A pair of depression era Gibsons

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.

really nice!

Just can't get passed the "eliptical" lower bouts.

The Guilds of Grot said:

Just can't get passed the "eliptical" lower bouts.

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The shape is lovingly referred to as 'the peanut" by vintage Gibson junkies.

Neal said:

The shape is lovingly referred to as 'the peanut" by vintage Gibson junkies.

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Look what happens to the L-0 by 1930.

Zizala's 1929 L-0 is among the earliest Gibson flattops ever made with a pin bridge. It is astounding to me that Gibson got so much right on their first attempt, previously having expertise only in carved archtops during its first 25 years or so.

A true piece of guitar history!

Those are both beauties! I love the real early Gibson guitars!

walrus

I can hear Americana and Blues music oozing from them! Very nice!!

Wowza!

I have always wondered how the people who made these guitars back during the Great Depression survived. I know that the L-0 sold for $35, which while priced for the times, was still a lot of money. The first L-00 14-fretters made in 1933 cost less, $27.50, and lacked back binding as a cost-cutting strategy. Times were so tight that Gibson started using scrap wood to make childrens' toys (Kel Kroyden).

I also wonder, in their wildest dreams, if Gibson's employees ever thought that their modest creations would be coveted 90 years later, and command the prices that they do.

I've wondered about things like that too....the builders, the previous owners whether known or imagined.
The playwear gives one clues to how people played these, and of course there's use and abuse and the effects of long storage in various conditions.
There's wondering why and for what buyers Gibson built and cataloged some of these in the first place of course.
For that I like to take a closer look at what the world was like when these were built.....the context provided by old photos, history, culture, style and the experience of listening to lots of music from this era as well.
But thing I like best is how well these sound and how musically useful they can be in the present day.

One big difference would be pride of workmanship in those days. Hand made (essentially) with pride. Like a lot of things from that era.

walrus

I just used an inflation calculator to learn that $27.50 in 1930 would be the equivalent of $428.92 today. $35 in 1930 would be $545.90.

So, for the cost of a cheap, mass-produced Asian import today, you could have a guitar made by hand, in Kalamazoo, MI by some of the most gifted luthiers of the era, using old-growth wood that was air dried for perhaps a decade.

walrus said:

One big difference would be pride of workmanship in those days. Hand made (essentially) with pride. Like a lot of things from that era.

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Another big difference was that a lot of employees stayed with a company for life, which resulted in a significant reservoir of expertise. I’m guessing these days you’d be hard pressed to find any floor workers with more than five years under their belts.

Beautiful old Gibsons, btw! Here’s my 1922 Loar-era Gibson ‘A’ mandolin - still going strong & looking forward to it’s 100th birthday next year: