Gibson Reissues the 1957 L-5 CES Through Its Custom Shop

Gibson built its name on archtops long before it built it on solid bodies. The Custom Shop’s new 1957 L-5 CES VOS Reissue returns to that origin, and the company is presenting it as a statement piece rather than catalog filler.

Mat Koehler, Gibson’s senior vice president of product, describes the build as the first at the Custom Shop to use a dovetail neck joint, and places it alongside the finest instruments the company has produced. The spec backs part of that claim. The Custom Shop took advanced 3D scans of original 1957 models and reverse-engineered the guitar, which arrives in Antique Natural and Vintage Sunburst over AAA figured maple back and sides. Gold hardware, multi-ply binding, a tortoiseshell pickguard and the mother-of-pearl flower pot headstock inlay keep the period details intact.

The appointments follow the original closely: unpotted Alnico III Custombuckers with individual volume and tone pots, and a three-way selector mounted on the lower horn rather than the shoulder. There is an ebony fingerboard with mother-of-pearl blocks, an ABR-1 Tune-O-Matic bridge on a rosewood base, a Corian nut and a 25.5-inch scale. The neck is two pieces of maple with a walnut centre strip, finished with Kluson Steadfast tuners and a stinger.

The L-5 dates to the 1920s, when Lloyd Loar was working in Gibson’s R&D department, and its early adopters came largely from country and jazz. Koehler frames the 1957 CES as the versatile version, citing its reach across jazz, country, blues and rockabilly. At $11,999 / £9,699, that versatility is priced for collectors. The reissue says less about demand for archtops than about what Gibson wants its Custom Shop seen doing.