1930 Gibson L-2
An exciting guitar, this 1930 Gibson L-2 is in beautiful condition, sounds incredible, plays perfectly, and has a remarkably comfortable neck carve. An early example of the Argentine Grey / Gold Sparkle Gibson L-2, this guitar is from batch 9572, which is the third known factory order of this model. It’s fitted with banjo tuners and the thick neck carve of the early 1930 period, and features tiny and thin back braces.
FON 9572 is one that shows up with some frequency as a repair entry in the Gibson shipping ledgers throughout the 1930s. These first large L-body Gibsons were fantastically light in build, and our suspicion is that a great number of them suffered top failure very early on in life and were returned to Gibson for repair. We see many top-over-dovetail guitars from this FON range, and frequently encounter other evidence of factory repairs. This guitar features a bridge that is of mid 1930’s style and has top bracing that is consistent with mid 1930’s L-1 and L-00 models. Our well-educated hypothesis is that this guitar was retopped by Gibson in c.1935 and has remained in near-perfect condition since then.
A wonderful and uniquely voiced guitar, this L-2, with its back, sides, and neck built to early 1930 spec and its mid 30s braced top offers something of a hybrid 1930/35 tone. It has the power and headroom of a mid 1930s Gibson and maintains the warmth, low end sub-bass rumble and much of the touch-sensitivity of an early 1930 guitar. It’s kind of the best of both worlds, surprisingly, and the guitar is immensely enjoyable to play. A bonus is that we are able set up the guitar with standard light gauge strings (12-54), standard action. It can be flat-picked or played fingerstyle and remains an incredibly versatile guitar.
An interesting aside, this is the exact guitar that Bill Collings modelled the WL-K after. If you’ve played one of the Kel Kroydon-looking Waterloo models, you might find that they, too, offer some of that light back / heavier top tonal response. Until this guitar landed at Folkway we always wondered why the WL-K were built with mid 1930s style top braces!
Red spruce and mahogany body, mahogany neck with bound rosewood fretboard, rosewood bridge, gold sparkle top trim and rosette, pearl ‘jester’ headstock inlay and logo. Original bone nut and frets, original 1935 bridge and pins. The saddle is a reproduction made here (the original is in the case pocket). Original finish throughout, which is a mix of lacquer sprayed in 1930 and in c.1935. Four and two matching tuning machines, and we don’t know which were installed in 1930 and which were installed a few years later. The Phillips-head screws suggest that the group of 4 are the younger ones. One tuner bushing was missing, and we’ve replaced it with the closest match we had. There are unfilled trapeze tailpiece holes that have original lacquer in them, suggesting the guitar was fitted with a trapeze for a little while between 1930 and c.1935.
The guitar remains in excellent condition. In our shop we stabilized and reinforced hairline top cracks along the fretboard’s edges, glued and cleated the top’s open center-seam, and reglued a few back brace ends which had become loose. There is a minor side/top seam repair that appears to have been done at the factory at the time of the retop. There been no other repairs to this guitar (since c.1935), and there are no visible cracks. We’ve set the guitar up with 12-54 strings and an action of 4.5-6 64ths.
The neck has a heavenly feel, thanks to its deep and round carve and a nut width that’s a third of the way between 1-11/16 and 1-3/4”. Neck depth at the 1st fret is .942”. The guitar weighs 3.25 lbs, which is surprisingly light given the neck dimensions and banjo tuners.
A rather unique and fabulously interesting Gibson L-2.
With original hardshell case
FON 9572 is one that shows up with some frequency as a repair entry in the Gibson shipping ledgers throughout the 1930s. These first large L-body Gibsons were fantastically light in build, and our suspicion is that a great number of them suffered top failure very early on in life and were returned to Gibson for repair. We see many top-over-dovetail guitars from this FON range, and frequently encounter other evidence of factory repairs. This guitar features a bridge that is of mid 1930’s style and has top bracing that is consistent with mid 1930’s L-1 and L-00 models. Our well-educated hypothesis is that this guitar was retopped by Gibson in c.1935 and has remained in near-perfect condition since then.
A wonderful and uniquely voiced guitar, this L-2, with its back, sides, and neck built to early 1930 spec and its mid 30s braced top offers something of a hybrid 1930/35 tone. It has the power and headroom of a mid 1930s Gibson and maintains the warmth, low end sub-bass rumble and much of the touch-sensitivity of an early 1930 guitar. It’s kind of the best of both worlds, surprisingly, and the guitar is immensely enjoyable to play. A bonus is that we are able set up the guitar with standard light gauge strings (12-54), standard action. It can be flat-picked or played fingerstyle and remains an incredibly versatile guitar.
An interesting aside, this is the exact guitar that Bill Collings modelled the WL-K after. If you’ve played one of the Kel Kroydon-looking Waterloo models, you might find that they, too, offer some of that light back / heavier top tonal response. Until this guitar landed at Folkway we always wondered why the WL-K were built with mid 1930s style top braces!
Red spruce and mahogany body, mahogany neck with bound rosewood fretboard, rosewood bridge, gold sparkle top trim and rosette, pearl ‘jester’ headstock inlay and logo. Original bone nut and frets, original 1935 bridge and pins. The saddle is a reproduction made here (the original is in the case pocket). Original finish throughout, which is a mix of lacquer sprayed in 1930 and in c.1935. Four and two matching tuning machines, and we don’t know which were installed in 1930 and which were installed a few years later. The Phillips-head screws suggest that the group of 4 are the younger ones. One tuner bushing was missing, and we’ve replaced it with the closest match we had. There are unfilled trapeze tailpiece holes that have original lacquer in them, suggesting the guitar was fitted with a trapeze for a little while between 1930 and c.1935.
The guitar remains in excellent condition. In our shop we stabilized and reinforced hairline top cracks along the fretboard’s edges, glued and cleated the top’s open center-seam, and reglued a few back brace ends which had become loose. There is a minor side/top seam repair that appears to have been done at the factory at the time of the retop. There been no other repairs to this guitar (since c.1935), and there are no visible cracks. We’ve set the guitar up with 12-54 strings and an action of 4.5-6 64ths.
The neck has a heavenly feel, thanks to its deep and round carve and a nut width that’s a third of the way between 1-11/16 and 1-3/4”. Neck depth at the 1st fret is .942”. The guitar weighs 3.25 lbs, which is surprisingly light given the neck dimensions and banjo tuners.
A rather unique and fabulously interesting Gibson L-2.
With original hardshell case