The ES-5 might seem to have had a lowly model designation in the company of Gibson’s other postwar electrics – the ES-125, 150, 300 and 350. But in the Gibson tradition, Style 5 signified one of the highest levels of importance as well as ornamentation.

The L-5 acoustic, introduced in 1922, had been the first archtop with f-holes, and an ES version of the L-5 would command instant recognition and respect. The ES-5 was the first guitar – by Gibson or anyone else – with three standard pickups, each with it’s own volume control, plus a master tone control on the cutaway. The neck ornamentation was similar to that of an L-5, but instead or the L-5’s flowerpot peghead ornament, the ES-5 had a “crown” inlay.

The beautiful wood grain of the top of this natural finish illustrates another fundamental difference between the ES-5 and the L-5. Like all of Gibson’s postwar electrics, it had a laminated maple body rather than the carved spruce top and solid maple body of the acoustics.