1929 Gibson L-1 00-Size Guitar

Friend of the shop, David, brought this one in for repair. It already had a neck reset and new bridge in its past and some crack tidying-up, but it arrived in definite need of fresh frets and yet another new bridge. Jose took care of all that -- giving it an excellent refret with vintagey-moderny medium wire and making and fitting a repro-ish-style, Madagascar rosewood bridge. We opted for a drop-in saddle on this one so that this third bridge wouldn't have the torn-out front wall that the first and second ones did with their through-slot saddles. I know through-slots are pretty but... I'm not a fan for this very reason.

Now that it's been established that Jose is an ace, what else? Oh yeah, the guitar!

The 1929 L-1 was nothing like its earlier, smaller-bodied, flattop L-1 cousin of the famed "Robert Johnson" photograph. It's basically a proto-L-00 instrument with a 00-sized body and 12-fret construction. Kel Kroydon models are very much similar to this as well. The "Sheraton Brown" sunburst look is gorgeous, though, and the super-de-duper lightweight build means that these sound tip-top. If you like a 12-fret L-00 but want more of that warm, sweet, '30s Martin thing... I mean... these sort-of get you right there...?

Interesting features on this guy include a very thin fretboard that's not all that radiused and a comfy, almost modern-feeling, medium-C neck profile. It's also obviously been played-in a ton and its bigger-than-life sound rewards all that woodshed time.

Per the usual, it has a solid spruce top over solid mahogany back and sides, a mahogany neck, and a rosewood board with a rosewood bridge (now two rosewoods removed).