for its age, with just a few small changes of note. The pickguard is a modern replacement made by Sanchesi Pickguards, who specialize in highly crafted vintage-correct pickguards for Golden Era Gibsons. It's installed with a reproduction bracket as well. The bridge volume pot is also a replacement, with the neck volume and tone pots being originals. Lastly, the guitar was previously refretted with period-correct wire and done impeccably well. A replacement nut was likely installed at the same time. The guitar was set up in our shop and plays wonderfully!
It's not a model we run into every day, but we'd never shy away from more examples if they sounded, played, and looked like this!
| Style | Hollowbody |
| Body | 17" Laminated Maple |
| Finish | Nitrocellulose |
| Color | Natural |
| Pickups | P90 | 7.55k Neck / 7.36k Bridge |
| Electronics | Original IRC potentiometers (replaced bridge volume pot) |
| Controls | Master Tone / Volume / Volume |
| Bridge | Rosewood w/ Shield Trapeze tailpiece |
| Tuners | Original Kluson |
| Knobs | Original |
| Pickguard | Sanchesi (Reproduction) |
| Neck | Mahogany |
| Binding | White |
| Carve | Round C | .89" @ 1st fret - .99" @ 9th fret |
| Fingerboard | Rosewood |
| Inlays | Parallelogram |
| Frets | Original |
| Nut | Bone |
| Scale Length | 25 1/2" |
| Serial # | A-5087 / FON 2915 18 |
| Weight | 6lb 15oz |
| Case | Vintage Hardshell |
Shipping calculated at checkout. Every instrument is thoroughly checked and set up before shipping fully insured via UPS with tracking to your door. We reuse boxes and materials to cut waste when they meet our protection standard.
Inspect it, play it, and if it isn't right, contact us within 48 hours of delivery to arrange a return or one-time exchange. Returns are subject to a 5% restocking fee, and the buyer covers shipping both ways.
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