Gibson 1969 Crest Gold

Condition: excellent vintage example with checking throughout, gold tarnish, minimal amount of dings, dents, scrapes. Plays beautifully.

I grew up in a music store in the '60's during the golden age of guitars. In addition to owning the store, my father was a bandleader and an accomplished jazz accordion player. (Yes, there is such thing.) I spent every moment I could there, all my senses alive listening to professional musicians playing shiny new Fender, Gibson and Gretsch guitars.  

While other kids were reading about Spiderman, I had my head buried in guitar catalogs (the 1966 Gibson is my all-time favorite). Many guitars stood out to me. Their pictures are imprinted in my memory. One of my favorites was the 1969 Gibson Crest "Gold." So I wasn't surprised to be as excited as I am to have one of these rare birds in the shop. And it may be the most stunning Crest I've seen.

Its tone is rich, warm and resonant. The neck profile has a classic Gibson archtop feel with a full 1 11/16" nut width, unlike period 335s. It is just wonderfully playable considering this models fifteenth fret body/neck joint.

George Gruhn provides an excellent description of the Gibson Crest:

"A double-cut thinline similar in appearance to an ES-355 but constructed from figured Brazilian rosewood veneer, it had no solid block in the body, leaving it fully hollow like the ES-330. The body also had a center back strip of decorative wood marquetry and was top-bound with multiple plies of white/black and the back is triple-bound. The elevated pickguard was matching Brazilian rosewood veneer bound in multiple plies of white/black like the body. The guitar had two f-shaped sound holes, each triple-bound.

"The electronics included two floating mini-humbucking pickups with individual volume and tone controls and a pickup selector toggle on the lower treble bout. The pickups were mounted using L-brackets and there were no body routs or cutouts. The bridge was removable with a two-footed rosewood base and a Tune-O-Matic top. The trapeze-style tailpiece had three raised parallelograms on the cross bar and a Brazilian rosewood centerpiece with inlaid MOP trapezoid and etched with 'Crest' in script.

"The three-piece maple neck was a combination of the familiar and unusual. While the peghead was a standard Gibson open-book shape with multi-ply binding and sealed Kluson tuners, the single-bound Brazilian rosewood fingerboard joined the body at the 15th fret (rather than the 19th). This had the unfortunate effect of making the higher frets inaccessible. The inlay pattern was identical to a Les Paul Custom or 335 of the period with rectangular mother-of-pearl blocks in the fingerboard and the five piece split-diamond in the peghead. The truss-rod cover was engraved with the model name in script and the heel had a decorative cap in white/black/white veneer.

"To the best of our knowledge, 172 of the second-generation Crest were produced before the model was discontinued in '72. At a list price of $895, it was expensive, but sold reasonably well. Today, it is valued by collectors for its beauty and relative rarity."

Rare, beautiful and storied, this Gibson Crest would be a fantastic addition to any guitar collection.

If you'd like to find out more about this item, just call or e-mail me. It would be my pleasure to talk to you about it.