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I spent some time at Carter Vintage Guitars in Nashville (great shop with a great staff) and found the only vintage L-5 I could even come close to affording. Love the blonde finish, the amount of wear was just right to be able to use as a player and not worry about dings, etc. New fret job could use a bit of a luthiers touch but played nice.
But who would carve a classic vintage archtop and place a Gibby Classic '57 pickup in it? (I believe that's what is it is)
Perhaps if the pickup was placed in the neck position, maybe. But in the bridge position? And maybe even a bit toward center. Still, sort of a cool mojo guitar! I'm sure I'll go play it again for fun.
Last edited by Steve Z; 12-04-2015 at 07:24 PM.
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12-04-2015 07:21 PM
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Maybe the same cat who did this??????
Bob
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OMG! Nooooooo! May as well have put a Floyd rose on it too.
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had to be this guy!! hahaha
cheers
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LOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats beautiful!!! LOL!!!! And a Van Epps string damper too!!! Bob
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Ted was my first suspect as well.
That said.. some of this was done back when these were just "old guitars"
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And how did it sound?!
And what if you put a floater DeArmond type on the neck?!
The purists will look askance, so it will probably never be worth a lot of money, but if it works tonewise, and the price is right...
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Strike two !
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Take heart in it that Wes Montgomery did it to his L-5C too but at least had the humbucker placed in a jazz-friendly spot. Perhaps it has a real deal 1957 PAF in it!
That 1957 L-5C is not ruined though. I like the suggestion of wiring in a nice floating Johnny Smith pickup and mixing a little of the bridge in. The bridge humbucker damps the top and gives it that nice electric archtop sound. You could have something there. It could also be patched up with a spruce patch and repaired by a competent luthier to return it to an acoustic archtop. But I'll leave it as it is.
For $2500, worth a punt. No vintage value. For anything more, it has to have something special going on in the tone department. I won't pay more than $3000 for it.
As for who would do something like that to a nice 1957 L-5C, all you have to do is to peer around here...
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I believe the asking price was $7,500.
Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
If it was $2500 I'd be posting about my new guitar
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Maybe just go crazy and toss a Charlie Christian pickup on that blonde '57?
This is pretty cool..,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=xHnbu2m_uYw
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Ouch! Originally Posted by Top of the Arch!
Maybe the same cat who did this?????? Bob
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For $7500 you can find one WITHOUT the holes in it. Perhaps $2000 is for the "real deal PAF" under the hood. What is the other $5500 for? Originally Posted by Steve Z
I believe the asking price was $7,500.
If it was $2500 I'd be posting about my new guitar
Wait a bit. It will come down dramatically when they get tired of it sitting around.
Yeah, as much as the market can bear or there's one born every minute. Pick your way of doing business.
The thing is this: You pay $7500 for this, and then turn it around one week later and try to sell it back to them. You'll find out in a real hurry how much it is really worth to them. They'll probably go, consign it and hope for the next (fill in your own description). There is a philosophy which goes, if everybody pays the asking, nobody loses and everybody goes home happy, safe in the thought that his purchase price is safe because...everybody pays the asking. But that is how Ponzi schemes work...and fail ultimately because there comes a time when nobody pays the asking.Last edited by Jabberwocky; 12-05-2015 at 12:30 AM.
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And with that invasive surgery and "enhancement" this is what it remains essentially, an old guitar with no vintage value. I am all for its preserving its functionality as a jazz archtop guitar but don't go paying a collector's price for what isn't a collector prize. Originally Posted by SamBooka
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That's not a '57 L-5C.
More like '47, eh?Last edited by Hammertone; 12-05-2015 at 03:01 AM.
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I'll double check next time I'm at the shop. I could have remembered wrong after all, I am getting older Originally Posted by Hammertone
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Yes, he's right, you can tell by the script logo that it's a 1940s guitar. Cutaways were scarce then, at least you rarely see them on the market. It's no shock that this one is available.
It really needs to sell for cheap as a project. Remove that pickup, splice in a piece of spruce, refinish the whole thing. Never happen I'm sure.
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Had to be a Grand Ole Opry country western twanger that owned it and butchered it. I can't see a jazzoid doing that sort of thing. Definitely a '40's guitar. I'd go with the floater idea. And I expect it'll hang on the wall for a good long while at that price.
Steve
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I say put in another HB in the neck position and sell it as a L5CES.
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I suggest getting a very professional installation of a set-in neck pick-up with the right wiring and controls and call it a day.
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Gibson made a number of models of archtops with a single pickup in roughly that position. Might even have been a custom order.
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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.
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they won't get $ 7.5 k for it .... ! Originally Posted by rpguitar
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I would pay 3K for it. It is a 40's L-5 P in blond. Those knobs look like early 60's knobs , which indicate that the PUP is likely a PAF. Add a neck PUP or splice some spruce and you may well have a 5K guitar. The only way that guitar is worth 7K is if it belonged to Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix......
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Just add a neck humbucker.
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