The Super 400CES is often regarded as Gibson’s crowning glory in jazzbox design and, following its release in 1951, it reigned supreme over the electric archtop market. After recently photographing a rare collection of examples from the 50s and early 60s here in the UK, we dropped a call over to archtop historian Dr Thomas A Van Hoose in Texas to take a closer look at the model’s evolution.
A clinical psychologist by profession, Tom is perhaps better known in other more guitar-centric circles as the author of The Gibson Super 400: Art Of The Fine Guitar (Miller Freeman) and is currently writing the definitive biography of celebrated archtop luthier John Monteleone.
“The guitar has been a part of my professional life as far as I can remember,” says Tom. “I always kept a guitar or two in the office, sometimes small-scale ones so kids could play them, but it’s also therapeutic for me. I got involved with the Super 400 during the 60s when I was in college at the University Of Texas. My band had a guitarist who was a very talented blues player and I asked him, ‘Where can I learn this stuff?’ so he took me to a record store to buy two albums, one was called Freddy King Goes Surfin’ and the other was an album by Kenny Burrell. And that’s when I heard something new: that jazzy blues sound. I noticed Kenny played a Super 400C and like any guitar worshipper I said, ‘I want to sound like him; I want to get one of those guitars.’
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2019-Ausgabe von Guitarist.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der November 2019-Ausgabe von Guitarist.
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