The Gibson J-160E is one of the first acoustic-electric guitar models produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.
A major problem with playing an acoustic guitar in live settings is that it is often quite difficult to hear. Some guitarists get around the problem by playing their acoustic guitars into a microphone; however, there are several drawbacks to this approach, such as the leaking of other (louder) instruments into the microphone, and restricted movement away from the microphone. Thus, many guitar manufacturers have tried to create acoustic-electric guitars as a solution to this problem.
The J-160E was Gibson's second attempt at creating an acoustic-electric guitar (the first being the small-body CF-100E). The basic concept behind the guitar was to fit a single-pickup (and associated electronics) into a normal-size dreadnought acoustic guitar. The J-160E used plywood for most of the guitar's body, and was ladder-braced, whereas other Gibson acoustic models were X-braced. The rosewood fingerboard featured crown inlays, and the guitar featured an adjustable bridge. For amplification, it featured a single-coil pickup (an uncovered P-90 pickup) on the top of the body at the edge of the fingerboard (similar to "floating" pickups on some arch-top acoustic guitars), with one volume knob and one tone knob.
While the J-160E was not popular with all guitarists, John Lennon and George Harrison of The Beatles frequently used this model, both on-stage and in the studio. Gibson currently produces a standard J-160E and a John Lennon J-160E Peace model, based on the J-160E he used during the Bed-In days of 1969. Epiphone currently produces an "EJ-160E" John Lennon replica signature model that is currently produced in Indonesia: while structurally closer to the original (for example with the knobs position),it has a longer scale length and a different colour than the earlier Korean-made Epiphone EJ-160E.
Bluesman Sam Lightnin' Hopkins played a J-160e which is on display at the Rock Hall of Fame.