The L-50 and L-75 archtops were introduced in 1932 and saw a number of changes to their design and body shape through the first few years of the production run. Ultimately, both models would become 16″ carved-top archtops in 1935, but for a short while in and around 1934 these models featured a flat-backed L-00 sized body with a carved spruce top. Most of the L-50s we’ve encountered from 1934 feature a round soundhole and maple back and sides, but the company did build L-50s like this one with mahogany back and sides and F-holes. Most of the 1934 L-75s we’ve come across were F-hole models with fancier trimmings than the L-50. This example is something of an L-50/L-75 hybrid, and the fact that such a guitar exists at all won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s versed themselves in Gibson guitar production between 1933 and 1935. You can think of this guitar as an L-75 with a neck that should have been on an L-50, or as an L-50 with the sunburst-on-all-sides finish that was featured on the costlier L-75.
This example is a solidly attractive guitar, with beautiful finish, nicely proportioned f-holes, and classic 1934 appointments. It’s in wonderful condition and plays very nicely thanks to a reset and refret that were done in our shop a couple of years back.
A unique and fairly rare small body archtop with extra depth in the lower bout (4-1/8” at the endpin), this smaller Gibson archtop has a great sound that you won’t find in most any other archtop other than, perhaps, the Waterloo archtops that Collings built in very small numbers before the Pandemic – which were bench copies of this very model. A wonderful accompaniment guitar that’s naturally well-suited alongside a fiddle or in a jazzy blues ensemble, this L-75 has lots of punch, excellent definition in the bass, thick and forward trebles and plenty of mid-range support for comping. It’s quite dry and fundamentally voiced with few overtones to work around, and really likes a flatpick.
A nearly crack-free guitar with very little playwear, no repairs, and great looks, this L-75 is original but for a set of high-end Antique Acoustics replacement tuning machines, The original tailpiece’s cross-bar is bent from years of string pull, but functions well. There is a small, repaired crack travelling 2” from the end of the fretboard approximately under the high E string.
Pearl Gibson logo, original bone nut, original ebony adjustable bridge, and original pickguard. The guitar’s only real flaw is some bubbled finish on the bottom, adjacent to the endpin, that had to have been the result of heat.
Comfortable V neck with 1-3/4″ nut and 24.75″ scale. 1st fret depth of .960”, 2-1/8” string spread at the bridge. Currently set up with 12-54 strings and a 12th fret action of 5-6 64ths.
With non-original hardshell case.
