1951 Gibson LG-2 Flattop Guitar

Old LG-2s are among my favorite old flattops -- they've got that Gibson ka-thunky, woody sound and mids in spades. They'll handle flatpicking and fingerpicking equally-well (though I like them flatpicked best). They record beautifully and have that "warm old friend" feel to them. Yeah, they're nice guitars. This is a nice guitar and fits that description to a T.

This one took me a long time to fix. It wasn't in terrible shape overall, but much of the bracing was loose, partially-loose, or sloppily-reglued and so it needed extended fuss to get them back in order as well as the usual neck reset and fretwork.

Obviously, part of the reason this box sounds so good is that it's been played. There's a ton of pickwear around the soundhole and pickguard and, like the best Gibsons, has had a good amount of the inner ring of its soundhole area worn-away from pickwear. There's scratches all over and clearly this was someone's best-picking-friend.

Repairs included: a neck reset, fret level/dress, replacement (quality Gotoh relic'd) tuners, a new bone nut, hairline crack repair to the top next to the pickguard (under high E string), replacement (ebony) bridge pins, much regluing of top and back braces, some replacement lining for the back-center-seam, cleaning, and setup. I reset the neck to favor the original saddle (still extant), so while the saddle is on the lower side, it plays perfectly.

Setup notes: the neck is straight, the truss rod works, and action is 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret. There's about 1/16" of saddle height left on the treble side and a little more on the bass -- enough to play around with. String gauges are normal 54w, 42w, 32w, 24w, 16, 12 "light" gauges.

Scale length: 24 7/8"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 7/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/8"

Body length: 19"

Lower bout width: 14 1/4"

Waist width: 9 1/2"

Upper bout width: 11"

Side depth at endpin: 4 3/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid mahogany

Neck wood: mahogany

Bracing type: x-braced

Fretboard: rosewood, bone nut

Bridge: rosewood, original synthetic saddle

Neck feel: medium C-shape, ~10" board radius

Condition notes: it's almost crack-free save for a small hairline crack repair to the side of the pickguard on the top. The center seam on the back is not entirely flush with the back but it's stable. The top center seam has some cleats on it from behind but is not open. The finish is heavily-distressed (scratching, small dings, weather-checking and finish-cracking, small patches of flaking-finish areas, etc.) all over and there's oodles of pickwear around the soundhole. The tuners, bridge pins, and nut are replacements but everything else is original.