ES-350T (serial no. A29125)
On loan to The Met
This work of art is currently on loan to the museum.Chuck Berry established the electric guitar as the primary instrumental voice of rock and roll. His guitar solos featured expressive bends and double stops that led the way for other rock guitarists and largely replaced other solo instruments such as the piano and saxophone. An electric guitar’s pickups use an electromagnet and wire coil to transmit the vibrations of steel strings to an amplifier as electrical signals. In 1957, Gibson introduced Seth Lover’s patent-applied-for (PAF) humbucking pickups, which have two coils with currents running in opposite directions, canceling (or bucking) an electrical hum that the earlier single-coil pickups could produce. Berry used this instrument to perform his hits, including “Johnny B. Goode,” at many notable performances in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Technical Description:
Archtop with F-holes and Venetian cutaway; laminated maple body and neck, rosewood fingerboard; 23½ in. scale; natural finish with white & black double binding, set neck with mother-of-pearl split parallelogram inlays and white binding to fingerboard; mother-of-pearl Gibson headstock logo with crown inlay; two PAF humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume and two tone controls; gold-plated ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridge, w-shaped tubular tailpiece engraved “ES-350T,” pickup covers, and Kluson tuners, gold and clear plastic knobs, black plastic three-ply pickguard
Technical Description:
Archtop with F-holes and Venetian cutaway; laminated maple body and neck, rosewood fingerboard; 23½ in. scale; natural finish with white & black double binding, set neck with mother-of-pearl split parallelogram inlays and white binding to fingerboard; mother-of-pearl Gibson headstock logo with crown inlay; two PAF humbucking pickups, three-way selector switch, two volume and two tone controls; gold-plated ABR-1 tune-o-matic bridge, w-shaped tubular tailpiece engraved “ES-350T,” pickup covers, and Kluson tuners, gold and clear plastic knobs, black plastic three-ply pickguard
Artwork Details
- Title: ES-350T (serial no. A29125)
- Artist: Gibson (American, founded Kalamazoo, Michigan 1902)
- Artist: Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1926–2017 St. Louis)
- Date: ca. 1958
- Geography: Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States
- Medium: Maple, rosewood, nickel, gold plate, plastic, mother-of-pearl
- Dimensions: Length: 41 1/2 in. (105.4 cm)
Width: 17 in. (43.2 cm)
Depth: 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm)
Weight: ~7.3 lbs (3.3 kg) - Classification: Chordophone-Lute-plucked-fretted
- Credit Line: Courtesy of Joe Edwards, Blueberry Hill, St. Louis, MO
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments