1965 Gibson LG-1 Flattop Guitar

00-sized Gibsons -- LG-0, LG-1, LG-2, LG-3, and B-25 models -- have always been popular at the shop. I hadn't even got to this blog post when my buddy Sarah dropped-by yesterday afternoon and snagged this consignment guitar for herself. We put a K&K pickup in on the spot an I expect it'll show-up in her livestream videos sometime soon and perhaps live shows... whenever those start again!

As an aside -- she's been working on a great new EP with a fancy studio team and she plugged another of her K&K-equipped guitars in and the audio guys were shocked at the sound coming from these underdog pickups. There's a reason they're the only acoustic pickup I've recommended to anyone since 2005 or so.

The previous owner of this thought it might be a B-25 but a quick glance at the bracing (and, ya know, the faded LG-1 stamp in the soundhole) gave up that ghost pretty quick. He'd had some work done on it in the past but it needed a bit more love to be "bang on the dot." Now that said work is done it's a really fun guitar. These have a raucous, bluesy, up-front, mids-focused, woody sound to them. You can dig into them like an x-braced guitar but they spit the sound back out like a darker, more aggressive '30s ladder-braced instrument. They're loud, too, for the most part.

This one has the mid-'60s super-slim, narrow-nut neck, too, so it's perfect for someone who wants that "electric speed neck" feel on an acoustic. Barred chords all day long, folks...

Repairs included: recut of the saddle slot and a new, wider, rosewood saddle to get proper intonation. I then leveled/dressed the frets, reglued a couple of slightly-loose back braces, cleaned-off some sticker residue on the lower bout (the whole area below the bridge was a bit tacky), cleaned it up, and set it up.

Setup notes: action is spot-on fast at 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE height at the 12th fret. Strings are 54w, 40w, 30w, 22w, 16, 12 -- so like a set of 52w-11 but with 16/12 on the treble strings for more punch. The neck is straight and the truss rod works.

Scale length: 24 3/4"

Nut width: 1 9/16"

String spacing at nut: 1 3/8"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/8"

Body length: 19"

Lower bout width: 14 1/4"

Side depth at endpin: 4 1/2"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: rosewood

Bridge: rosewood

Neck feel: slim C-shape, ~12" board radius

Neck wood: mahogany

Weight: 3 lb 11 oz

Condition notes: someone removed the original pickguard quite early-on as there's not much of a "shadow" where it used to be. The finish is also quite a bit lighter than the cherryburst it would have been originally -- it's now a pretty, "iced-tea-burst," pumpkin-y orange color. "Sunrise" is what I like to call these. The original plastic/bolted-on bridge was removed a long time back and touch-up was added around the bridge footprint where it would've been. The (other repairman's) replacement bridge is rosewood and cut along the lines of a '50s Gib bridge but without the same sculpt.