Country Western Round Shoulder with Red Spruce Top, Antique Natural, Exclusive

Country Western with a Red Spruce Top and HiFi Pickup This Gibson Custom Select Country Western Round Shoulder features player-focused upgrades while retaining vintage aesthetics and heritage. Featuring a red spruce top, hide glue construction, red spruce bracing, and a HiFi electronics system, the customizations on this Country Western directly impact the sound of the instrument. Gibson Custom Select instruments are based on core offerings from Gibson with customizations handpicked by Gibson’s experts. These hand-selected details can include upgrades such as unique finishes, custom electronics, and rare tonewoods. These acoustic guitars are made in small batches by the skilled artisans in Bozeman, Montana, with the finest materials available. First appearing in Gibson’s catalog in 1956, the Gibson Country Western was first released with the round shoulder body shape like the J-45™ or J-50. Up until 1962, the Country Western was made in this form, then changed to the square shoulder shape like the Hummingbird™. Gibson has rarely reissued this model, but it holds a special place in Gibson history. Country Western models were made only when the wood was aesthetically perfect and free from knots or other imperfections. The Southern Jumbo, a sibling model to the Country Western, features a sunburst finish, which can hide these imperfections, making the Country Western a slightly rarer find on the vintage market. The Country Western shares the same features, including multi-ply binding on the body, single-ply binding on the neck, split parallelogram inlays on the fretboard, and an inlaid Gibson block logo and crown on the headstock. This Gibson Custom Select Country Western brings player-focused upgrades that directly impact the sound of the guitar while incorporating modern, top-of-the-line electronics, so that sound also translates to the stage and studio. Typically found on premium models such as the Gibson Custom 1942 Banner Southern Jumbo, red spruce is prominently featured on the top and the X-bracing of this guitar. The guitar is crafted with hide glue, another feature typically found on historic models. Using hot hide glue to construct the guitar is not only a historic tradition at Gibson, but the organic glue also gives the instrument a more vibrant resonance. Utilizing an L.R. Baggs™ HiFi pickup system, this guitar produces a natural tone through an amplifier or PA system. The HiFi pickup system is non-invasive to the acoustic tone of the guitar, with two sensors mounted directly to the bridge plate. This lightweight pickup system retains the natural sound of the guitar while reproducing the iconic sound that made Gibson flat-tops so famous. The defining characteristic of the Country Western, which is the Antique Natural finish, beautifully displays the wood grain of the red spruce top, as well as the mahogany back and sides. With performance-focused upgrades for both the stage and the studio, this Gibson Custom Select Country Western showcases the level of customization that is possible while making the guitar look slightly modified from the original version. These features touch nearly every point of the guitar while retaining the ethos of the Southern Jumbo Original with an upgraded red spruce top and X-bracing, hide glue construction, and HiFi pickup system. Included with the guitar is a Gibson Custom Certificate of Authenticity and a hardshell case.