The Gibson Super 400 is an
archtop guitar
An archtop guitar is a hollow electric or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with jazz, blues, and rockabilly players.
Typically, an archtop guitar has:
* Six strings
* An ar ...
. It is a highly influential guitar model that inspired many other master guitar builders (including
Elmer Stromberg and
John D'Angelico
John D'Angelico (1905 in Little Italy, Manhattan – September 1, 1964 in Manhattan) was a luthier from New York City, noted for his handmade archtop guitars and mandolins. He founded the D'Angelico Guitars company, where other notable luthiers lik ...
).
It was first sold in 1934 and named for its $400 price,
like many Gibson guitars of that era.
The Super 400 features solid carved-wood construction, and at the time of its introduction was the largest guitar that the
Gibson Guitar Corporation
Gibson Brands, Inc. (formerly Gibson Guitar Corporation) is an American manufacturer of guitars, other musical instruments, and professional audio equipment from Kalamazoo, Michigan, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company was forme ...
had produced. Until 1939, it had a hand-engraved tailpiece and a hand-engraved finger rest support. During the very early production stock the truss rod cover had engraved "L5 Super"; on later guitars this was changed to "Super 400".
In 1939 the guitar was changed. The upper bout was enlarged, and the hand-engraved tailpiece was replaced with the one still fitted today on current Super 400s. The ''f''-holes were slightly enlarged and a cutaway option also became available. This was called the Super 400P (for Premiere), later changed to C for Cutaway.
During the 1950s, Gibson released the Super 400 CES (Cutaway•Electric•Spanish). This had a slightly thicker top to reduce feedback, two
P-90
The P-90 (sometimes written P90) is a single coil electric guitar pickup produced by Gibson since 1946. Gibson is still producing P-90s, and there are outside companies that manufacture replacement versions. Compared to other single coil desig ...
pickups, and individual tone and volume controls, along with a three-way toggle switch. Later, the P-90 pickups were replaced with
Alnico
Alnico is a family of iron alloys which in addition to iron are composed primarily of aluminium (Al), nickel (Ni), and cobalt (Co), hence the acronym ''al-ni-co''. They also include copper, and sometimes titanium. Alnico alloys are ferromagnetic, ...
V pickups, then in 1957, humbucking pickups.
There have been variations in the limited edition custom models. In 2000 Gibson offered the Super 400 with a
Charlie Christian pickup
The Gibson Guitar Corporation's ES-150 guitar is generally recognized as the world's first commercially successful Spanish-style electric guitar. The ES stands for Electric Spanish, and Gibson designated it "150" because they priced it (in an ins ...
. The Super 400 is still available today, with two
humbucker
A humbucking pickup, humbucker, or double coil, is a type of guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out the noisy interference picked up by coil pickups. In addition to electric guitar pickups, humbucking coils are sometimes used in d ...
pickups.
The full acoustic version is no longer available.
The 1963 Gibson Super 400 CES Florentine model belonging to
Scotty Moore
Winfield Scott Moore III (December 27, 1931 – June 28, 2016) was an American guitarist who formed The Blue Moon Boys in 1954, Elvis Presley's backing band. He was studio and touring guitarist for Presley between 1954 and 1968.
Rock critic D ...
played an important role in
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
's stage performance, the
'68 Comeback Special.
See also
*
Gibson Guitar Corporation product list
This is a list of Gibson brand of stringed musical instruments, mainly guitars, manufactured by Gibson, alphabetically by category then alphabetically by product (lowest numbers first). The list excludes other Gibson brands such as Epiphone.
Gu ...
References
*
External links
Super 400 at Gibson websiteSuper 400 Review and Demo Video - Flash Required
Super 400
Semi-acoustic guitars
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