First Ever Gibson Master Museum J-200! Ren Ferguson SJ-200

Many of you have seen this guitar on the TV show “Pawn Stars.” A large part of the reason I turned down their $50,000 offer is because I never would have seen the guitar again or known the identity of the person they sold it to. If I can find a collector who will appreciate the guitar as I do, I think I can part with it.

Ren Ferguson’s first Gibson “Master Museum” guitar!

Here we have a very special guitar for sale: The first ever Gibson Master Museum quality J-200 built by Ren Ferguson! It was built in January of 1991, as is written on the label inside the guitar. The label is also hand-signed by Ren Ferguson, indicating him as the builder of the guitar.

Technically the Master Museum series began in 1998. The Gibson community now refers to all of Ren Ferguson’s art guitars as Master Museums. He built a few of them prior to the 1998 start date, and this is the first of those prototypes.

Many fans of Gibson have set Ren at the top of the pedestal of Gibson luthiers. The only maker to rival him in respect is the legendary Lloyd Loar. Loar built for Gibson in the early 20th century. A mandolin signed by Loar is worth upwards of $200,000. As time goes on, Ren Ferguson will, in my opinion, be regarded as the greatest luthier Gibson has ever known. His guitars will be collected and revered similar to the Loar mandolins. His guitars are much more ornate and unique than Loar’s mandolins and will likely fetch a much higher premium in the future than the mandolins.

How cool would it be to have the first Gibson of this kind that Ren ever built? This is probably the ultimate Ren Ferguson guitar in all the world because of its position in history.

Now, on to the details of the guitar:

Ren’s specialty has always been hand-carved neck heels. This guitar showcases his work beautifully with a gorgeous hand-carved neck heel. You don’t see that very often on any guitar. In addition to the hand-carved neck heel, this guitar also features hand-inlaid pearl and abalone vines throughout the front of the guitar. The vine on the fretboard works its way up the board and continues into the headstock as if it were one vine. The pickguard is also inlaid with a flowered vine.

The body of the guitar is outlined with a purfling made from gold sparkle dust. The purfling is on the top, back, and sides of the guitar. It is also adorns the fretboard and headstock of the guitar. You don’t often see that much purfling on a guitar. It is beautiful and very classy! The top of the guitar is made from the highest quality of Sitka Spruce available in the world. The back and sides are the highest quality flamed maple. The neck is also highly-flamed maple.

You can imagine that Ren picks out only the best woods for his guitars. He is quite famous for selecting high-quality woods, and this guitar is no exception.

This guitar is in mint condition. It has spent it’s whole life in its hardshell case. It has only a few very small lines of finish checking, which is remarkable for a 25 year old guitar. It is, and I say this with the utmost honesty, the best sounding guitar I have ever played. I have never heard bass response anywhere near what this guitar has. The sound has the most body I could even imagine coming from a guitar. I wish I could find a less ornate player-guitar which had the sound of this guitar. It is amazing.

Included with the guitar is the original hardshell case.

Please call me with any questions: 435.406.9281