1930s Gibson L-10

**Jabberwocky** · 06-21-2015, 04:06 AM

Reading about wintermoon's, rpguitar's and campusfive's love for the 20s and 30s Gibson 16" L-5s and L-12s brought a lump to my throat (no, it is not cancer).

The 30s Gibson L-10 seems to be the forgotten man in this narrative. It looks like a relative bargain compared to what dealers are asking for the L-5s. Could this be the "poor" man's L-5?

Any thoughts?

**Hammertone** · 06-21-2015, 04:18 AM

There were four members of this happy family - the 16" L-7, L-10, L-12 and L-5, with minor differences in trim between them. They were all converted to the advanced 17" body. The Advanced L-10 is simply the rarest of the Advanced bunch. There's a really nice one here as well:
1936 Gibson L-10 ? Olde Town Pickin' Parlor

Functionally they are all the same except that some of them have either mahogany or maple necks, which is easy enough to determine. L-7, L10 and L-12 guitars all sell in the same ballpark. L-5 models sell for more.

Gibson discontinued the L-10 before the war, then merged L-12 and L-7 features to make the L-12 into nothing more than an L-7 with gold-plated parts before logically discontinuing it, leaving a simpler product line - blinged-out L-5 and austere L-7. This made sense. They did the same thing to differentiate the S-400 and S-300, as well as the ES-5 and ES-350.

**rpguitar** · 06-21-2015, 07:08 AM

Exactly... it's just the rarest AFAIC, and perhaps the most unique aesthetically. To me it's neat how all four of those models interplay in terms of visual features. None are especially plain looking, and it's not as if the L-5 of a particular era is always the fanciest looking. That changed a bit as soon as the L-7 and L-12 both got parallelograms. But before that, the inlays and tailpieces had some cool designs indicative of the art deco era.

**Hammertone** · 06-21-2015, 01:11 PM

If I didn't already have a nice Advanced, short-scale, x-braced Gibson, or was into collecting these models, I'd probably buy the one at Olde Town. I've talked to the owner about it (it's a personal guitar that he's had for years).

**Stringswinger** · 06-21-2015, 01:29 PM

With Epis and DA's, the only difference between their 4 Pro level 17 inch archtops are cosmetic.

With Gibson, there is a material difference, the fingerboard. Gibson used ebony on the L-5 fingerboard, Brazilian Rosewood on the other three. Epi used Brazilian Rosewood on all four, D'Angelico used Ebony on all four.

That said, I have played L-7's that I like better than some L-5's.

**Jabberwocky** · 06-21-2015, 02:46 PM

This is the one I got from Archtops West: 1937 Gibson L-10 .

Good as a player.

P.S. Paid under $2000 for it as it is...oh well, read the description.

**Eddie Lang** · 06-21-2015, 03:02 PM

Congrats, Jab!

**Jabberwocky** · 06-21-2015, 03:06 PM

Originally Posted by Eddie Lang

Congrats, Jab!

Thank you but I can't do it justice...I have had it since 2011. It is not on hold.

destinytot · 06-21-2015, 04:29 PM

I'm drooling over it.

**Eddie Lang** · 06-22-2015, 12:42 AM

Originally Posted by Jabberwocky

Thank you but I can't do it justice...I have had it since 2011. It is not on hold.

Belated congratulations then!

This is a very nice guitar.

Intermountain Guitar & Banjo have had one up for sale for at least three years if not more, but they ask almost $1K more than the one at Olde Town.

L-10 | Intermountain Guitar & Banjo

And what about love for the pre-Advanced 16" parallel braced black L-10? I'd love to have one of those one day. Three or four years ago, I saw around 10 or 12 of them for sale in the course of a single year (Bernunzio, Elderly, Gryphon, Archtop.com, eBay, etc.), early ones with the dot inlays and others with the "picture frame" inlays. Since then, not one!

**fws6** · 06-22-2015, 03:40 AM

Id love to find one like that, mid 30s xbraced L10 or 12.

**campusfive** · 06-22-2015, 05:08 PM

I just dropped by TR Crandall, who has three 16" L10's. I played two of the three, and they sounded fantastic! Too bad, they're basically charging L-5 prices. Great shop, though.

**campusfive** · 06-22-2015, 05:27 PM

I don't think I could pay L-5 prices for an all-black guitar. It's just not my thing.

Some prefer blondes, some brunettes...etc.

**wintermoon** · 06-22-2015, 05:29 PM

I took a look @ the three L-10's

10K, 15K? good luck w/that....

**Hammertone** · 06-22-2015, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by wintermoon

I took a look @ the three L-10's
10K, 15K? good luck w/that....

Only $3,999 for the '34!

**Jabberwocky** · 06-23-2015, 03:45 AM

Originally Posted by campusfive

I just dropped by TR Crandall, who has three 16" L10's. I played two of the three, and they sounded fantastic! Too bad, they're basically charging L-5 prices. Great shop, though.

Those Nooo Yawk prices are pretty eye-blearing. You got to be a rich "poor" man to afford an L-10.

I just felt like I got a smashing deal on my 1937 boogered-up L-10! Did I mention that I paid under <$2000 for it?

campusfive, may i ask respectfully if the 1934 L-10 was one of the two that you played at TR Crandall's?