A call from a vintage dealer in St. Louis about an ES-175 with some special features sent me to the '50s ledger book. That particular guitar was not listed as anything special, but there were plenty of others. Gibson aficionados are familiar with the old saying "Gibson made at least one of everything," so as long as I was already in 1957, I decided to see what I could find.

The ledgers of A-series numbers are perfect for finding the oddballs, since there's a separate column for special features. For no particular reason, I started going backward.

The first page I looked at, Sept. 26, 1957, had one: a Super 400CES, #A-26367, with the notation "Billy Grammer." That would be the recording star Billy Grammer, whose big hit was "I Gotta Travel On." Billy was also a fine guitarist who later started his own guitar company in Nashville.

Just above that, on Sept. 23, is an ES-175D tenor, #26349. Tenor necks turn up on all sorts of Gibsons, so an ES-175 tenor is not surprising. Not nearly so surprising as an entry on the opposite page, on Sept. 18, for an ES-295, #A-26315, "Refinished in cherry red" for Korzineck Music in Manitowac, Wis." The regular 295 is all-gold. Why anyone would want it refinished in cherry is beyond me.

Moving backwards, on Sept. 11 there's a J-200N, #A-26265 for "Wilburn Bros. (Doyle)." The Wilburns were a country duo famous for "Trouble's Back in Town." They had a pair of J-200s with their names on the fingerboards and pickguards. So where's brother Teddy's? His J-200 came through two days earlier (#A-26231). Teddy was the oldest and, appropriately it seems, so was his guitar.

Onward and backward. One of the most common of these uncommon guitars is the J-200 with double-pickguards. From the quantity in the ledger, I'm surprised I don't see more of these.

On July 9, there's an ES-295, #A25914, that's been changed to an ES-175. What's going on with the ES-295s?

There's the occasional left handed model. Then on June 25, ES-175D #A-25873 has "old style pickup." Humbuckers were introduced in 1957, so this has to be a reference to the single-coil P-90. I knew this would happen. Now a liesurely look is going to become a focused hunt for the first humbucker. But not before noting #A-25856 on June 22, a J-200 "Spec. Electric"--whatever that means.

Onward through tenors and lefties and another electric J-200 with a special finish (#A-25577 on May 20). On May 9, 1957 there's an L-5, #1A-25551, marked simply "Exp. #44." What kind of experiments was Gibson doing on L-5s?

Special J-200s are popular. There's one for Arnold Parker (#A-25523, May 3), one for "Cliff" (#A-25504, Apr. 29) and another for "Cliff" (#A-25461, Apr. 25). On Apr. 19 Gibson logged in three special J-200s--one for "Bob" (#A-25457), one with double fingerrests sold to Jenkins Music in St. Louis (#A25451), and one for country star Faron Young (#A-25443).

As if that day weren't enough, on Apr. 16 two J-200s were logged in (#A25433 and #A-25436) with the notation "C.M.I. (Everly Brothers)." C.M.I. was Chicago Musical Instrument, Gibson's parent company, and Don and Phil Everly were, of course, about the hottest act in the music business in 1957, having just released "Wake Up Little Susie" (featuring Don playing some power-acoustic licks on a Gibson Southerner Jumbo).

Why were these J-200s noted for C.M.I. rather than just the artists? My guess is that they were giveaways, rather than special guitars. That's an educated guess based on a picture taken in Sept. 1958 by Elmer Williams for The Nashville Tennessean (the morning paper). In this family photo (from left are, Phil, father Ike, mother Margaret, Don), Ike and Don are playing fairly new J-200s. Could be the same ones.

A Super 400CES special (#A-25386, Apr. 10) for Western/honkytonk star Hank Thompson, #A-25386 on Apr. 10.

Another ES-175 with old-style pickup appears on Mar. 27. Then two full spreads of shipments with not a single special instrument. Is the ledger book building up to something?

Here's an L-4 "made into ES-175." That's an L-4 CES. It won't appear on a production total until 1969, but the idea was there in the 1950s. Of course, it's an obvious idea, since the L-4C and ES-175 were the same shape and size.

This would be a good place to stop and point out that Gibson ledger books are not usually good for pinpointing a minor change in a model. Granted, when the Les Pauls changed to the SG body, the older single-cutaway version was noted as "old style." But, as I discovered in an earlier column, there's no notation of the change on the Les Paul Standard from goldtop to cherry sunburst. So with that in mind, I don't have high hopes about finding the first humbucking pickup, as I turn to Feb. 18, 1957. But, wonder of wonders, there it is. Not "new pickup" or anything cryptic or subject to interpretation. Next to ES-175N, #A-25000, it says "H.B. Pickup starts here." Hard to misinterpret that. It's as if somebody knew a historian would be coming along in 40 years.

That doesn't mean all is well in the mind of the historian, however. Is that the first humbucker? Or just the first on an ES-175? A quick look backward to the first of 1957 reveals no other notations--and curiously, no other special guitars of any type. Also, what are the chances that the first humbucker would fall on an even-thousand number? Well, the odds are one in a thousand. The previously numbered guitar, #A-24999, also logged in on Feb. 18, was not designated as having a humbucker. Nor were any of the 19 consecutively numbered ES-175s before that one. So the number A-25000 on the first Gibson hollowbody with humbuckers appears to be purely coincidental.

But what about solidbody electrics? That's another ledger -- one that's not so neatly organized for historians. I knew this would happen.

Walter Carter is Gibson's historian and the author of Gibson Guitars: 100 Years of an American Icon.