2011 Gibson L-00 "12 Fret Blues" Flattop Guitar


Apparently, this was a model made for Musicians Friend. It's a take on the early-'30s 12-fret L-style flattop guitars and features scalloped bracing and an extra-light build. As you might expect, it sounds absolutely gorgeous -- full, round, warm, and sweet -- and sounds great for both fingerpicking and flatpicking.

I'm guessing that the pickguard was added later as these seem to have shipped without one. It's authentic, though, for the style. This came to me via consignment with a Bridge Doctor installed, too, which I removed as it damped tone a bunch. I think the owner probably didn't like the fact that, due to the super-light bracing, the tops simply have to dome-up and belly a bit under tension on these guitars. It's normal for them as well as the original L-00s and L-0s. It's perfectly happy without the BD in place and has remained stable in service since stringing it back up. It also has an endpin jack hole which I plugged and added a strap button to.

Overall, it's in good shape with only the lightest evidence of usewear and that's mostly confined to a few scratches around the soundhole and some more on the pickguard and small, almost invisible dings on the top. The back and sides are quite clean. It was played a bit, though, because I did need to level and dress the frets to get them tidy. The neck has a natural hair of backbow so the truss rod does not need much adjusting on this guy and has tons of adjustment room at the ready -- it handles tension nicely.

Post-repairs it plays perfectly, has a good tall saddle, and is ready to go.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress and setup work.


Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: x, scalloped

Bridge: ebony

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret:
3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 52w, 40w, 28w, 22w, 16, 12 (suggested: use 52w-11s standard)

Neck shape: medium C/soft V

Board radius: 10"

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-modern


Scale length: 25"

Nut width: 1 3/4"

Body width: 14 3/4"

Body depth: 4"

Weight: 3 lbs 14 oz


Condition notes: it's quite clean save minor small dings and scratching on the top. Back, sides, and neck are pretty dang clean. The endpin was drilled for a pickup and is now filled with a 1/2" dowel and strap button. The saddle is replacement bone but compensated. The frets on the fretboard extension are lower than the rest of the frets due to needing to level them down to match the rest of the board's angle -- the extension has a slight "ski-jump" which necessitated that. It plays spot-on, no worries! There's a small filled hole in the middle of the bridge where a Bridge Doctor's mount had been added before -- it's really hard to see because it's plugged with... ebony.


It comes with: a nice, original hard case.

















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