.....Its provenance is quite interesting: after being misplaced for nearly three decades it turned up in Indianapolis in damaged condition. It had been exposed to a great deal of heat (due to being in proximity of a fire). While it wasn’t burned up the finish was, in spots, charred, and, due to an unsuccessful attempt at stripping with furniture finish remover, most of the remaining finish had been peeled off. The pickup, frets, electronics, the f-hole bindings and the underlying wood all survived. The person who found it asked if Gibson would be interested in doing the restoration work - the minimum amount necessary to "bring it back." Gibson not only agreed to do the work, they said they’d do it for no charge, if they could use the guitar for promotion following completion of repairs. The Gibson Custom Shop performed a miracle - their work is conservative, in that they did no more than they had to, and it preserves the appearance of the instrument as it was during the prime of Mr. Montgomery.....

.....Gibson refinished it in a color which replicates what this 1963 L-5C looked like during Wes Montgomery’s prime years, a color which reflects normal aging. No surviving metal parts were replated. They did not plane the fingerboard - you can still see the areas of wear caused by Mr. Montgomery’s fingers.......

......Gibson saved and used the original frets, tuners, humbucking pickup, bridge, potentiometers, L-bracket which supports the now replaced pick guard, truss rod cover and some of the binding, especially the f-hole bindings. They made a period-style pick guard which is 4-ply bordered with the outer white. The two gold high hat knobs were replaced. On the side you can see repaired cracks on either side of the jack, typical of a working person’s instrument, and, under the new finish, dark lines parallel to the binding, which were likely caused by either heat or perspiration.

Wes Montgomery, who died in 1968, tended to wear the finish on his guitars above the pick guard, and so he had had inlaid, at the upper treble bout below the cutaway, a large (2" tall) mother-of-pearl heart inlaid in the upper treble bout below the cutaway, on which the artist’s name is vertically engraved. This inlaid ornament survived, and though it had fallen out of the top the component was glued back and remains in excellent condition. The guitar is accompanied by much documentation including a video tape of Wes Montgomery playing this very guitar in a televised band performance in Belgium. There’s a photo of Wes playing this guitar on page 145 of Andre Duchoissoir’s book Gibson Electrics. There is a Gibson "Claim Check" for the guitar when it was brought into the Custom Shop for restoration. The receipt is dated July 13, 1995. Also accompanying the instrument is a copy of the Gibson "Restoration and Repair Agreement" dated July 19, 1995 in which it was stated that "Gibson agree[d] to repair and restore the Guitar to its original condition and shall bear all costs of completing such restoration. . . in consideration for [which] Gibson shall be permitted to video tape the repair and restoration process, to take . . . pictures. . . and to use said . . . pictures in the promotion of Gibson’s business."

An accompanying letter from Walter Carter, dated July 19, 1995 on Gibson stationery, reads: "As I’m sure Brian told you, the guitar was a big hit at the grand opening of the Gibson exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We are looking forward to bringing it back to display quality."

A copy of a FAX, dated May 11, 1998 from Carl Hansen of Gibson states: "[When the guitar came in it] had extensive damage, both from a fire that the guitar had been through and from a highly caustic furniture stripper that the antique dealer [who found it in the estate] had used (because of the fire-damaged finish). . . . We had to build binding by hand, from scratch, to replace pieces of the binding which were melted by the furniture stripper. I also know that we were able to restore the pickup and CPA through a great deal of cleaning, polishing, etc. Obviously, we refinished the guitar to as close to original as possible. . . . Gibson did three Custom L-5’s for Wes. We have spoken to Wes’ family and I know that at least two of these had a spot on the top which had worn thin just beyond the pick guard where he rested his fingers. One of these had a mother of pearl heart installed and the other had an onyx diamond-shaped piece installed. Note: neither of these were in the guitars when they left the Gibson factory."

This instrument was born an L-5C, an acoustic, tone-bar braced jazz axe, and, as indicated by the two tiny holes remaining in the bottom bass side of the end of the fingerboard we surmise that it was originally equipped with a Johnny Smith pickup, now long gone. We do not know in which year Mr. Montgomery had this converted to its present configuration of a built-in single hum-bucking pickup located just under the carat at the end of the fingerboard.

In a letter which accompanies this guitar the finder of the piece writes: We came to possess the guitar in 1995 when an antique dealer came in to the store with the guitar in a tattered fibreboard case, asking what repairs would cost. This gentleman had purchased the entire contents of an inner city home from an estate. We do not know whose estate the guitar was a part of. [It] had been exposed to intense heat, such that the knobs had melted and the lacquer had liquefied. The heat did not damage the guitar itself. While examining the guitar, we noticed the outline of a heart in the top [near] the pick-guard. After searching the case we discovered the mother-of-pearl heart with "Wes Montgomery" inscribed vertically through it. It was then that we realised just how important a piece this guitar was. Based on the serial number Gibson was able to confirm that they had indeed custom made this guitar at the request of Wes Montgomery in 1963. . . . When Gibson authenticated the origin of the guitar they offered to restore it for us at no charge in exchange for allowing them to show it at trade shows and conventions to illustrate their restoration capabilities. We delivered the guitar to them at the Nashville NAMM Show in 1995 at a press conference. This "Heart" guitar restoration project inspired Gibson to re-issue a limited edition West Montgomery L-5. Gibson returned the fully restored guitar to us after the 1998 Winter NAMM Show."

The back and sides of the instrument are comprised of nicely flamed and book matched curly maple and the neck is five-ply and flame maple in all three of its wide sections. The instrument is set up perfectly and plays effortlessly. It has superb acoustic sound, as well as electric tone so melodious it nearly makes one weep.......