1934 Gibson L-7 (Modded) Cutaway Archtop Acoustic/Electric Guitar

This guitar has a bit of a fascinating history. It started-out as a 1930s L-7 (this 16" version was available between '32 and '34 and the current owner thinks it's a '34 but there's no factory order number or serialization inside) which is more-or-less about the same as an L-5.

It was later modified from its original, non-cutaway format to a cutaway by Mr. Randy Wood. At the same time, its (replacement?) ebony fretboard had its pearl dots filled and replaced with fancier inlay and the f-holes got binding in them, too. It was probably refinished at this point and the neck-position mini-humbucker was more than likely installed as well. It had a tortoise pickguard on it in old pictures but it arrived to my friend Greg (the owner/seller, now) with the current ebony pickguard and its "floating controls" installed.

Greg also had a fancy-pants Barbera pizeo acoustic pickup made for it and had been using it without the pickguard and magnetic pickup and the Barbera installed on its own. The Barbera is an excellent piece of kit, rejects feedback really well, and has a good, natural sound and high output. It's also pricey and each one has to be custom-fit to the guitar it's serving.

To ameliorate both pickup systems, I rewired the guitar so that both pickups can be shunted to the mono endpin jack already on the guitar. I added an on/off/on 3-way switch to the underside of the pickguard (only the tab of the switch peeks out from the side of the guard) so that you get magnetic/nothing/piezo options. I didn't want to blend the pickups in the middle because usually that turns into a nasty, phase-wonk, shifting nightmare unless you have various active controls running the thing. The beauty of both pickup systems is that they have decent, passive output on their own. One can easily run an A/B box to shift between amps or mixer inputs when switching pickups or even just a simple boost+EQ pedal.

That said, the guitar itself? It sounds tremendously-good as an acoustic entity -- I mean, it is afterall a '30s Gibson carved-top. It's wearing flatwound D'Addario Chromes at the moment, though, and I feel like regular nickel roundwound strings in similar gauges (54w-12) or even halfround/groundwound strings would definitely give this a lift in volume and punch acoustically -- even if it's very punchy and aggressive as it is!

It's setup spot-on and plays quick, easy, and is ready to go.

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

Weight: 6 lbs 1 oz

Scale length: 24 3/4"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Neck shape: slim-medium C

Board radius: 12"

Body width: 16 1/8"

Body depth: 3 3/8" + arching

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid maple

Bracing type: tonebar

Bridge: ebony w/piezo insert

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: maple

Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
String gauges: 54w-12 lights (D'Addario Chromes)

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-modern

Condition notes: well, clearly, it's been modified in the ways I mentioned earlier and much of the hardware is replacement stuff, too, albeit older. The refinish job is old enough, however, that it's beginning to look stately and worn-in. There's weather-checking here and there throughout and minor playwear/usewear throughout. There's an old repaired hairline crack on the top below the tailpiece and it's good to go. There's also a tiny hairline crack at the cutaway's side that's pictured -- it's just a little grain separation at the harshest part of the bend and is not being a fuss so is nothing to worry about.

It comes with: a nice hard case.