ARCHIVED • SOLD

c.1919 Gibson GY

Gibson's first flat top was not the L-1 that Robert Johnson made famous, butGY model (or Army Navy) which predated the flat-top L series guitars by some10 years. The Army Navy instruments were low-budget guitars and mandolinswith flat tops and backs sold through military stores from the end of WorldWar One into 1921. They were unornamented and finished in Sheraton Brownwith natural finish on the neck. This instrument features a ladder-bracedspruce top, birch back and sides, trapeze tailpiece and adjustable bridge;ebony fingerboard with simple pearl-dot inlays, and three-on-a-strip tuners.The list of repairs on this instrument includes multiple seam separations, along top-crack, two side cracks and a replacement bridge and pin-block.Despite all the repairs, this instrument works very well. The neck andfrets are in particularly good condition, and the set up is very playable.Typical of the day, the neck is large, clunky, and V-shaped. It joins thebody at the 13th fret. The scale length is 24 1/4", and the nut width is1-3/4". It's a fun guitar to play - very plunky and bluesy - and great fora heavy fingerstyle attack on Leadbelly era tunes.
With a non-original soft shell case
SOLD


c.1919 Gibson GY

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