1940s Gibson L-30 Carved-Top Archtop Guitar

Overview: I first met this guitar in 2013, when it was traded-in to me. It arrived with a mix of terrible old repairs and some OK old repairs holding-pat. I went through it all at the time, cleating and regluing all sorts of loose seams and hairline cracks on the top, then leveled and dressed the frets, fit new tuners and a new tailpiece, and set it all up. Since then I traded it on to my friend Aidan and now, 11 years after that, I bought it back from him. He obviously cared about it because it arrived back much as it left, though it did need a little cleaning and a few seams reglued again. This is the life of a well-trodden guitar! This one has no factory order number or serial number but its features suggest it was built in the early '40s.

Interesting features: This guitar is essentially an L-48 from the time but I believe these black-finished ones were still designated L-30s despite the fact that they're essentially the same except for the finish. It has a solid, carved spruce top with tonebar bracing over solid maple sides and a ply-maple, press-arched back. Nice upgrades include the '40s-style Gibson bridge with brass inserts and "stairstep" compensation at the saddle and newer repro-style StewMac tuners. It also has a K&K Twin Spot pickup installed internally so you can rock it out at gigs.

Repairs included: As mentioned, I did a ton of crack and seam repairs in the past and a level/dress of the frets. It came back with only the tiniest amount of new wear to the frets so I let them be and it's still playing spot-on. This time around I just needed to reglue a few sprung side/back seams here and there. It's ready to go.

• Weight: 5 lbs 2 oz
• Scale length: 24 13/16"
• Nut width: 1 3/4" (just the tiniest hair under that)
• Neck shape: medium-fuller C
• Board radius: 10"
• Depth at first fret: 15/16"
• Depth at seventh fret: 1"
• Body width: 16 1/8"
• Body depth: 3 3/8"
• Top wood: solid carved spruce
• Back & sides wood: ply maple back, solid maple sides
• Bracing type: tonebar
• Bridge: rosewood adjustable
• Fretboard: rosewood
• Neck wood: mahogany
• Action height at 12th fret: 3/32” bass 1/16” treble (fast, spot-on)
• String gauges: 54w-12 lights
• Truss rod: adjustable
• Neck relief: straight
• Fret style: low/small

Condition notes: The tuners are new, the tailpiece is old but unoriginal, and the bridge is original. It has numerous cracks all over it and all have been repaired. It also has tons of pickwear, usewear, and handling-wear of all sorts. The finish is entirely original, though, which is nice The frets are the typical lower/narrower Gibson stock from the time. Oh -- and it has a replacement truss rod cover, too, and a K&K pickup is installed with an endpin jack fit. The original pickguard is long gone. There are some filled tiny holes in the top from where a Japanese-made pickup assembly/pickguard had been screwed-down.

It comes with: It has a newer tweed hard case (Musician's Friend one from 2013) but it's been beat-up a ton and looks ugly as one whole panel of tweed wrap has been yanked-off. It's working just fine, however.

Consignor tag: JW