Gibson ES-Artist Antique Sunburst 1980

Gibson ES-Artist Antique Fireburst manufactured in 1980, built to a very high specification version of the "Electric Spanish" Series Gibsons.

They used some really special woods on these instruments and it really is a good-looking guitar.

This example has an excellent setup and the frets are also in good order, nicely crowned and polished sitting on an Ebony bound fingerboard. It is currently fitted with flat-wound strings but we are happy to set it up with more conventional strings if so desired.

This guitar has had the Moog system removed and a switchable vary-tone choke fitted which is now disabled. The guitar was also stamped as a "second" on the back of the headstock in the factory. There is no evidence of any flaws, our research suggests that it may have been a way for Gibson to discount surplus stock back in the 80s.

The gold-covered Gibson humbuckers sound great and they run to a conventional 3-way selector switch. It has the tp-6 stop tail, those neat string winder-equipped machine heads, and a brass top nut. 

The figuring on the top and the back of this guitar is really nice and the multiple-bound edge binding has aged nicely.

There are numerous light chips and dings but all age-related nothing nasty. This is a great "player-grade" ES  from Gibson's old Kalamazoo factory.

Original case included which has a replaced carry handle.