The Gibson L-4 CES was the electric version of the Gibson L-4 with a carved top and a florentine cutaway. Very few electrified L-4s were made during the 1950s, but in 1958 20 instruments were made bearing the L-4 CES model name. They were custom orders available from 1958 onwards. Being a custom order model there were various pickup configurations: some had Charlie Christian pickups, others had Gibson alnico single coils, some had Gibson humbuckers. The Gibson L-4 CES looks very similar to the Gibson ES-175: the differences being the L-4 CES has a carved top whereas the ES-175 has a laminated top and less fancy hardware .
In 1989 Gibson reintroduced this model as the L-4 CES Mahogany, and it has been in production ever since as part of the Custom Shop Carved Top Series (see Gibson L-4 CES Mahogany page).