Video! Unreleased 1993 Gibson R+D Chet Atkins Country Gentleman 100th Anniversary 1994 - All Gold w/ Diamond Headstock + Block Inlays

This is a very unique piece of Gibson History - please see the attached video to learn more as well as see its condition overviewed as well as its detailed specs/weight, but the jist of it is this guitar has been in the Gibson Vault since late 1993 when Gibson was designing the 100th Anniversary guitars that featured lush features like premium finishes, REAL diamonds in the headstock, special 12th fret inlay, unique case with blue lining etc.

The Country Gentleman was not selected to be part of the celebration so Gibson held onto this Research and Development piece until their bankruptcy in 2019 when it was sold off in a Gibson-USA employee-only sale (something that doesn't typically happen anymore under current ownership - they sell special pieces like these off in their "certified vintage" collection for bigger money than anyone else could hope to get!)

You could call this a "prototype" but since it isn't explicitly marked as such - I prefer to call it a R+D piece. It is not a model that formally exists but it is definitely not Gibson "first" quality. There are no side markers in the binding, there is unevenness in the headstock veneer's appearance and it looks like a builder spilled wine all over the interior of the guitar (there must be a good story behind that!) It was just deep cleaned and polished but please keep in mind this has a REAL CELLULOID PICKGUARD AND ARMREST - you SHOULD NOT KEEP IT LOCKED IN THE CASE as they will offgas and eat the finish. There is lots of finish checking already so so far the gold is in ok shape with mild pitting. The fretboard has experienced some drying which has caused fret sprout lines along each fret in the binding as well as a "wavy" appearance to the binding. My favorite feature of this guitar is you can still very clearly see flame figuring under the gold paint on the top and back!

This is great for a collector of the 12 100th anniversary models - this is the 13th model you didn't know about! This has the diamond in the headstock, special case, blue ribbon but has a modified 12th fret inlay vs what they ended up using.