ELECTRIC: BARNEY KESSEL SERIES

Jazz guitarist Barney Kessel originally played a Gibson ES-350 through the mid-1950s, when he began an endorsement deal with Kay. Kessel played the new Kay instruments through the late 1950s, but Ted McCarty heard that Kessel was not happy with these guitars. After a meeting between McCarty and Kessel in 1960, Kessel agreed to endorse a Barney Kessel guitar that was to be built by Gibson under Kessel's specifications. The Barney Kessel guitar is uniquely identified by the symmetrical double Florentine cutaway body and over sized headstock. Two variations of the Kessel were produced: the Regular and the Custom. While they were both constructed very similar, the Custom had fancier appointments with bound f-holes, pearl bow-tie fingerboard inlays, a quaver note headstock inlay, Grover Roto-Matic tuners, and gold hardware. Early models have a neck heel that joins the body at the 14th fret, which was awkward for many players and Gibson redesigned the heel to the 17th fret in 1963. Standard finish was Cherry Sunburst for both variations; however, a few Customs in the mid-1960s were produced with Viceroy Brown and Walnut, and a few Regulars were produced in Black.