(UK) Help trying to find my old 1989 L-4CESN with P90s!

[L5guy]

Hi - just an off-chance that someone might know where a natural finish 1989 L-4CES I once owned is now. It's an unusual guitar as I replaced the humbuckers with Seymour Duncan alnico staple pickups that were subsequently replaced with P90's by another owner. Not many P90 L-4's around... it also has a repaired crack on the lower F hole. I bought the guitar new from A1 music in Manchester in July 1991. It didn't come with a fitted Gibson case, they supplied an ill fitting no name case, so my then guitar teacher Adrian Ingram swapped it for a late 50's Lifton case. I used this guitar for years until around 2010 when I wanted an archtop with single coil pickups - thus the conversion to Seymour staples.

I believe it was sold to a guy in East Anglia (Norwich? or Great Yarmouth?) - if anyone knows who this might be, I'd be most interested.

Thanks in advance!

[andrew]

Wow, nice looking guitar. Good luck in the hunt!

Wasn't Seymour Staples' Mavis' brother?

[Cunamara]

A local Craigslist ad a few years ago for a Gibson archtop with staples described them as "the velvet hammers of the guitar world." Good luck with the search!

[GuyBoden]

Hi - just an off-chance that someone might know where a natural finish 1989 L-4CES I once owned is now. It's an unusual guitar as I replaced the humbuckers with Seymour Duncan alnico staple pickups that were subsequently replaced with P90's by another owner. Not many P90 L-4's around... it also has a repaired crack on the lower F hole. I bought the guitar new from A1 music in Manchester in July 1991. It didn't come with a fitted Gibson case, they supplied an ill fitting no name case, so my then guitar teacher Adrian Ingram swapped it for a late 50's Lifton case. I used this guitar for years until around 2010 when I wanted an archtop with single coil pickups - thus the conversion to Seymour staples.

I believe it was sold to a guy in East Anglia (Norwich? or Great Yarmouth?) - if anyone knows who this might be, I'd be most interested.

Thanks in advance!

Sorry, Franz. I tried reformatting the photos and it all started mucking up. So, I deleted the post thinking that you may not have read it yet.

OK, I will pull up the pictures and post them again just so that your reply makes sense to the reader.

Sorry for the cockup.

My original post read:

This your bird, Franz?


Before conversion:

That's the one!! Except now it's got black P90s. And, I recognise the ( non-original but nice) wooden bridge; I have it in the case. It was feebayed with a best offer thing - so I made one.

Apparently this guitar was, er, converted by a rockabilly player in the north of England with those SD staples, and then sold to my seller, who wasn't a guitar expert and wasn't sure what had been done to it. I bought it intending to restore it with over-sized ebony HB rings, as I have a nice pair of T tops available.

As detailed in the 'staples' thread, I tried the staples briefly but they were def not for me. But the big surprise is how well the guitar suits P90s. After refretting with 149 wire last week, it is a killer player and is as fat on the top as any HB guitar I possess. The SD staples were snapped up by a forum member, so that helped with the cost.

So, although the P90 idea was not the original intention, and it looks right with HB's, I'm inclined to stay with the P90s, at least for now. I have been getting comments about 'warm sound' that are nice to hear.

Incidentally, since i suspect you know something about this guitar Jab, it came with a case that is a real piece of 1950's ( I guess) history.

Edit - this in response to pix of the L4 in question, which seem to have now mysteriously disappeared..

The guitar was mentioned in a thread in 2014 by "Franz 1997", see posts 20, 21, 22, 23 see link below:
Gibson L-4 - Mahogany or Maple Back?

[Franz 1997]

Yes, I owned this around 10 years ago, and Steven the original owner has already been in touch about it. As he says above, we think it was sold ( by me) to a player in the east of England. It's pretty unique-looking, and has two other unusual features, so should be easy to identify if the current owner sees any of these messages.