This 1959 Gibson L-5CT was George Gobel's personal guitar and the first one ever produced. George Gobel was a TV and movie personality, a comedian, from the late '40s through the 1970s. At one point his popularity warranted him having his own TV show on NBC, "The George Gobel Show" and it aired from 1954 thru 1959. George used a guitar as part of his act. He would usually start his act by singing a song and about a minute or so into the tune he would get sidetracked and then start in with a story. Often the story was not related to what George was singing about.
George was rather small in stature and his previous stage guitar was a Gibson Super 400 from 1040. George asked Gibson if they could make a slimmed down L-5 for him and the L-5CT was born. Introduced in December of 1958 and made until 1962 Gibson made 43 "George Gobel" model guitars. This low production number makes the L-5CT one of the rarest and most collectable of all Gibson models. The body on a standard production L-5 was 3" deep at the rim and about 3 5/8" overall. The L-CT body depth is 2" at the rim and about 2 3/8" at its thickest point. The guitar is in very good condition and shows normal playing wear for its age. It does have nibs on the fret ends indicating the frets are original. There is a small rectangular metal plate on the bass side of the fretboard, where the neck meets the body with a screw on each end of the plate. This could be a possible repair for a small crack in this area. The celluloid pickguard has begun to deteriorate and break down; like all celluloid guards eventually do. The guitar is in an old roadcase that contains a space for a guitar stand. Numerous "Lonesome George" picks, straps, and a promo photo of George, with the guitar, are in the case pocket.
