Frutiger
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2007
- Messages
- 727
Here's a guitar I think some of you will find interesting: a Gibson L-4C in factory black, A7603, shipped May 10th 1951.
I found the guitar here in the UK. It had sat on Reverb for a month with nobody buying it. I had seen it when it first went up, thought it must be refinished and tried to forget about it.
But a voice inside my head kept saying "what if it's factory"? So I messaged the seller about the finish and he replied saying lots of people had asked about it but he couldn't confirm it was real. I think that's why nobody bought it, because they thought it was refinished. How could it be real and priced at what most people are asking for a Sunburst?!
Then I had the idea - the only way to confirm it would be the shipping ledger. Mat Koehler and I follow each other on Instagram and have messaged back and forth a few times. So sent him a message asking if he'd be able to check the ledger for me, he said he'd try when he could and the next day sent me a photo confirming it!
It's in generally great condition but has two 'issues' 1. Someone has removed the finish from the fretboard binding - it still has it's original frets and the binding it in great condition (even has tiny vintage nibs), so I wonder if an owner didn't like the way it was wearing with play and just stripped it all off? 2. There's a ding by the treble side of the bridge that someone touched in with a sharpie. Otherwise it's exceptionally clean with barely any checking.
I've never had an acoustic archtop before and in all honesty bought it because it's so rare (only one ever made?). But it's a revelation, that archtop 'cut' people talk about is all there, it's so loud and I love playing it. Anyway, enough rambling. Here's some pictures:
I found the guitar here in the UK. It had sat on Reverb for a month with nobody buying it. I had seen it when it first went up, thought it must be refinished and tried to forget about it.
But a voice inside my head kept saying "what if it's factory"? So I messaged the seller about the finish and he replied saying lots of people had asked about it but he couldn't confirm it was real. I think that's why nobody bought it, because they thought it was refinished. How could it be real and priced at what most people are asking for a Sunburst?!
Then I had the idea - the only way to confirm it would be the shipping ledger. Mat Koehler and I follow each other on Instagram and have messaged back and forth a few times. So sent him a message asking if he'd be able to check the ledger for me, he said he'd try when he could and the next day sent me a photo confirming it!
It's in generally great condition but has two 'issues' 1. Someone has removed the finish from the fretboard binding - it still has it's original frets and the binding it in great condition (even has tiny vintage nibs), so I wonder if an owner didn't like the way it was wearing with play and just stripped it all off? 2. There's a ding by the treble side of the bridge that someone touched in with a sharpie. Otherwise it's exceptionally clean with barely any checking.
I've never had an acoustic archtop before and in all honesty bought it because it's so rare (only one ever made?). But it's a revelation, that archtop 'cut' people talk about is all there, it's so loud and I love playing it. Anyway, enough rambling. Here's some pictures: