Both John Lennon and George Harrison owned and used Gibson J-160Es for much of the acoustic work heard on various Beatles albums. On stage, thanks to a single-coil pickup installed in the neck position, the J160E could be plugged into an amp, allowing for much greater volume. In 1967, John Lennon commissioned a psychedelic paint job on his J-160E for the satellite broadcast of “All You Need is Love,” though for some reason, he chose not to use it during that performance. Probably the painted guitar just didn’t sound very good, because by 1969, Lennon had the paint stripped away, and the Gibson Montana John Lennon J-160E Peace model duplicates this “post-paint job” guitar, right down to the smallest detail.
This acoustic has Gibson’s popular round-shouldered body style with a Sitka spruce top and tropical mahogany neck, back, and sides with 4-ply top and single-ply back body binding. The neck profile, like so many of Gibson’s most popular designs, is not too fat, not too thin, and comes with a rosewood fingerboard with those distinctive pearloid trapezoid position inlays. The tortoiseshell pickguard complements the natural finish, while a traditional P-90 single-coil pickup sits in the position between the soundhole and the 20-fret neck. The John Lennon J160E Peace model comes with an authentic replica strap, a Lennon signature truss rod cover and a numbered and signed certificate of authenticity. As you’d expect, this collector’s item ships with a plush-lined Custom Shop hardshell case.
