1939 Gibson L-5

[campusfive]

There are various mics on the band, and the guitar is mic'd specifically with a "clip-on" style condenser mic, a DPA4099

Apparently the audio is 50% a line from the output of the board, and 50% the camera mic capturing the FOH sound.

[Burrellesque]

Jonathan,

How does your 1939 L-5N compare to any you have played from say late 40's into the 50's? I think you mentioned a friend of yours had a 1949 L-5? Did much change construction wise, or is it just a matter of a gradual decline of craftsmanship and quality of woods available?

I've just watched the video of you playing a 1952 L-7N at Old Town Picking Parlour (Unfortunately someone had drilled holes in it for control knobs!) What were your thoughts of that guitar and L-7's/L-12's generally?

[campusfive]

My friend has a late 40's L-5 with a rosewood fingerboard, and it was awesome. That said, I played that once well over a year ago, so I don't have a good direct comparison.

The consensus I've heard is that Gibson was making great acoustic archtops until about 1951, or 1952. The post-war L-5's are famous for their punch and volume, but I really can't say if they are substantially different that the 1938-1942 parallel, long scale L-5's. Once Gibson dropped X-bracing and went to 25.5" scale, I'm not sure what would be that different about a 1939 one from a 1946 one. And I've heard the opposite conjecture as well, that the guys simply got better and better at carving the L-5's after the war, until 1951 or 1952, when they changed to make guitars designed to be feedback resistant. But that's just conjecture, and L-5's aren't exactly dime-a-dozen, I so I don't really have a large enough sample size to know.

THAT SAID, some of the post-war ones have rosewood fingerboards, owing to post-war scarcity. So that's one thing that can be different, but it wasn't all post-war L-5's.

I don't really remember that L-7 all that well, so it's hard to say.

But I will tell you any L-7, or L-12 (or L-10) advanced guitar, is likely to be more or less the same as a similar year L-5 except for the fingerboard. I've heard many, many great L-7's and L-12's. The only thing they're missing is the "zing" of an ebony board, but they can still be really fantastic. I've heard conjecture that L-5's are more consistently great than the lower ones because Gibson would put a bit more effort into it if they knew they were making an L-5, but that's mostly just conjecture again.

If you want a really, really great playing and sounding post-war L-7, Westwood Music in LA has one from 1947 or so, with a recent high quality refret, and so it plays fantastic and sounds huge. There should be a video of me demoing it on their youtube channel next week.

[omphalopsychos]

There's a certain dealer that has a beautiful blonde L7 from '47. I called them up thinking I'd be instantly convinced to purchase it, but they actually succeeded in talking me out of it. The dealer said it just didn't have a great voice and was returned twice in the past year. I don't mean to generalize, and the dealer didn't intend to generalize, but I think I'm focusing now on prewar models. The same dealer told me his favorite year for Gibson was 38. He is partial to the 25.5" parallel braced L5s that came out that year (before they all moved to long scale and tone bars). I'm on the hunt for a 39 L7 (L5s are out of my budget) eventually to replace my 37 L7. The 39 L7 is very special to me. In that year they moved to the long scale and tone bars, but they still used the beautiful windowpane inlays.

I've been meaning to head to LA for months now for some L7 hunting. Jonathan, do you ever go to the Hollywood guitar center? I'm sure the traffic is hell to get there, but they have a number of L7s hanging around that I've been curious about. I'd never trust their vintage salespeople's advice, since the one with a refinish is the one most highly priced. Sometimes the cluelessness of the employees turns me off, but it can be a blessing too.