The "King of the Flat Top Guitars"

This 17-inch-wide "King of the Flat Top Guitars" weighs just 6.10 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Highly figured curly maple back and sides, with a "zipper" stripe down the center of the back, close-grained spruce top, three-piece curly maple neck, and rosewood fretboard with 20 jumbo frets and inlaid pearl crest position markers. The top has seven-ply binding (black/white/black/white/black/white/black), the back has five-ply binding (white/black/white/black/white), and the soundhole rings are in two groups of seven (white/black/white/black/white/black/white) and three (white/black/white). Black headstock with inlaid pearl "Gibson" logo and pearl double-crown inlay. "Custom" on truss-rod cover. Individual Kluson Super tuners with tulip-shaped metal buttons. Brown celluloid pickguard elaborately etched in a floral design. "Closed moustache" rosewood bridge with Tune-O-Matic saddle and pearl inlays. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in exceptionally fine condition, with only a small professionally-filled jack input hole on the lower edge and some minor finish checking on the top. Housed in the original Gibson "Faultless" black hardshell case with orange plush lining (9.25).

"Called 'King of the Flat Top Guitars' for its dramatic beauty, booming resonance, and penetrating carrying power...built with an extra large tone chamber and many exclusive design features. Very showy in appearance, flawless in workmanship, outstanding in performance" (from a 1960s Gibson catalog illustrated in Larry Meiners, Gibson Shipment Totals 1937-1979, p. 42). Seventy-eight J-200Ns were shipped in 1964, as opposed to 209 J-200s in Sunburst, and between 1961 and 1970, a total of 744 J-200Ns were shipped, as opposed to 1,740 J-200s in Sunburst.

"It's doubtful that any guitar, flat-top or archtop, acoustic or electric, or any combination of same, can surpass the Super Jumbo 200 in distinctiveness of appearance...The allure of the Super Jumbo 200 indeed ranges far and wide, touching rock, pop, blues, gospel, country, folk, hillbilly, and of course cowboy (as in country-western). Ray Whitley...was the prime mover behind the creation of this famous model...The J-200's dramatic beauty, booming resonance, and penetrating carrying power have again made this famous model a much-in-demand guitar, especially among those performers who require the ultimate in a stage guitar. Over the decades Gibson catalogues have accurately referred to the Super Jumbo/SJ 200/J-200 model as 'King of the Flat-Tops'" (Eldon Whitford, David Vinopal, and Dan Erlewine, Gibson's Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars, pp. 76-84).

Artists who have played J-200s include: Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, David Crosby, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, The Everly Brothers, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, Elvis Presley, Stephen Stills, Townes Van Zandt, and Ray Whitley, the singing cowboy, among many others.

"The J-200 has a unique place in musical history, bridging the gap in all different kinds of music, from western to blues to folk to rock to country. It's sturdy and yet so very musical, a guitar tonally unique, big, and absolutely beautiful. To me, this guitar represents the best of American art, and in some ways the J-200 transcends art, although in a sense it's only a tool. The J-200 is my guitar of choice. It has such a distinctive sound, feel, and look. It is simply a thing of beauty -- an American original with its shape and appearance. Nothing else even comes close" (Emmylou Harris, quoted in Eldon Whitford, David Vinopal, and Dan Erlewine, Gibson's Fabulous Flat-Top Guitars, p. 76).

The 1961 J-200 specs (from Vintage Guitars Info at http://www.provide.net/~cfh/gibson6.html): Tune-o-matic adjustable metal bridge, 4 pearl bridge inlays replace bridge cutouts in addition to previous pearl bridge inlays ("closed" moustach bridge replaces "open" moustach bridge). Bridge pins repositioned to imitate the now missing bottom cutaway in the bridge. Larger one piece neck block now wraps around under the fingerboard extention [sic], and a larger maple bridge plate is used. The strangest change is the addition of a large, suspended wooden brace under the top, between the bridge and the soundhole. In the middle of the brace is a large metal screw, held against the top. Apparently this brace was added to keep the front of the bridge from sinking. [T]wo versions of this brace were used. But both totally killed the J-200's tone, so many owners removed this brace.