This special edition historic replica pays homage to "the grandfather of the jazz guitar."
The Gibson Acoustic Icon guitar bearing the name of Nick Lucas is true to the original finger-picking guitar with a powerful voice. This signature guitar is like a time machine. The Gibson Nick Lucas offers you a Madagascar rosewood fingerboard with mother-of-pearl inlays matching the original pattern and size. The guitar features a bone nut, and open slotted bridge, just as the original had. The mahogany neck is a deep, soft V shape, as preferred by most finger-picking players, and it harkens back to the early '30s style.
Custom nickel tuners are employed, again as found on the early examples. The guitar is finished in Vintage Sunburst, with nitrocellulose lacquer, just as the original was. Even the pickguard uses the original firestripe pattern! The Nick Lucas Acoustic Icon guitar is supplied with a custom-fitted case, and a certificate of authenticity.
The Nick Lucas guitar is part of a very limited production run from Gibson called the Acoustic Icon series, and it is only available while supplies last.
In the late 1920 s we didn t have guitar heroes like we do today. The country was settling into what would become a long and difficult economic depression. Folks lucky enough to own a radio, gathered around it in the evening to listened to radio drama and ragtime music. It wasn t long before a special guitar player came to be noticed. A player who took the guitar from being a background instrument, and brought it to the foreground. That guitar player was Nick Lucas. Nick s recording career went from the '20s to the '80s with over 80-million records sold.
Back in the '20s most guitars were small-bodied mahogany parlor guitars, meant for genteel, in-home use, to relax with a fine cigar and cognac after dinner. While those small guitars sounded good, they didn t suit the sound that Nick Lucas was seeking. Nick wanted a sound that would cut through the orchestra, and make the guitar a lead instrument. In 1927, Nick approached Gibson with his idea: create a small guitar, perfect for finger-picking, but give it a voice more powerful than any guitar on the market. Gibson did just that, and introduced the Nick Lucas model in their 1928 catalog, thus making this guitar the world s first signature model.
What made this model different from all the others? This guitar offered a deeper body (4 at the neck, 4 5/8" at the end pin) than any guitar on the planet at that time. Plus, the back and sides were made from hand-selected figured Eastern hard rock maple at a time when most guitars offered only mahogany bodies. Additionally, the AAA grade solid Sitka spruce top was carefully radiused or arched to give the top more tension and better projection. Most other guitars of the day offered only a flat top. This guitar quickly became one of the all-time great acoustic guitar designs. Today, vintage Nick Lucas models command top dollar from collectors and professional players.
