1953 Gibson LG-2 Flattop Guitar

Hoo, man, this did not look like the big project it actually was at the outset. I'm glad it's done, though -- the end result is a stellar-sounding LG-2. It has warmth, fullness, and delicious-sounding mids. It has, pretty much, that prototypical old LG-2 sound to it. I think the owner will be pleased.

It had a long history, however -- when it came in, it had some obvious old repairs throughout, bad frets, tuners jutting at odd angles, a bridge both exploded and coming-up, and a giant black pickguard covering much of the middle of the top. Most of the repairs were straightforward but I had to fuss with the levling of the fretting on the neck a bit to compensate for the fact that the neck didn't want to adjust in a straight curve with the truss rod adjustments -- it was adjusting in a bit of an S shape.

Repairs included: a neck reset, refret with pyramid-jumbo stock, new bridge, new bone saddle and nut, brace repairs, hairline crack repairs to the top and back, a new pickguard, pickup wiring/install, new bridge pins, and setup.

Setup notes: it plays spot-on with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret, strung with 54w-12 gauges.

Scale length: 24 5/8"

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 3/8"

Waist width: 9 3/8"

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: Brazilian rosewood, new bone nut

Bridge: rosewood replacement, new bone saddle comp'd

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

Condition notes: there's disturbed finish all around the soundhole from old pickguard glue that I minimized and then sealed as much as possible. The body shows plenty of old nicks, dings, and small scratches throughout. There are repaired hairline cracks near the fretboard extension, pickguard, and on the back. The tuners, nut, saddle, bridge, and bridge pins are replacements. There's an added strap button near the heel. The pickguard is new but I've given it a minimal amount of faux-wear to blend its look a bit. It's not the proper tortoise style for a vintage Gibson from this era but I still think it looks handsome on this.