Very nice and grandiose pre-war Gibson Super 400 acoustic archtop from the swing band era and from the very first year of production of this iconic Super 400 archtop.

Yes, this one displays all the characteristics of the unique first production year - 1935 and is a very rare and desirable find for those who love these marvellous, classic Gibson archtops. It is loaded with the features you only see in 1935 such as the 18” lower bout coupled with the 12 1/4” upper bout, the small triple bound f holes and 24 3/4” scale length.

It even has the beautiful, original, highly engraved Grover ‘butter bean’ tuners lie you see on the most expensive pre war Martin 4x series guitars. The pickguard is the original Gibson marbleised 30’s guard and compared to most of the similar 355 type guards we see, this one is in phenomenal condition. 

It is a truly wonderful, grand daddy of a guitar, make no mistake. It is obviously not a museum piece but considering it is 83 years old, it is in pretty decent shape, probably better than I will be at that age…

The quality of the craftsmanship and the construction is second to none and something you would pay a lot more than our asking price to buy these days. The figuring on the carved maple is lovely and the finish and workmanship is sheer testament to the artisans at the Gibson Kalamazoo plant in the 30’s. Sort of begs the question as to whether will Gibson be still be able to make guitars like this in a few months time…

We do not have a great deal of experience with these but as far as we can tell, most, if not everything appears to be correct or original. Serial number is 92505 which places it firmly in 1935 and this is also confirmed by the unique features of this 1935 first production year.

Action is lovely and even after 83 years it plays like a demon and boy… does it project! These were made to cut above a swing band orchestra and one of the reasons it has survived all these years without any pickups or other electrification mods is exactly this reason.

Included is an old leather type case which could well be original, not sure but it fits the guitar like a glove and protects it very well.

This is not something you come across every day and I believe this is the only, first year, mainly unmolested Super 400 on the market right now at this rather keen price…