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Little slice of guitar history - 1934 L-5

57gold

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 14, 2005
Messages
692
Newest addition to family. Been using COVID quarantine to work on jazz tunes, chord melody arrangements, difficult tunes that have wanted to learn like Pork Pie Hat and Round Midnight...which became less difficult after working with instructor on jazz harmony. So with sale of a few vintage electrics, had too many to realistically play and dig some of the new build just as well, searched for one of these. The first generation of jazz guitar, third version (Loar, 1928 then these with blocks and square fretboard ends). This one has solid, parallel tone bar braces, like all the pre-1930 ones; many 1930s had kerfed braces to make them easier to produce but some say reduce dynamics somewhat. Rings with the clarity that many later Gibson archtops exchange for thumping bottom end for swing band comping. Had a neck reset so it plays like a new instrument. Has a cool deep V shaped neck.

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Got first shot yesterday, so will have a month or so of more quarantine to really get to know her.

Any other LPFers with vintage archtops?

Been thinking about a 1930-40 D'Angelico since I played several at Rudy's...
 
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JimR56

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Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
588
Any other LPFers with vintage archtops?

Been thinking about a 1930-40 D'Angelico since I played several at Rudy's...
Congrats on your L5. The oldest Gibson archtop I've owned was a 1940 ES250N, which I got from Gruhn in 1990. I had been owned by Harold Bradley. I sold it some years ago. I've always leaned toward electrics. The only acoustic archtop I've owned was a circa 1940 blond non-cutaway D'Angelico New Yorker (I had a DeArmond 1100 on it for a few years). I traded for it back in the 1980's, and then traded it to Gruhn in 1994 for a '58 Super 400CESN.

My current stable includes a '63 L5CT (hb's installed before I got it) and a L5N custom ordered in 1966 with a CC pickup. I got it in 2004, after years of looking.

I hope you didn't sell your florentine Super 4 (#envious). I wish I still had the one I bought from Robben Ford in the 80's (although it helped finance the D'A acquisition). It was a sunburst '64 also.
 

fakejake

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Sep 3, 2010
Messages
1,274
Congrats on your L5. The oldest Gibson archtop I've owned was a 1940 ES250N, which I got from Gruhn in 1990. I had been owned by Harold Bradley. I sold it some years ago. I've always leaned toward electrics. The only acoustic archtop I've owned was a circa 1940 blond non-cutaway D'Angelico New Yorker (I had a DeArmond 1100 on it for a few years). I traded for it back in the 1980's, and then traded it to Gruhn in 1994 for a '58 Super 400CESN.

My current stable includes a '63 L5CT (hb's installed before I got it) and a L5N custom ordered in 1966 with a CC pickup. I got it in 2004, after years of looking.

I hope you didn't sell your florentine Super 4 (#envious). I wish I still had the one I bought from Robben Ford in the 80's (although it helped finance the D'A acquisition). It was a sunburst '64 also.
Guys, we need pictures of all of those guitars. Either here or in a new archtop thread. I'm SERIOUS!!
Gorgeous stuff 57gold !!! I had a The Loar 700 for a while that was not bad for the money, but really rather heavy. I'd love to get my hands on an early L5 but even if I could afford one, I'd have to get an old Sheraton first.... 🙄
 

brandtkronholm

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Dec 3, 2006
Messages
2,737
That 1934 L-5 must be fun to play.

If anyone wondered what kind of music was played on such an instrument when it was brand new, here's an example: The Boswell Sisters performing "Crazy People".
Dick McDonough is the guitarist in this 1932 recording. He's something of a Bix-like figure relative to late '20s-early '30s jazz guitar. An alcoholic, he died in 1938.

Here's a picture of Dick McDonough (top right) with Carl Kress - both have Gibson L-5s! (Possibly post 1934?)
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OldStrummer

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Joined
Sep 12, 2016
Messages
118
By comparison, my 1957 ES-225t is fresh out of the factory! But it isn't. It's gotten some honest road wear on it, and I had to change the tuning pegs as one day they just crumbled away. I had newer pots on it (see photo), but I've recently replaced them with period correct "top hats." I love this guitar! I almost never plug it in and yet it has a terrific acoustic presence.

Gibson-ES225-4-XL.jpg
 

Frutiger

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Oct 17, 2007
Messages
727
Congrats on your L5. The oldest Gibson archtop I've owned was a 1940 ES250N

That's quite the guitar to just casually drop into a thread Jim! I've always been fascinated with the 250. Never seen one in the wild though.

That's a wonderful looking L-5 57gold! I really like the earlier 16" L-5. Here are my arch tops, both electric: 1949 ES-300N and 1961 ES-5N Switchmaster:

Archtops.jpg
 

JimR56

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Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Messages
588
Gorgeous guitars, Frutiger! Love the flame on the 300 top, and the grain on the Switchmaster is very appealing to the eye too. I hope you got the '61 before any paf bandits got their hands on it.

I used to drop mentions (and photos) of my 250N and numerous other guitars into threads on various guitar forums, but after Photobucket did what they did several years ago, I got discouraged and frustrated with trying to keep all the photos available. I probably should have found a new host site and done a bunch of new uploads, but I was too lazy. I just relied on using the url's from forums that hosted pics. Anyway, here's one location where you can still see several shots of the 250: https://forum.gibson.com/topic/105723-stair-step-headstock-es-250/

More of my past and present Gibsons can be seen here: http://www.epiphoneforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=39

57gold, that Super4 still makes me dream. :) If this was 10 or 20 years ago, I might have already contacted you about possibly trying to make some kind of deal. But I'm realizing that my guitar acquisition days are pretty much fading into the rear view mirror. I don't even play very much any more, and at some point I might have to start thinking about downsizing too.
 
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