1926 Gibson L-1 Flattop Guitar

Alright, so this is Mr. Mike Brown's main gigging guitar and he's the one responsible for destroying the top. Wanna see it in action? Here he is down at The Wild Fern with my friend Rob in the foreground:

After seeing him play I can see why it looks the way it does -- he's been playing it hard and using all sorts of techniques on it night after night after night, year after year. Still, that's the way to love a guitar and I'm sure it thanks him for it.

This has been rebuilt several times, including the need for one after an unlucky encounter with a jealous lover. How about that?

We shored-up some brutal side cracks, worked on the frets, fit a new bone saddle, and set it up to play spot-on once again. It was playing pretty decently before but some wonkiness in the setup, really, and the old saddle insert, was sapping tone from it.

This is one of those "A-frame" or "half-X-braced" or "sort-of-fan-braced" versions of the L-1 and they're my favorites as they just sound so dang warm and mellow and open. Unfortunately, it also means the soundhole area of the top can't help but be completely warped and odd as it ages. Oh well! You just have to live with it.

As you can tell, there's "some old" and "some new" all over this instrument, but it's mostly original and the finish shows that in all the best ways. The bridge, nut, frets, and half the tuners are replacements, though.

Per the normal specs, it's solid spruce in the top over solid mahogany back, sides, and neck. The board is rosewood and so is the newer bridge.