Hello all......
I've had these for quite a few years stored away and needing a lot of work to be made playable.
My luthier was able to get to them over the last couple months and I'm completely amazed by his work and these two little Gibsons!
On the left is a mahogany bodied '29 L-0 that has a wonderful sound.
It's already my "in the wee hours can't sleep" guitar and has me especially inspired to be working on my fingerpicking, though it has a lot of punch with a flatpick.
On the right is a very odd, probably scarce '32 L-3.
It's likely the last version of the L-3, a long lived model that was out of the catalog by '33-'34.
At 13.5" across the lower bout it looks like a midget version of the 16" round sound hole L-4 of the same period.
In the last 18 years of exploring and learning about old guitars (mostly archtops).....this is one of only two of this version I've seen.
I was surprised how great this sounded too.....was not expecting much bottom out of this but its there.....it has a nice balance across the strings with a lot of projection.
Not as edgy as some little archtops can sound....the fatter tone is evident especially with the wire strings.
It's surprisingly versatile and fun to play.
Interesting to see the old "Orville" shaped body still in use with both of these guitars......12 fret vs 14 fret (same scale length) and flat vs arched bodies and sound hole sizes to name the obvious.. Lots to take in.
I think the depression and the changing musical landscape forced Gibson to try a lot of ideas or just use up parts and inventory during tough times.
I've had these for quite a few years stored away and needing a lot of work to be made playable.
My luthier was able to get to them over the last couple months and I'm completely amazed by his work and these two little Gibsons!
On the left is a mahogany bodied '29 L-0 that has a wonderful sound.
It's already my "in the wee hours can't sleep" guitar and has me especially inspired to be working on my fingerpicking, though it has a lot of punch with a flatpick.
On the right is a very odd, probably scarce '32 L-3.
It's likely the last version of the L-3, a long lived model that was out of the catalog by '33-'34.
At 13.5" across the lower bout it looks like a midget version of the 16" round sound hole L-4 of the same period.
In the last 18 years of exploring and learning about old guitars (mostly archtops).....this is one of only two of this version I've seen.
I was surprised how great this sounded too.....was not expecting much bottom out of this but its there.....it has a nice balance across the strings with a lot of projection.
Not as edgy as some little archtops can sound....the fatter tone is evident especially with the wire strings.
It's surprisingly versatile and fun to play.
Interesting to see the old "Orville" shaped body still in use with both of these guitars......12 fret vs 14 fret (same scale length) and flat vs arched bodies and sound hole sizes to name the obvious.. Lots to take in.
I think the depression and the changing musical landscape forced Gibson to try a lot of ideas or just use up parts and inventory during tough times.
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