1951 Gibson L-4 Carved-Top Archtop Guitar

Overview: I mean, ain't this a beaut? It's so hard to find completely-original, blonde, gorgeous old Gibson archtops these days. This one sounds the business, too, and has all the little features that make a Gibson fan swoon -- the hinged tailpiece, multi-ply pickguard, brass-insert adjustable bridge, headstock inlay -- all "yum" stuff.

The early '50s Gibson archtops were in flux a bit with their design. This guy has a solid, carved top but it's over the same ply maple back (solid sides) that the L-48 and hollowbody electric models were using at the time. While ply back/sides began to be a standard-issue thing in the '40s for a lot of their archtop guitars, it was in the late '40s and early '50s that many of the acoustic-centric, nicer-grade models lose carved back and sides.

It doesn't hurt the sound as far as I'm concerned, and it is a much better structural choice -- earlier, carved-back models almost always have some sort of on-again, off-again creep at the back/side seams that need to be addressed now and then as they shrink and expand with different weather. These ply-backed instruments are almost always good-to-go in that regard when they arrive here and they're a bit lighter-weight, to boot.

Repairs included: Jose gave it a level/dress of the frets, fussing over some of the hardware, cleaning, and setup. It's playing spot-on and ready to go.

• Weight: 4 lbs 15 oz
• Scale length: 24 3/4"
• Nut width: 1 11/16"
• Neck shape: medium-fuller C
• Board radius: 10"
• Depth at first fret: 0.91"
• Depth at seventh fret: 0.95"
• Body width: 16 1/8"
• Body depth: 3 3/8"
• Top wood: solid, carved spruce
• Back & sides wood: solid maple sides, ply maple back
• 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: lower/narrower

Condition notes: It's one of the cleanest examples of a '50s Gibson acoustic archtop I've ever seen. It looks, at a glance, like a guitar that could've been made a decade or two ago, save that the tuner buttons have shrunken a bunch. There's very light weather-check here and there throughout and some nicks/dings at the headstock edges. There's mild scratching here and there, too, but nothing I can even photograph. The instrument is original throughout. The frets are the original, thin, smallish stuff.

It comes with: It's got a nice hard case.

Consignor tag: DCHP