Who would do this to a '57 Gibson L-5?

[SamBooka]

There were no humbuckers til 1957, so it wasn't one of those. Plus the knobs are in the wrong spot. It's an aftermarket hack.

Yep..aftermaket since the knobs are early 60s.. that said it COULD be a PAF in there or even an early Patent No. (both are fine in my books but one is worth considerably more).

If it was done by gibson I dont know if I would consider it a hack

[docbop]

Looks like an Eddie Van Halen project that he gave up on before painting and adding stripes.

[callouscallus]

Well I bought a 1957 L7C that had dual humbuckers put in. It was done to "turn it into" a l5 CES. I LOVE my guitar. That beings said, expect to pay a lot less for a guitar that's been messed with. Not sure if the bridge pickup on the L5 is placed in the normal spot, but if it was its an easy decision to add a neck hum bucker.

[vinlander]

The bridge pickup seems routed half an inch away from a regular bridge position; I doubt it would have been Gibson doing that. Since the guitar is already compromised vintage wise, I would simply route a additional humbucker in the neck position and move the PAF there if its one, or leave there and put an unpotted Seth Lover at the neck.

[callouscallus]

Here's my 57' L7c conversion, THE HORROR!:

Honestly tho, it is night and day with my L5 wes, the wes is way more over built with a completely different tone.

[rpguitar]

CC, your conversion is a completely different animal. It was clearly done right, with components in the correct places, as you said to "turn it into" a CES.

It is the pickup placement on that L-5 that makes it so awful. It's modified AND useless for a jazz guitarist as it stands.

[callouscallus]

thanks RP, i guess i just needed an excuse to post it!

[rpguitar]

It's actually pretty damn cool. Would love to have a go at it.

[skykomishone]

That is a pretty damn cool conversion. The blond though, sad, and I didn't mean any offense to twangers or Grande Ol' Opry folks, but I've just never been into those Bigsby's either.

[GNAPPI]

Putting things in perspective...


In 1968 when the guitar wasn't a collectable and if I had it and wanted an L5 with a pup and couldn't afford it, I'd have cut that hole in a second. It would have been a LOT cheaper than a new one.

Also, whoever did it didn't give a hoot about us some 60 years later, he's probably already dead :-)

[Steve Z]

Putting things in perspective...


In 1968 when the guitar wasn't a collectable and if I had it and wanted an L5 with a pup and couldn't afford it, I'd have cut that hole in a second. It would have been a LOT cheaper than a new one.

Also, whoever did it didn't give a hoot about us some 60 years later, he's probably already dead :-)

I have no problem with installing s humbucker... It's the poor job not properly placing the pickup.

[Cunamara]

Well, except that Gibson sold several models of archtops with the pickup in that position as documented in the Gibson Archtop Guitars book from a few decades back, mostly in the late 40s-early 50s. Could have been a factory deal.

[rpguitar]

Sorry to refute and say this again, but no... The humbucking pickup did not even exist until 1957. That is a humbucking pickup and the guitar is from the late 1940s. So it was not an original feature of the guitar. Moreover, despite the few wacky bridge and slanted pickup models that they produced such as the ES-300, Gibson never produced an L-5 with a single bridge pickup, or any carved guitar for that matter. Finally, the knobs are from the 1960s, and they are not installed in the correct alignment.

The work was done by "some guy" who most of us think was a doofus, some fifty years later.

[Jonathan0996]

Ted was my first suspect as well.
That said.. some of this was done back when these were just "old guitars"

Yeah, a lot of crazy things happened with 50s and 60s guitars before they became "vintage."

I always smile when i see a '70s Gibson or Fender guitar advertised as vintage. I suppose they are, but I recall when all the players who were used to the pre-CBS Fenders and the pre-Norlin Gibsons thought the 70s models sucked.

[Jabberwocky]

Yeah, a lot of crazy things happened with 50s and 60s guitars before they became "vintage."

I always smile when i see a '70s Gibson or Fender guitar advertised as vintage. I suppose they are, but I recall when all the players who were used to the pre-CBS Fenders and the pre-Norlin Gibsons thought the 70s models sucked.

I grew up in the 70s. I remember reading regularly in Guitar Player that the 70s Fenders and Gibsons sucked.

[Cunamara]

I grew up in the 70s. I remember reading regularly in Guitar Player that the 70s Fenders and Gibsons sucked.

Yep... and then they got better and the 80s Fenders and Gibsons sucked. Then those got better and the 90s Fenders and Gibsons sucked. Then those got better and the 00s Fenders and Gibsons sucked. Then...

We have a knee jerk tendency in the guitar opinionocracy that the past is good and the present is bad. Let ten years pass and those things are magically better. The reality of course, is that there are a few "magically good" instruments produced in every decade, a lot of average ones and a few stinkers. In blind testing few people, if any, can hear the differences they claim to hear when the know which is which beforehand.

[GNAPPI]

Well, except that Gibson sold several models of archtops with the pickup in that position as documented in the Gibson Archtop Guitars book from a few decades back, mostly in the late 40s-early 50s. Could have been a factory deal.

Yup, like the ES-225 not in the neck or bridge: