Gibson

Moderne

Gibson patented it in 1958. One man says he could have had one for $50. Nobody has ever proved one existed.

Kalamazoo, as Ren Wall tells it. A local theater is putting on *Bye Bye Birdie*, and Wall, a Gibson employee, borrows a strange guitar out of the factory’s back room for the show. He could buy it for $50. Nobody wants it. So he puts it back.

Introduced: 1982
Type: Solidbody electric
Class: Production

Read the story · 3 min

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Photo: de:User:Guitarpimp / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.01982 Gibson Moderne Heritage in natural; gold humbuckers and stopbar; Moderne body and gumby headstock; plain wall.

The short version

1957
A drawing, filed
On 20 June, Ted McCarty files a design patent for a guitar with no name on it.
1958
Two out of three
The patent is granted in January. The Flying V and the Explorer reach the price list. The third design doesn’t.
1960s
Sightings
A shop in Miami, a body in Ann Arbor. Stories, no proof.
1982
The first one you can hold
Gibson finally builds it, in korina, and calls it the Moderne.
2012
Mahogany
Gibson USA makes a mahogany Moderne, with a split headstock.
2013
Of Doom
Zakk Wylde gets a signature Moderne, limited to 250.
2025
A 1957 reissue
A “1957” Moderne from Gibson’s Custom Shop, copying a guitar nobody has found.

Side A

Fifty dollars and a back room

Gibson’s Kalamazoo plant had a storage room people called the morgue. One day an employee named Ren Wall borrowed a guitar out of it for a local production of Bye Bye Birdie.

It was a Moderne, or at least that’s how he told it later. He could have bought it for $50. It was “so ugly nobody wanted it.” He brought it back after the show.

Years later new owners cleaned out the morgue. Nobody took a photo. Deke Dickerson, who has written about this guitar more than most, calls it “the mythical great white whale of vintage guitars.” Keep the whale in mind.

A drawing with no name

In 1957 Ted McCarty wanted an answer to Fender, so he had Gibson draw some wild shapes. Three design patents went in that June: one became the Flying V, one became the Explorer, and the third was this. The drawing didn’t even have a name. Somebody else called it the Moderne, later.

The body has a V-shaped bass side and a treble side that hooks up and over like a shark’s fin, or a can opener, depending on your mood. The headstock is a wide paddle that everybody now calls the Gumby.

Here’s what happened next, depending on who you ask. Prototypes went to the 1957 trade show. Or only the V and the Explorer did. Or all three went and the Moderne bombed so badly the prototypes were scrapped, or cut up, or walked out of the factory. McCarty said several were built. Some of the people who worked for him said none were. Gibson’s own page today hedges both ways, and says a few may have “escaped into the wild.”

The paperwork doesn’t help. The 1958 price list has the V and the Explorer at $247.50 and no Moderne. The shipping logs list some “Mod. Gtr.” in korina, and everyone reads those as Explorers, mostly because no Moderne has ever turned up to argue.

Everybody saw one once

What the Moderne has instead of guitars is sightings. Bill Cherry said he saw one at North Miami Music in the early ’60s, priced at $250, and passed. Ponty Gonzales in San Antonio remembered a third guitar back in 1957, one that looked “like a broom.”

In Ann Arbor in the late ’60s, Dan Erlewine bought a Moderne-shaped body with a Melody Maker neck on it. It went to George Gruhn, who called it an obvious fake. Erlewine’s answer was that it was too early to be a fake, since nobody knew the shape had a name yet. Gruhn wasn’t convinced. That guitar ended up in Tokyo, and the argument never ended at all.

Billy Gibbons says he owns a real one. He hasn’t shown it to anyone who could check.

The Moderne has no serial number, no ledger line, and no photograph. It has a lot of people who almost bought one.

Even the people who believe can’t agree on how many. Guesses run from none, to “a handful,” to one to six, to “at least two… most likely four.”

Flip the record · By the numbers

0
Moderne guitars from the 1950s that anyone has authenticated.
$50
What Ren Wall says he could have paid for the one in the back room. He put it back.
1–6
How many prototypes people at the factory remembered. Some remembered none.
143–183
Heritage Modernes actually made in 1982–83, depending on who counted. Gibson had announced 500.

Side B

A reissue of nothing

In 1982 Gibson gave up waiting and built it. The Heritage Moderne came in korina, like the ’58 V and Explorer, with gold hardware and a headstock made a little smaller than the drawing, because the drawing’s was too big. Gibson announced 500. Somewhere between 143 and 183 were actually made, and the counts don’t agree. Heart’s Howard Leese got the first prototype, in Candy Apple Red.

People called it a reissue. A reissue of a guitar that had never been issued. Chicken or egg, if you like, and that’s being polite.

You can order one tomorrow

Since then there have been mahogany Modernes from Gibson USA in 2012 and 2019, a Zakk Wylde “Moderne of Doom” with a Floyd Rose, and now a Custom Shop “1957” Moderne in mahogany. Gibson says the mahogany stands in “for the original, rare Korina wood.” The patent never mentions wood. Nobody has verified the original.

You can walk into a shop and order one. It’s a good guitar. It doesn’t settle anything.

Guitar people will tell you they want the Moderne found. Listen to how they tell the Ren Wall story, though: the back room, the $50, the guitar he put back. Nobody tells it like a tragedy. They tell it like the start of a hunt.

The cast

The people, and the specific guitars, that made the legend.

1957
Ted McCarty
The patent drawing
Gibson’s president filed the design alongside the Flying V and the Explorer. He always said a few prototypes were built.
Unknown
Ren Wall
The one in the back room
A Gibson employee who said he borrowed a Moderne for a local show and could have bought it for $50. No photo exists.
Late 1960s
Dan Erlewine
A Moderne-shaped body with a Melody Maker neck
Bought in Ann Arbor. George Gruhn called it an obvious fake. Erlewine said it was too early to be one. They never agreed.
Unverified
Billy Gibbons
A claimed 1950s original
Says he owns one. Hasn’t let anyone authenticate it.
1982
Howard Leese
The first 1982 Heritage prototype
Heart’s guitarist got the first one, in Candy Apple Red, and bought another for his tech.
2013
Zakk Wylde
Moderne of Doom
A 250-piece signature with a maple top, EMG pickups, and a Floyd Rose. Not a Heritage, and nothing like a 1950s guitar.

Liner notes

Specs, construction, rarity, value, and every source we used.

The third of McCarty’s 1958 Modernist trio Gibson never shipped: V-shaped bass, hooked treble, Gumby paddle headstock — not a Flying V, not an Explorer.

Body: Solid mahogany, Moderne silhouette: elongated V-shaped bass bout, scooped “shark-fin” treble. Mix flagged.
Neck: Set mahogany, hide-glue; 50s Vintage profile
Fingerboard: Unbound one-piece Indian rosewood, 22 reissue frets, cellulose dots, 12.0 in / 304.8 mm radius. Mix flagged.
Scale: 24.75 in / 628.65 mm. Mix flagged.
Pickups: Two unpotted Custombucker humbuckers, aged Alnico 3
Hardware: Historic reissue ABR-1 (no-wire); aluminum stop bar; Kluson single-ring reissue; gold VOS. Four string guides on a Gumby headstock; raised nickel/plastic Gibson logo
Electronics: Two volume, master tone; 500k CTS vintage-taper; phone-book capacitor; Switchcraft 3-way. Gold Switchcraft jack
Finish: Antique Natural VOS nitrocellulose
Nut: Nylon, 1.69 in / 42.85 mm (Gibson sheet also prints “Nyloon”). Mix flagged.

Open the full research fileConstruction details, the complete player record, production numbers, dated value estimates, and sources

Current typical = Gibson Custom 1957 Mahogany Moderne Reissue, Antique Natural VOS, SKU 57MMANVOGH1, Lifton brown/pink historic case. Gibson.com $5,499 (fetched 16 September 2026). Classic first production = 1982–83 Heritage korina, not this table: korina body and neck, Indian rosewood dots, Tim Shaw / ink-stamped humbuckers, 5-ply black guard, gold, letter-prefix inked serial. 2012–13 Gibson USA DSMD (Trans Amber / Ebony, granadillo, ’57 Classics, forked/silkscreen headstock, MSRP $2,599) and 2019 USA (rosewood, Aged Cherry / Trans Amber) are mahogany limited runs, not this table. Zakk Wylde Moderne of Doom (2013, 250, maple top, EMG, Floyd) is a signature, not this guitar. Epiphone Korean copies stay off. No verified 1950s object to spec. Mixed inch/mm flagged on Gibson’s 24.75 in / 628.65 mm, 12.0 in / 304.8 mm, and 1.69 in / 42.85 mm. zZounds prints the same nut as 1.687" / 42.85 mm — mix flagged, not averaged.

Construction

The job was a third space-age solidbody to sit with the Flying V and the Explorer. Ted McCarty, answering Fender, had Gibson draw wild shapes. Three design patents went in in June 1957. Moderne is USD181866S, Theodore M. McCarty, assignor to Gibson, Inc., Kalamazoo: filed 20 June 1957, issued 7 January 1958. The V is D181,867 (filed 27 June); the Explorer/Futura is D181,865. All three issued the same day. The Moderne drawing has no model name. Later writers called it Moderne.

Premier Guitar (Bob Cianci, June 2009): prototypes were built to show at the 1957 NAMM in Chicago. Some accounts put only the V and the Explorer — then called Futura — on the floor. Others put all three there and say the Moderne was received so badly the prototypes were scrapped, or cut up, or walked out of the plant. McCarty went to his grave saying several were built. Some employees said none. Gibson Custom’s current sheet still prints both: a few prototypes built and destroyed, or a few that “escaped into the wild.” No authenticated 1950s Moderne has been found. That is the fact. The rest is sighting.

It is not a Flying V (gibson-flying-v-1958-korina). It is not an Explorer (gibson-explorer-1958-korina). Bass bout like a V; treble like a hooked can-opener. Headstock a widened paddle — “Gumby,” with four string guides on the Heritage and on this Custom Shop guitar. Hardware follows the Explorer recipe, not the V’s: ABR-1 and a stop bar. Strings do not go through the body. Two humbuckers, two volumes, one master tone, three-way — Blue Book Heritage and the current Custom sheet; most two-pickup Gibsons of the period had four knobs. Natural and gold is the “original-look” recipe. Heritage also shipped red, white, and ebony. 2012 USA was Trans Amber and Ebony.

Korina is the sibling wood. 1958–59 Vs and Explorers shipped in West African limba. Gibson Custom now says this reissue substitutes mahogany “for the original, rare Korina wood,” based on archive records and the patent drawing. The patent does not specify wood. Heritage 1982–83 is the first Gibson you can actually hold, and it is korina. Treat 1950s korina as the intended Modernist recipe, not as a verified Moderne spec.

The 1958 price list that put V and Explorer at $247.50 did not put a Moderne next to them. guitarhq.com’s shipping table has no Moderne row: Explorer 19 / 3 and Flying V 81 / 17 for 1958 / 1959. Gibson logs of 19 “Korina (Mod. Gtr.)” in 1958 and 3 in 1959 are taken as Explorers because no Moderne has been verified — an inference, same unresolved note as on the Explorer plate. If any “Mod. Gtr.” were Modernes, Explorer counts would be even lower.

1980–83. Wikipedia: Heritage Series shown at the 1980 NAMM in Atlanta. Premier Guitar: Gibson “officially introduced the Moderne in 1982.” Blue Book: Moderne Heritage, 1982–83. This plate starts as a guitar you could buy in 1982. Tim Shaw on the Heritage work: the head was made a little smaller than the patent drawing because the drawing was too big for the line (Fretted Americana). Inked serials in a letter-prefix batch (RetroFret: D010 = tenth in batch D; Nashville). CRAVE’s 1983 example is listed Kalamazoo. Keep both plants. Natural, then red, white, and ebony (Blue Book; RetroFret). Shaw humbuckers. Raised logo. First production Moderne — a “reissue” of a guitar that had not been issued. Reverb (Deke Dickerson, 2016): chicken-or-egg to call it a reissue.

2012–13. Gibson USA DSMD, mahogany, granadillo, slim-fast neck (.800" / .850" at 1st / 12th on the 2013 Gibson copy), ’57 Classics, Tune-o-matic and stop, gold. Trans Amber and Ebony, nitro, MSRP $2,599. Forked / split headstock with black overlay and a silkscreen gold logo — “MODERNE” on the truss cover. That head is the 2012 guitar, not the Gumby Heritage and not this Custom Shop. Blue Book: mfg. 2012–2013.

2013. Zakk Wylde Moderne of Doom: mahogany/maple, pinstripe, maple neck, Richlite, EMG 81/85, Floyd Rose. Gibson / Premier Guitar / MusicRadar: limited to 250, MSRP $2,082. Signature. Not this table.

2019. Gibson USA again, mahogany, rosewood, ’57 Classics, Aged Cherry and Trans Amber. No factory total located.

2025–26. Gibson Custom 1957 Mahogany Moderne Reissue — the table above. Hide-glue set neck, Custombuckers, VOS gold, Gumby head, raised logo, four string guides. Mahogany, not korina. Antique Natural. Same $5,499 Historic band as the companion 1957 Mahogany Futura Reissue. Futura is the Explorer’s patent-era name, not a Moderne. Do not swap them.

Ibanez Futura in the mid-1970s took the Moderne patent drawing (Vintage Guitar, via the Destroyer plate). That is a FujiGen copy of a drawing. Not a Gibson. Dean ML is a V-plus-Explorer hybrid from 1977. Not this outline.

Classic vs current: 1982 Heritage korina, Shaw pair, Gumby, gold — against Custom Shop mahogany, Custombuckers, VOS, same silhouette, $5,499. The 1958 guitar remains a drawing and a set of stories.

Players

Do not hang a 1958 korina Flying V or Explorer on this plate. Hendrix’s Vs are late-60s mahogany. Slash’s Use Your Illusion pair are 1958 Explorers and a 1959 V. Hetfield’s stage Explorers are 1976 mahogany and ESP copies. None of that is a Moderne.

Howard Leese (Heart). Premier Guitar: given the first 1982 Heritage prototype, Candy Apple Red; he also bought one for his tech. Both later sold. Named first-production object. Album-to-guitar credits for Heart sides are unpublished here.

Billy Gibbons. Dickerson (Reverb, 2016): claims to own a 1950s original and will not show it for authentication. A claim. Not a verified instrument.

Zakk Wylde. 2013 Moderne of Doom, 250 pieces, pinstripe, EMG, Floyd. Signature on this silhouette, not a Heritage and not a 1950s object.

Ren Wall is the closest named hands on a possible 1950s object, not a record credit. Vintage Guitar (Dickerson, June 2016): Gibson employee, borrowed one from the Kalamazoo “morgue” for a local Bye Bye Birdie, could have bought it for $50, “so ugly nobody wanted it,” put it back. Norlin later cleaned the morgue. No photograph. Dickerson’s phrase for the missing original: “the mythical great white whale of vintage guitars.”

Sightings without an object stay short. Dickerson: Bill Cherry at North Miami Music, early 1960s, $250, passed; Ponty “Guitar” Gonzales in San Antonio, 1957, a third guitar “like a broom.” Late 1960s Ann Arbor: Dan Erlewine bought a Moderne-shaped body with a Melody Maker neck; Ranger Doug Green took it to George Gruhn, who called it an obvious fake; later in Tokyo. Erlewine: too early for a forgery if nobody knew the name. Gruhn disagreed. Keep both. No serial, no ledger, no photograph that closes it.

Also known to play stays last and empty of inventions. Leese is the named 1982. Wylde is the named signature. Gibbons is the unverified claim.

Rarity

You can order a new Custom Shop mahogany Moderne tomorrow at list. That is not vintage rare. Custom Shop does not publish a Moderne total. None invented.

A verified 1950s Moderne is not rare. It is unknown. Count: zero authenticated. Prototype guesses run from none (some employees) through McCarty “a handful” and Dickerson’s “one to six” factory memories, to Ronald Lynn Wood via Premier Guitar: “at least two… most likely four.” Do not pick a winner. The “Mod. Gtr.” shipping line is not a Moderne census.

1982–83 Heritage is the scarce production object. Gibson announced 500. Blue Book (S.P. Fjestad, 11th ed., p. 463, via Fretted Americana): 143 actually manufactured. Premier Guitar and RetroFret: 183 produced / sold from the original run. CRAVE: 500 planned, 143 shipped. Keep 500 announced, 143 manufactured (Fjestad), and 183 sold/produced (Premier Guitar / RetroFret). They do not agree. Serials date a guitar; letter batches do not add to a factory total.

2012–13 DSMD, 2013 Doom (250), 2019 USA, and the current Custom Shop are later finite runs. Doom’s 250 is the only later figure with a named manufacturer statement. The others unpublished.

The missing 1950s guitar, if one ever authenticates, is a unique object. It is not a Heritage, and it is not this Custom Shop SKU.

Value

Informal estimate, 16 September 2026. Not an appraisal.

Ask is not sold. Guides are not auctions. No invented median. Celebrity lots and a hypothetical 1950s original are not-comps. Period $247.50 (1958 V / Explorer list) is not a Moderne price; Gibson did not list one. Historical $2,599 (2012 USA MSRP) and $2,082 (2013 Doom MSRP) are old lists, not 2026 street.

New street. Gibson Custom 1957 Mahogany Moderne Reissue $5,499 (gibson.com, 16 September 2026). Chicago Music Exchange same list, sold out this pass. Trogly’s February 2026 review unit: $5,499 new, later offered used at $4,450. zZounds has carried the SKU at $5,499; a later zZounds snapshot printed $4,999 — mix flagged, not averaged. Use Gibson’s $5,499.

Used modern. 2012 USA / “Moderne XL” and 2019 USA trade used. Named ask, not a hammer: Flash Flood 2012 Trans Amber $2,830.50. Sweetwater Gear Exchange 2019 Aged Cherry $3,495. Reverb Price Guide on Moderne XL Natural 2012 (Australia widget, 48 orders, Good to Mint): A$2,011–A$3,290; USD Price Guide widget on the U.S. product page was empty this pass. Flag: thin USD sold-comp access. Don’t invent a midpoint. Doom / Epiphone are other guitars.

Vintage / collectible. 1982–83 Heritage korina is the market that exists. Reverb Price Guide on “Gibson Moderne 1982”: used estimate unavailable this pass. Named asks, not hammers: Scarecrow 1982 Natural $6,999; Palace Jewelry 1982 Natural $8,899; Very Good / Excellent Naturals after drops $10,247 and $10,290.75. Ended: Live Wire 1982 Black factory-second $4,900; 35 South refinished Polaris White $7,000. Gardiner Houlgate, 11 March 2025: estimate £5,000–£6,000; sale complete, hammer unpublished here. Do not average those asks. Gibson Certified Vintage 1982 Natural, serial C 063, leftover page, ask unpublished.

A verified 1950s Moderne, if one ever appears, is not this ladder. Dickerson: if two collectors fought over an authenticated original it “could sell for several million dollars — possibly even tens of millions.” That is conjecture. Everything about that object’s value, he writes, is conjecture. Label it. Not a 2026 comp.

Sources

Google Patents, USD181866S — McCarty / Gibson; filed 20 June 1957; issued 7 January 1958; Moderne design
Gibson Custom, 1957 Mahogany Moderne Reissue — current SKU 57MMANVOGH1; mahogany; Gumby head; Custombuckers; $5,499; no authenticated 1957 example
Gibson Certified Vintage, 1982 Moderne C 063 — conceived late 1950s; not officially produced until 1982; korina Heritage spec
Premier Guitar, Bob Cianci, The Mysterious Gibson Moderne, June 2009 — 1957 NAMM; McCarty vs employees; officially introduced 1982; Leese first prototype, Candy Apple Red; 183 in the early-’80s run
Reverb News, Deke Dickerson, The Legend of the Gibson Moderne, 2 December 2016 — patent without a title; 1–6 prototype memories; Wall, Cherry, Gonzales, Erlewine/Gruhn; Gibbons claim; Heritage as chicken-or-egg “reissue”; original-value conjecture
Vintage Guitar, Deke Dickerson, Gibson Wall-Board Guitar, June 2016 — Ren Wall, morgue, Bye Bye Birdie, $50, “great white whale”
Blue Book, Gibson Moderne series — 1958 blueprint debate; Heritage 1982–83 korina, Natural/Red/White/Ebony; DSMD 2012–13 mahogany/granadillo
Fretted Americana, 1982 Moderne Heritage — Fjestad 11th ed. p. 463: 500 planned, 143 manufactured; Shaw on smaller headstock
RetroFret, 1982 Moderne Heritage D010 — Nashville; 500 announced, 183 sold; letter-prefix serials; later red/white/black
CRAVE Guitars, 1982 Moderne Korina Heritage — 500 planned, 143 shipped
guitarhq.com shipping table — Explorer 19/3, Flying V 81/17; no Moderne row
Gibson USA Moderne (archived 13 July 2013) — 2012 DSMD; Trans Amber / Ebony; granadillo; ’57 Classics; MSRP $2,599; forked headstock
Premier Guitar, Zakk Wylde Moderne of Doom, 16 October 2013 — 250; MSRP $2,082
MusicRadar, Zakk Wylde Moderne of Doom, 17 October 2013 — 250; SRP $2,082
Forgotten Guitar, 1958 design patents — V / Explorer / Moderne patents; Moderne not produced until 1982
Reverb News, Tony Bacon, The Birth of the Explorer — D181,865 as Explorer/Futura; Moderne not developed in 1958; $247.50 Modernistic list
Wikipedia, Gibson Moderne — lead only: prototyped 1957; production 1982; “Mod. Guitars” shipping-list ambiguity
explorerbass.com history — 19/3 “Korina (Mod. Gtr.)” taken as Explorers
zZounds, 1957 Mahogany Moderne Reissue — current spec table; 1.687" / 42.85 mm nut; list snapshots $5,499 / $4,999
Chicago Music Exchange, Custom Shop Moderne — $5,499
Reverb, Gibson Moderne 1982 — used estimate unavailable; named asks
Reverb, Moderne XL Natural 2012 — AU Price Guide A$2,011–A$3,290 (48 orders); Flash Flood ask $2,830.50
Sweetwater Gear Exchange, 2019 Aged Cherry — ask $3,495
Gardiner Houlgate, Heritage Moderne, 11 March 2025 — estimate £5,000–£6,000; hammer unpublished this pass
The Trogly's Guitar Show, 2025 Moderne — Custom Shop mahogany; $5,499 new; $4,450 used