Gibson CF-100 Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1950)
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Item # 13347
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Gibson CF-100 Model Flat Top Acoustic Guitar (1950), made in Kalamazoo, Michigan, serial # 4122-21 (FON), sunburst top, dark back and sides finish, mahogany back, sides and neck, spruce top, rosewood fingerboard, black hard shell case.
This is a very clean and early first year example of one of the more uncommon Gibson flat-top from the early 1950s, the CF-100. This is an unusual guitar for its time, a Florentine cutaway flat-top which was quite a novel concept when it was introduced in 1950. While extremely common today, the use a deep cutaway on a flat-top body was radical for the period, making this a guitar very much ahead of its time. "An innovation in the flat-top-field" read the Gibson catalog introduction, and in this case that blurb was spot on!
While the instrument is generally similar to the basic non-cutaway LG-2, it is considerably fancier in appearance and has a rather different feel. The top is triple-bound and the back and fingerboard are single-bound, and the headstock face carries a pearl Gibson logo and crown inlay. The bound rosewood fingerboard is inlaid with pearloid trapezoids, a shape that would become much more familiar when used a couple of years later on the Les Paul Standard. This is an X-braced guitar with a solid spruce top and the addition of the cutaway does not have a noticeably adverse affect on the acoustic response.
Gibson offered this CF-100 model as either a straight acoustic guitar or with an ingenious added magnetic pickup as the CF-100E, an even more ahead-of-its time idea. Both versions were sold throughout the 1950s (this first-year example is one of 325 shipped in 1950) but sales slumped as the decade went on and the model was dropped in 1959. The list price in the early 1950s was $110, plus case, a full $35 more than the LG-2. Today this very handy, attractive and forward-looking guitar makes perfect sense and we can only wonder why the players of the 1950s apparently failed to warm to this excellent design!
Overall length is 39 1/2 in. (100.3 cm.), 14 1/4 in. (36.2 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 3/4 in. (12.1 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a lovely original guitar showing only some light wear, 75 years on remaining in excellent playing condition. The original lacquer finish has typical checking overall (most heavily on the top) and some generally light dings, dents and scrapes. The back of the neck is very clean with only a few tiny dinks. The deep, rich sunburst top shows hardly any fade. There are small grain split repairs between the bottom edge of the fingerboard and the soundhole rim, one on either side. There are neatly repaired and touched up but visible. The only alteration to the instrument is replaced buttons on the original Kluson deluxe tuners; all else remains original.
The neck has been very nicely reset, generally a clean job with no major overspray, just a bit of topical touch up and some light chipping visible along the heel seam; with its deep treble-side cutaway and uneven heelblock this model presents a more difficult neckset challenge than many. The rosewood bridge and small maple bridge plate are original, The bone saddle is newer. The bridge looks to have been reglued and lowered just a bit forward of the pins. Internally a couple of brace ends have been reglued. The original frets and rosewood fingerboard minimal wear; this guitar is an excellent player, both louder and warmer sounding than others we have had. This is a truly excellent example of this distinctive Gibson creation living in a slightly later period "Bulls Head" HSC Overall Excellent Condition.
This is a very clean and early first year example of one of the more uncommon Gibson flat-top from the early 1950s, the CF-100. This is an unusual guitar for its time, a Florentine cutaway flat-top which was quite a novel concept when it was introduced in 1950. While extremely common today, the use a deep cutaway on a flat-top body was radical for the period, making this a guitar very much ahead of its time. "An innovation in the flat-top-field" read the Gibson catalog introduction, and in this case that blurb was spot on!
While the instrument is generally similar to the basic non-cutaway LG-2, it is considerably fancier in appearance and has a rather different feel. The top is triple-bound and the back and fingerboard are single-bound, and the headstock face carries a pearl Gibson logo and crown inlay. The bound rosewood fingerboard is inlaid with pearloid trapezoids, a shape that would become much more familiar when used a couple of years later on the Les Paul Standard. This is an X-braced guitar with a solid spruce top and the addition of the cutaway does not have a noticeably adverse affect on the acoustic response.
Gibson offered this CF-100 model as either a straight acoustic guitar or with an ingenious added magnetic pickup as the CF-100E, an even more ahead-of-its time idea. Both versions were sold throughout the 1950s (this first-year example is one of 325 shipped in 1950) but sales slumped as the decade went on and the model was dropped in 1959. The list price in the early 1950s was $110, plus case, a full $35 more than the LG-2. Today this very handy, attractive and forward-looking guitar makes perfect sense and we can only wonder why the players of the 1950s apparently failed to warm to this excellent design!
Overall length is 39 1/2 in. (100.3 cm.), 14 1/4 in. (36.2 cm.) wide at lower bout, and 4 3/4 in. (12.1 cm.) in depth at side, taken at the end block. Scale length is 24 3/4 in. (629 mm.). Width of nut is 1 11/16 in. (43 mm.).
This is a lovely original guitar showing only some light wear, 75 years on remaining in excellent playing condition. The original lacquer finish has typical checking overall (most heavily on the top) and some generally light dings, dents and scrapes. The back of the neck is very clean with only a few tiny dinks. The deep, rich sunburst top shows hardly any fade. There are small grain split repairs between the bottom edge of the fingerboard and the soundhole rim, one on either side. There are neatly repaired and touched up but visible. The only alteration to the instrument is replaced buttons on the original Kluson deluxe tuners; all else remains original.
The neck has been very nicely reset, generally a clean job with no major overspray, just a bit of topical touch up and some light chipping visible along the heel seam; with its deep treble-side cutaway and uneven heelblock this model presents a more difficult neckset challenge than many. The rosewood bridge and small maple bridge plate are original, The bone saddle is newer. The bridge looks to have been reglued and lowered just a bit forward of the pins. Internally a couple of brace ends have been reglued. The original frets and rosewood fingerboard minimal wear; this guitar is an excellent player, both louder and warmer sounding than others we have had. This is a truly excellent example of this distinctive Gibson creation living in a slightly later period "Bulls Head" HSC Overall Excellent Condition.