Ultra-rare, ultra-cool, and ultra-amazing is this factory left-handed 1935 Gibson L-00. Shipped to Beare & Son in Toronto on January 23rd 1936, this guitar has spent its entire life local to our shop. It was brought to us about ten years ago for a neck reset and refret by the family of the original owner, and has now been brought to us again for sale as there is no one in the family who plays guitar left-handed. What a treat!

A loud, punchy and strong L-00 that is both a great flatpicker or rag-time voiced fingerstyle guitar, this one has been played fairly hard for much of its life, albeit strung right-handed for most of it, it seems. It has great cut and works really well in a jam setting, but does clean up nicely for solo melodic single-note playing.

A factory left-handed guitar, this L-00 was built with a left-handed bridge and pickguard. There are no fretboard side-dots on either side, which was standard L-00 fare during the mid 1930s, and the top is braced righty - which was also standard issue for every manufacturer other than Martin up until the 1970s. The original bridge remains unmodified to this day with its full thickness and original pins.

Despite the playwear to the top and generally moderate to heavy finish wear to the rest of the guitar, this L-00 is actually in remarkably good condition. There are no cracks to be found apart from a minor one along the inside margin of the pickguard. The bridgeplate and bracing are original and in great shape, the neck reset and frets are perfect (if I can say so myself), and playability is excellent, smooth, easy, and comfortable. There are a few reglued brace-ends as one might expect, the nut is an aged replacement made of bone, and one side of the tuning machines isn’t original to the guitar.

The neck has a fairly pronounced V carve with a deep feel and a nut of 1-3/4”. Scale length is 24.75”, string spread at the bridge is 2-3/8” and the action is set at 5-6 64ths with standard light-gauge strings.

With modern basic hardshell case