This guitar was made by Gibson for the  Montgomery Wards department store perhaps in the early 1930’s before they came up with the  “Recording King” brand,. 

It is similar construction to a Gibson L-50 of the period, a solid spruce top with two long braces running down the center of the guitar with kerfs in them to facilitate conforming to the arching., and a laminated back and sides. An interesting feature of this instrument is  that Gibson appears not have used a stock L-50 or similar type neck, including an adjustable truss rod, but never cut through the pegged veneer to make  the rod end accessible for use. It has since been opened up at the pegged and has a standard Gibson nut and truss rod cover added.  The bridge is not original to the guitar, but everything else is Gibson made and it has been professionally set up and plays beautifully and sounds, as one would expect, very much like the similar 1930’s Gibsons. There is a small Montgomery Ward sticker inside. 

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