1944 Gibson LG-2 00-Size Guitar

My buddy Mike is an avid "Banner Gibson" collector and hunts for them like crazy. This is a sad beast he hauled in for his own use and he brought it in to get patched-up and made into a player. Its factory order number (a very faint 6063 or something close to it?) suggests 1944/1945 manufacture and it certainly has the "wartime neck" without a truss rod and the odd, extra-fancy binding one sees on "scrounged material" guitars from the time.

This had some work done by another repair shop at some point and it arrived with a neck angle that was good and tuners that were replaced but the most egregious area was the bridge which was pulling-off, a weird pyramid-style replacement, and sitting atop a huge mount of wood putty.

The last guy to deal with a failed top under the bridge (most of the surface area of the top directly below the bridge footprint is gone) also fit a thin plywood sheet right between the main X and the first tonebar, filling much of that area of the top. Mike was a little worried about it but it turned-out to be a very functional (and good) choice. We were able to remove the murky muck under the bridge and patch it and then I set about making a repro-ish lefty bridge for him. I know it's a drop-in saddle and I know I didn't fit pearl dots in the edges, but I think it turned-out rather handsome and its color matches the old fretboard pretty well.

Anyhow, post-repairs it plays spot-on, has a sweet, balanced, and attractive sound, and looks grand in its well-worn way.