Gibson L-50, Black Special 1937, converted into ES-150 CC

[Fred Archtop]

Dear fellow guitarists

This is a special one. A Gibson '37 L50, Black Special series. She has been equipped by a Charlie Christian pick up by Daniel Slaman, the Dutch luthier. The pics are from Daniel himself. He spotted the guitar and decided to convert her ; then I've jumped on that immediately.



For those of you interested in prewar Gibsons, you may know that Gibson produced a first series of ten L50 Black Special equipped with the very first CC PU in 1936/1937 as a kind of demonstration project. Then, having judged these guitars positively, Gibson decided to launch their production and released for real the famous ES 150 CC.

So this guitar is very much equivalent to the very first electric guitars ever produced by Gibson. For a CC addict guitarist like me, it's a dream-come-true guitar.

She plays like a dream, very well balanced throughout the fretboard. She is very clean, kinda "under the bed" instrument. I feel that she is more acoustically resonant than my original '38 ES 150.

Soon a demo of her in my YouTube channel.

Cheers.

[mr. beaumont]

Oh man, that gets my wallet warm. Very cool.

[Max405]

Wow That's nice Fred.
I could hear it Just by looking at it.
Probably at this point, a one of a kind. Beautiful.

Thanks, Joe D

[citizenk74]

Congratulations on an outstanding instrument, and play it in good health!

[pubylakeg]

Congratulations, now that's a guitar. What a beauty....

[icr]

Does it look as if he re-set the neck to lower the fingerboard or did that L50 have a fingerboard glued to the top before the conversion? It looks awesome, just like the real deal!

The A.R Dunhossier book on early Gibsons does not mention early black 150s, but it the book may not be the best reference.

Either way, this black guitar and the other thread on black guitars got me thinking of an L50 I saw with chunks of wood missing from the top and an L7 I saw with two humbucker holes--black to cover the repair.

[zizala]

Interesting and well thought out conversion.
And then of course it an old black finished Gibson archtop.....whats not to like?

Though they were almost the same instrument as the 16" L-50 of the day, these were actually cataloged at that time as "Black Special #4". They were a bit more austere and finished in black no doubt to allow them to be offered as budget additions to their lower tier archtop line.

I believe most if not all of these had flat ladder braced maple backs and carved spruce tops with 2 kerfed longitudinal braces. Some of the earlier examples lacked back binding.
I've never seen a Black Special with an elevated fingerboard extension.

I once had a '39 Black Special and it was a very good sounding acoustic.....I'm not surprised that yours retains some decent acoustic sound even with the new hardware attached.

I'm wondering if some rearrangement of the braces was necessary to allow for the pickup?

I'd be happy to do a ledger search, if you can read an FON...(look in the treble side f-hole)

[Fred Archtop]

Dear all,

Thanks for sharing my enthousiasm.

I believe most if not all of these had flat ladder braced maple backs and carved spruce tops with 2 kerfed longitudinal braces. Some of the earlier examples lacked back binding.
I've never seen a Black Special with an elevated fingerboard extension.

Tha's exactly how it is. I suspect the little difference I hear in the resonance with my original '38 ES 150 could come from the bracing (parallel vs. X).

Except for the hole for the CC PU, everything is original. To answer to ICR, Daniel hasn't changed the structure of the fingerboard.

I've asked Daniel if he has reinforced the tabletop where he's cut the wood for placing the CC PU. He's answered me that it is not necessary because Gibson tabletops are particularly thick and sturdy in this area.

FON is # 608 C 37 (1937).

There is also a nice vintage Geib tweed stripe case to protect her.

Cheers.

[yebdox]

A Slaman is on my Jones list! Especially one of the blonde 17" (250?) with light aging. A time machine and cheaper than a Porsche!

[Greentone]

That L50 came with the neck on the top. I have one like it. They are quite nice. All they need is that pickup and BAM!

Congratulations.

[Fred Archtop]

Wow !!!!
Thanks a million Zizala for the birth certificate ! I appreciate very much.

Cheers

[Fred Archtop]

A Slaman is on my Jones list! Especially one of the blonde 17" (250?) with light aging. A time machine and cheaper than a Porsche!

Wise man. Daniel's ES250 are incredibly good guitars. If I could buy a Porsche I would buy guitars instead.

[campusfive]

Yeah, being able to see the shipping ledger and see one's guitar on it is so unbelievably awesome.

My ES-150 shipped 8/12/37 to Arkansas.

[Kelly77]

Can't wait to hear it....your CC videos are, well, absolutely excellent! Thanks for sharing!

[icr]

Where are the numbers located on your guitars that match the ledger? The only markings I found on mine seem to be measurements. Maybe they are real faint, somewhere else??

[Fred Archtop]

Where are the numbers located on your guitars that match the ledger? The only markings I found on mine seem to be measurements. Maybe they are real faint, somewhere else??

Treble side, visible from the f-hole.

[icr]

Treble side, visible from the f-hole.

Ok, in that case any marks on my L50 are now long gone. The back was stripped and sanded on both sides to remove all the old glue. I found this image from right after the back was removed, but can't make out any identifying marks.

[Fred Archtop]

Dear jazz guitarists,

Here is a demo of this very special guitar.

Cheers.

[Garnoth]

That is some sweet tone! I have a ES-125 and you can really hear that special 'thing' that a CC pickup has over a P90 in your clip, I find it hard to put into words. What an incredible guitar!

[ThatRhythmMan]

Thanks for posting that clip. Sounds incredible!

[bananafist]

Daniel has two more old Gibsons he is restoring and installing CC pickups in. Photos etc, on his website. Check it out.

[MikeTT]

That brings a restoration project of Matt Artinger to my memory, a reworked L50:

[Fred Archtop]

Daniel has two more old Gibsons he is restoring and installing CC pickups in. Photos etc, on his website. Check it out.

Yes, he has a sunburst L-50 mounted with a CC floating PU available now. I've tried it last week. Cannon guitar, maybe more acoustic than electric in the spirit, but a very good guitar at a good price.

He also has a Gibson L-30 on the way, but its belly was just ripped when I visited Daniel's workshop last week. He is restoring it thoroughly.

I've also tried his own new guitars he has produced over the last year. His Alvino Rey model, basically an ES 250 with 2 CC units made a laaaaaaaaaaasting impression to my ears. What a guitar!

Best.

[Dennis D]

Here's the ledger info....

Would my plain vanilla L-7 s/n 93289 show up ? My receipt mentioned ' fon 633B 23 ' . ( ? )

Appreciate any info you can find the time to provide.

Thanks.

[icr]

Dear jazz guitarists,

Here is a demo of this very special guitar.

Cheers.

Thanks for posting that demo. Do you know which pickup he put in that? I could not help but listen to these one after another to see how they sound. Amp settings probably different. I used a EH-125, which amp are you using?
Again, thanks for posting that and all the other videos of you amazing guitar collection. I track down your videos whenever I need a 'tonal reference' for some guitar I might be interested in.