1940 Gibson ES-300

[stringmaster]

I know it's a bit of an odd duck, but cool too--and was top of the line at the time for an electric archtop from Gibson. I'd love to hear comments/feedback from those who have owned/played one of these.
Thx

[goldenwave77]

An archtop that wants to be a tele. I wonder if this is where Leo F. got the slant-back pu idea from.

(He got the straight line headstock concept from Paul Bigsby.)

[wintermoon]

I have no idea why Gibson would abandon the Charlie Christian p.u. in favor of the small bridge mounted pickup and then this huge diagonal pickup.

[rio]

That looks...so bizarre. I would love to try one but I am thinking I would not like the amplified sound.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[ThatRhythmMan]

I think Oscar Moore played one for a while. He was A Gibson endorser and played a variety of Gibsons.

Of course, he could probably make anything sound good.

[WilliamScott]

I know it's a bit of an odd duck, but cool too--and was top of the line at the time for an electric archtop from Gibson. I'd love to hear comments/feedback from those who have owned/played one of these.
Thx

Gibson misspelled Tony Mottola's name!!

[citizenk74]

Very cool guitar! How's it sound? I would expect the lowest notes in a chord to be quite mellow, and the highest notes to be bright and well defined, at least toward the headstock; with the tonal spectrum getting shorter/tighter going up the neck. Is that the way it works out?

[Dennis D]

Gibson misspelled Tony Mottola's name!!

??

[Burrellesque]

Is it just me? Seeing that ES-300 balanced on a handrail with the case open like that just waiting for a slight gust of wind....

[nopedals]

BK plays the small bridge pickup version of the prewar ES 300 at the 7:00 mark.

The ES 300 was a replacement, I think for the ES 250. The really long pup came first, then the short bridge pickup.

The prewar models were carved top, the postwar ones have conventional P90s in the neck and bridge, and are laminates.

The amps that most folks played circa 1940 would not have had a lot of clean headroom. If you were playing in a loud big band, you might have been interested in a pickup that had a lot of treble to be heard in the mix. Or Gibson might have seen that as a marketing play. Probably a lot of buyers had little experience with electric guitars.

[pingu]

BK plays the small bridge pickup version of the prewar ES 300 at the 7:00 mark.

The ES 300 was a replacement, I think for the ES 250. The really long pup came first, then the short bridge pickup.

The prewar models were carved top, the postwar ones have conventional P90s in the neck and bridge, and are laminates.

The amps that most folks played circa 1940 would not have had a lot of clean headroom. If you were playing in a loud big band, you might have been interested in a pickup that had a lot of treble to be heard in the mix. Or Gibson might have seen that as a marketing play. Probably a lot of buyers had little experience with electric guitars.

That sounded great , and I thought I didn't
dig bridge pus !
BK sounded like CC there , swinging it
I gotta get one of those old boxes sometime ...

Maybe a 125 if they don't keep going up in price
I'd love a nice 300

[pingu]

I have no idea why Gibson would abandon the Charlie Christian p.u. in favor of the small bridge mounted pickup and then this huge diagonal pickup.

Yeah why was that ?
Too expensive to make ? Cobalt expensive I guess

[campusfive]

The thing to remember about every stage of electric guitar development is that they never thought they had it perfect, and there were always problems they were trying to solve.

The original CC Pickups are great, but they hum like hell (occasionally), they have the dreaded B string imbalance, often even when notched, and the mounting setup is anything but practical. Remember the '37-'40 ES-150 was really the first commercial viable electric guitar, and it was basically a first draft of a lot of features. That recessed tailpiece jack? They never tried using that again, either.

Exactly what they were trying to achieve with the splayed out pickup, I'm not sure, but it was definitely a solution to some tonal or performance problem. At that point, betting on them merely cheaping out as a motivation seems a stretch to me.

Also, note that the few other makers of early electric guitars had "bridge" positioned single pickups - Epiphone, National, etc. so there must've been some intention behind that.

[campusfive]

But of course, in hindsight, they did get so much right. The hum, the mounting, the jack - all dumb, but they still ended up being great sounding and playing instruments. I love mine:

[Fred Archtop]

Compared to the prewar ES 150/250, one of the major new features of these 'new' ES 300 were the adjustable poles. It was aknowledged as a great improvement to address the tonal and volume imbalance of the CC blade PU.

Just as Jon, I love my '38 ES 150. This is by far the best archtop electric guitar I own.

[Eddie Lang]

Found this:

Gibson Pre-War Guitars, Kevin Mark Designs - History of the Electric Pickup