Gibson hollowbody electric guitars featured stiff, laminated tops to prevent excessive vibration that causes top-mounted pickups to feed back easily. When Gibson hired Ted McCarty as its new general manager in 1948, one of the first innovations he introduced was a pickup system called the “Finger Rest” (also known to collectors as a McCarty pickup), where the pickup and controls were all mounted on a floating pickguard suspended above the top where the pickup wouldn’t be affected by the top’s vibrations.


This blonde 1949 L-5C features a rare, original Finger Rest pickup/pickguard assembly, which Gibson offered as an option. This early post-war example is also notable for its early example of the diagonal Gibson logo in the modern style, a slight variation of which Gibson still uses today. While the 1939 and some early post-war examples of the cutaway L-5 are called L-5 Premiere models, in 1949 Gibson shortened the name to the L-5C. The full official name of this example is the L-5CNE to designate the cutaway, natural finish, and electric Finger Rest system.

Serial number: A2995
Top: Spruce, natural finish
Back and sides: Maple
Neck: Maple with mahogany center strip
Fretboard: Ebony with pearl block inlays
Frets: 20
Bridge/tailpiece: Rosewood, gold-plated L-5 trapeze with silver-plated insert
Tuners: Gold-plated Kluson Sealfast with plastic tulip-shaped buttons
Other: McCarty floating Fingerrest single-coil pickup, volume, and tone control mounted in pickguard