1997 GIBSON TAL FARLOW CUSTOM

Splendid 1997 Gibson Tal Farlow, in excellent original condition.

This model incorporates all the characteristics of the instrument developed in the early 60s according to the specifications required by guitarist Talmadge “Tal” Farlow, a faithful among the faithful of the house of Gibson. From the 1950s, he was a true Gibson poster-boy and was featured in numerous advertisements promoting Gibson instruments, in particular the ES-350, and it was on the basis of the latter that in 1962 his own artist model will be created, as was the case very shortly before for Barney Kessel and Johnny Smith artist models. The Gibson Tal Farlow differs from the ES-350 and other Gibsons by a reduced body depth, and many peculiar decorative appointments: the body binding extends by wrapping around itself into the surface of the top, reminiscent of the curves of Style O archtops or Style F mandolins of another time; a tailpiece with Tal Farlow’s name engraved on a nacre parallelogram inlaid in rosewood; fingerboard inlays taking the shape of those of the J-200, only flipped 180 degrees; the pickguard has an atypical shape to say the least; the typical crown-style head inlay doubled up in a mirror effect; a beautiful Sunburst finish known as Viceroy Brown.

Despite these stylistic efforts, and a more than efficient instrument with its two humbucker pickups, the original series of Tal Farlow models only met with lukewarm success: from 1965, Gibson noted sales were waning, and finally decided to withdraw the instrument in 1967 – in total, only 215 guitars were sold in the period 1962-1967. It was not until 1993 that the model was reintroduced as part of the Historic Collection, a series which will last until 2018 and of which the present instrument is a part of.

Completely original guitar, in very good condition, complete professional setup done in our workshop. Sold in its original Gibson case with tags.