Lot 10

FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE LATE MERLE TRAVIS The following two guitars represent a unique partnership between the artist, Merle Travis and artisan, Paul A Bigsby. This friendship and working relationship culminated in some of the most important design innovations to effect American guitar making in the years following World War II. Born in 1917 in Rosewood, Kentucky, Merle Robert Travis was immersed in the rural music of western Kentucky and the finger picking styles of Muhlenberg County guitarists like Kennedy Jones, Mose Rager, and Ike Everly. Rather then using a flat-pick, these players would pick the melody with the index finger of the right hand while the thumb supplied the rhythm on the bass strings. In the tradition of American colloquial music, Merle Travis would mold and stylize this technique of playing. By adding a syncopated rhythm along with Blues and Jazz over-tones he made the style uniquely his own. His first public performance would be on a local radio amateur hour in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1936. It lead to multiple job offers and then a permanent position on Cincinnati's WLW, which was then the Mid-West's foremost radio station for Country Music programming. A move to Hollywood, California in 1944 began his national exposure with work in film, live performance and a recording contract with Capital Records. In 1947 he wrote his first hit made popular by Tex Williams, Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (that Cigarette). In 1953, his next break came when he won the role of the guitar picking GI in the film From Here to Eternity where he performed the movie's signature song Re-Enlistment Blues . In 1955, Tennessee Ernie Ford covered an earlier Travis composition, Sixteen Tons which quickly became a national cross-over hit furthering his recognition. From 1944 to 1982 Travis appeared in 16 films and made countless recordings as both a solo musician and a session player. His unique style of finger-picking guitar would come to be known as Travis Picking and influence the likes of Hank Thompson, Scotty Moore, Doc Watson and the great Chet Atkins, all of whom acknowledged his contribution. Before his death in 1983 he had been inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the Country Music Hall of Fame.

GIBSON INCORPORATED

AN ELECTRIC ARCH-TOP GUITAR, STYLE SUPER 400 CUSTOM, KALAMAZOO, CIRCA 1968

Details

GIBSON INCORPORATED
AN ELECTRIC ARCH-TOP GUITAR, STYLE SUPER 400 CUSTOM, KALAMAZOO, CIRCA 1968
Labeled Style 400 C ES/Gibson Guitar/Number 895942 is hereby GUARANTEED against faulty workmanship and materials./UNION MADE Gibson INC./KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN, U.S.A., and stamped at the back of the peghead 895942, length of back 21¾ in (553 mmm) with original case (2)

Sale room notice

The date of manufacture for this guitar is incorrectly printed in the catalogue and should read CIRCA 1968.

Lot Essay

The Style Super 400 was introduced by Gibson in 1934 and was at the time the pinnacle of arch-top guitar design. Coveted by Jazz and big band musicians for the volume of sound it produced, it was the largest, loudest and most expensive guitar in the Gibson catalogue. By 1952 the guitar was offered in an electric version, the Super 400 CES. In 1968 only 52 of these models were sold by Gibson.

Merle Travis is known to have performed on at least two Gibson Super 400's throughout his career. Thom Bresh relates that both guitars were custom made for Travis with neck profiles that mirrored the shape and feel of those supplied by Paul A. Bigsby. Of interest is that this example from 1968 is custom fitted with two single coil P-90 pickups, rather than the Humbucking pickups, standard for many Gibson electrics by 1968. According to Bresh the original Gibson tailpiece was removed by Travis and replaced with the "Patent Pending" Bigsby tailpiece that it carries to this day. This is one of the original production examples made by Paul A. Bigsby which he personally gave to Travis.

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