1950 Gibson L-4C Cutaway Electrified Archtop Guitar

Above: the acoustic clip

Above: the electric clip

This blonde beauty started life as a normal, acoustic, blonde L-4C (cutaway). It features a carved spruce top over maple back and sides and definitely has that classic, velvety, chunky, Gibson voicing. It makes a nice, snappy, trad jazz or swing jazz backup guitar and has plenty of cut and punch.

Later, it got a replacement pickguard, Johnny Smith-style mini humbucker fit at the neck, wiring harness fit to the pickguard, and an endpin jack installed. At some point it was refretted. It was transformed into a businesslike electrified jazzbox with these changes and it can do everything from smooth "old country" clean sounds to honky-tonky, to swing and bebop, to.. well, whatever! It's a hollowbody with a mini-humbucker at the neck. Your brain's the limit, folks -- move your hands to change the tone!

Anyhow, I approve of everything about this guitar. It plays like an absolute champ and sounds the biz both unplugged and plugged-in. My guy Ancel did the work on it and it plays bang-on and is ready to serve.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, tuner replacement, tailpiece replacement, knobs replacement, cleaning, setup work, etc.

Weight: 5 lbs 7 oz

Scale length: 24 3/4"

Nut width: 1 11/16"

Neck shape: medium C

Board radius: 10"

Body width: 16"

Body depth: 3 1/4"

Top wood: solid spruce (carved)

Back & sides wood: maple

Bracing type: tonebar

Bridge: ebony adjustable (replacement)

Fretboard: rosewood

Neck wood: mahogany

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast, spot-on, and adjustable)
String gauges: 54w-12 lights nickel John Pearse

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium-modern

Condition notes: the tailpiece is a repro replacement, the tuners are non-original but older and look more or less right, the pickguard and pickup are non-original but both are good quality and well-made. The bridge is also like a '70s or '80s replacement. I will not swear 100% on the finish but it looks right to me. It's pretty dang clean, though, but does show some fine weather-check as I would expect a Gibson to do on the back and sides. I wouldn't be surprised if perhaps the body got hit with a shot of overspray decades ago. The frets were replaced (thankfully) some time back and are good, modern medium stock.

It comes with: a nice hard case.

Consignor tag: DC