The 1960s! Origin of all that great music we heard back then and have been hearing ever since. The Gibson Dove was a prime mover of acoustic guitar sound and especially acoustic guitar recording in those years, still is. The maple back and sides are the key to its unique tones, nothing else like it and as great as Martin guitars are, they simply hardly ever did any in maple. Think Rolling Stones, Everly Brothers, Elvis, more, for the acoustic background tones of maple-bodied flat-tops. The Dove model went through changes over the years, notably the mid-60s through about 1968 when Gibson was obsessed with putting bunches of nuts, bolts, and screws on a lot of their flat-top acoustics. Thankfully, someone there realized the folly of screwing down the pickguards by 1969 and since Gibson was never one to waste perfectly good parts, Doves from 1969 or so got those same pickguards with that cool hand-engraved solid mother-of-pearl dove on it, and the screw holes filled in with snazzy mother-of-pearl dots, and no screws, is what we have here. Tune-0-Matic bridge saddles, taken from their electric guitar models, were an unavoidable part of almost everything they did then, probably dictated by the sales department, and it has thankfully been replaced on this guitar by a nice solid ebony insert with real bone saddle. Overall condition of this 1969 Gibson Dove is delightful; all original finish in beautiful shape, original Kluson/Gibson “waffle-back” tuners, and the super-comfy frets found only on Gibsons of the period. There’s a tiny “2” faintly stamped under the serial number on the back of the peghead, seen this a zillion times on Gibsons of the day, indicated some minor cosmetic flaw now washed away by the sands of time. Super-comfy neck, a wee bit narrower than some but with a very full feel and sits in the hand oh so well. All thoroughly gone over and action all set up by us right here. Original 1960s hard shell case too. Drift Away to the Summer of Love with this wonderful Gibson for only $5995 w/ohsc