A rare Archtop, the Recording King M5 was built by Gibson for the Montgomery Ward catalog. These are a bit of a gem in the vintage Archtop world as they share most of the same build attributes as an L-5, with a much more attractive price point.

This M5 has 17" lower bout (albeit a hair smaller due to time), and is constructed with a fully carved Adirondack spruce top with nicely flamed maple back and sides. Internally, the top features a simple dual tone bar bracing. Externally, this guitar has a nice and even burst, multi ply white and black binding, two piece rosewood bridge (with MOP inlay), and an original hanger tailpiece. Cosmetically, the body is in very good shape with some typical play wear, nicks & dings, and one sealed crack near the bass side F hole.The arch is still strong on this example, on both the top and back. The binding still very much in tact. FON P442 present internally is accurate for this time frame, and is also authenticated by its FW serial number - F for '40, and W for Montgomery Ward.

The neck is made out of a 5 piece maple, with two strips ebony - the fingerboard also multi ply bound and made of ebony with large diamond mother of pearl inlay. An attractive neck, the original frets are in good shape, with the fingerboard having some filled divots (likely from a long time ago) in the cowboy chord zone. The neck is nice and straight yielding easy playability measuring about 5/64" in height at the twelfth fret, albeit with a bottomed out saddle - impressive as these models don't have truss rods. The neck is thick measuring .95" in depth at the first position and tapering up to about 1.15" by the eleventh fret. Original "Gibson Deluxe" branded double line Kluson tuners with metal buttons present. At the peg head, the Recording King finished block inlay is in fairly worn shape, but better than many others out there. A standard 1 23/32" nut width and 24.75" scale length.

Currently setup with 12-54 Bronze strings, this has a lot of volume, warmth and depth - suitable for all kinds of jazz and country strummers alike. A very nice piece of pre war Gibson history.

Includes original hardshell case.