Looks réal nice Rich, congratulations. Is it all solid ?
Pdf says it is...Gibson L5s or L4s too for instance, are/were all-solid woods.It's a big archtop hollowbody - imagine what this guitar would weigh if it WAS solid!
walrus
Pdf says it is...Gibson L5s or L4s too for instance, are all-solid woods.
Right Bobouz, my '37 L-5 is parallel braced (Gibson produced both parallel and X-braced L-5s for a couple of years as they experimented with making "advanced" L-5s in '36 and '37. Its sound is much different than my Epi Deluxe and Emperor which are X-braced.From late-1934 to mid-1939, a number of Gibson acoustic archtops including the L-5, L-7, L-10, L-12, & Super 400, were X-braced rather than parallel braced. My hands-on experience in this area is rather limited by comparison to some other members here, but back in the '70s I owned a few parallel braced acoustic archtops, along with a late '30s Ward made by Gibson which had a carved solid spruce top & X-bracing. It had a full, balanced, and punchy tone that was great for fingerpicking, and it ended up as my go-to favorite.
A vintage Epi Deluxe in very good to excellent shape of the late 30s and all of the 40s usually cost in the $4,000s range nowadays. Interestingly, the waist of both the Deluxe and Emperor are 10", making the Emperor very comfortable to hold in the lap.That is one biggg @$$ guitar ;]
Fwiw, there's a 1946 Emperor at Guitar Center's Hollywood store that says it's in Excellent Condition. Only one grainy picture, but I'm sure you could get them into a dialogue & procure more photos, as they've had this one for quite some time now. Price is currently $5,409. Nice thing about them is that you can easily return it in person to your nearest GC for a full refund (3 days on vintage stuff - after receipt of the instrument). Qualifier: I say that, but haven't had to invoke a return to them in years, so you'd want to make sure that's still the policy!I wonder the kind of dollars that's needed for this type of guitar.
You would think GC would provide better and more images of the Emperor! Anyone who's considering plunking down that kind of money on a vintage archtop needs to have more info. In the case of marketing guitars, a bigger organization is not better.Fwiw, there's a 1946 Emperor at Guitar Center's Hollywood store that says it's in Excellent Condition. Only one grainy picture, but I'm sure you could get them into a dialogue & procure more photos, as they've had this one for quite some time now. Price is currently $5,409. Nice thing about them is that you can easily return it in person to your nearest GC for a full refund (3 days on vintage stuff - after receipt of the instrument). Qualifier: I say that, but haven't had to invoke a return to them in years, so you'd want to make sure that's still the policy!
Edit: There's also a 1992 Guild Artist Award on their website (listed in Great condition), and currently going for $4999.