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Jabs, nice to see you putting a little bit of your mysterious self out there for us to see. Very cool guitar. Your guitar and the op's guitar are bookends to a very pivotal time in American and world history. Yes the stories that old wood can tell us is extraordinary!
thanks, Joe D
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05-03-2015 02:12 PM
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That's a hard Maple neck.
Jabs L12 has a beautiful blister figure on the back, which is also hard Maple.
What a gorgeous guitar, and it sounds fabulous too.
I have a 1940 with the art deco tail piece like the one in the pics that rpguitars posted.
Congrats on a wonderful instrument which seems to suit you perfectly.
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All these guitars are terrible. I mean, where's the Floyd Rose double locking vibrato? How do you plug them in? :-)
Seriously, some people have very nice guitars. Thanks for putting them up online so I can drool....
(And not have to spend my life in a constant state of worry that they get damaged or nicked ... haha...)
For a long time I was thinking of getting an old acoustic archtop. Sadly prices here are somewhat higher than in the US. Also I have to say owning something like that has a degree of responsibility. I'd probably still be taking an Eastman or something out on gigs.... But yes, it is an investment, you are kind of a custodian.
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So, about the neck... there's a center stripe on mine, so it's a three-piece neck. Weren't the mahogany necks one-piece?
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yours is maple...
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To Jonathan's point, my mahogany necked example did not have a center stripe. The neck was one piece of wood.
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I guess on more general note for Gibsons, aren't the mahogany necks usually one-piece, or am I just hallucinating?
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Gibson mahogany necks are one piece (plus the little wings on either side of the headstock).
That doesn't mean you are not hallucinating.
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Good to know that big pink elephant in the room is really there then....
So, yeah, good to know. Maple neck. Thanks.
I got the guitar set up and bumped it up to 13's. After that swapped the E and B up to 14/18 respectively. It got pretty beefy once I did that, and I'll play it like that for a while, but I may experiment with going back to 12's with a 13/17 combo on top. There's definitely a sweet spot with acoustic archtops where there's the perfect amount of tension on the top, and anything less doesn't drive the top sufficiently, and anything beyond just serves to choke the guitar.
It's been interesting to play around the house. At times, the guitar sounds huge and deep, and at other times it sounds much less so, and I makes me realize how much the acoustics of a room, even at home, go into what one actually sounds like. Still I hadn't had a gig to play it on until Friday. I had a trio gig - guitar/sax/vocal, and it meant I had to carry all the water. Rhythm, intros, chord solos. I used my AT831b clip-on mic, into an Art Tube MP, into a Mackie SRM350.
And it sounded friggin' fantastic. It was so good, I didn't really want to leave the gig. I have a gig with my main band, a 7-piece, so we'll see how it does in that context. I'll again be using the clip-on mic, but I'll direct into the board, and probably have a pair of the SRM350's for monitors.
I have noticed that it does drive me a bit nuts to be without a pickguard. A new, off-the-rack, pickguard arrived from archtop.com: Fine Vintage Instruments Online but I need to get it installed, and I can't really find anybody to do it while I wait. Boo hoo. I'll probably have another pickguard made from the binding of the original guard that I have as well, and I noticed that the shape of the original is a little bit different than Joe's off-the-rack one. Hopefully I can get somebody to do it before the gig tomorrow, but we'll see.
Anyway, here's a little demo of the guitar, doubletracked. Enjoy:
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I got ambitious today, so here's two videos as well.
The first is the chord melody I've been working on for "Ain't Misbehavin'", and the second is a little single note work on "Georgia on My Mind" over a backing track I recorded a while back. Both videos are of the guitar with the beefier E and B strings, and a Blue Chip TD50 pick straight into a Blue Yeti with no post processing. Enjoy.
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Nice! You're livin' the dream and carrying the torch. Well done.
"There's definitely a sweet spot with acoustic archtops where there's the perfect amount of tension on the top, and anything less doesn't drive the top sufficiently, and anything beyond just serves to choke the guitar."
+1 indeed. I use 12-53 80/20 on my acoustics and don't believe in the heavy = better mantra. Then again I'm not swinging rhythm with a band like you are. I get sweeter tone from lighter strings and a somewhat flexible pick.
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Beautiful playing, Jonathan... the new guitar suits your sound perfectly. Congrats!
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I was goofing around with Garageband, and it occurred to me it might interesting to hear a comparison of the L-12 with my Eastman 805. So, here you go.
Here's the description I wrote for it.
A little comparison of my 1935 Gibson L-12 against my 2004 Eastman 805, non-cutaway. The Gibson is playing rhythm, and the leads panned right, whereas the Eastman is panned left.Both guitars are strung with a set of 13 gauge Martin SP 80/20 bronze strings with a 14 on the high E, but the Gibson has an 18 on the B. I tried to keep the mic position as consistent as possible, though I think the Eastman was slightly farther away.
In fairness to the Eastman, the Gibson is a 17" guitar, whereas the Eastman is 16". Both are X-braced.
The Eastman has 10 years of consistent playwear, and has broken in superbly. It's even starting develop some visible finish wear on the neck. It is currently fitted with a celluloid pickguard in the pattern of a 16" Gibson L-7. The L-12 has no pickguard currently, and pickguards do tend to dampen the guitar slightly.
The Gibson is 80 years old, and has so much playwear, the finish on the back of the neck is completely gone.
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Well, the Gibson wins that shoot out, to my ears. It has a thicker, warmer tone, and more punch. But the Eastman is not a bad guitar by any means, and maybe in another 70 years it will sound as good. So, let's do this again in the year 2085!
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So, I received an off-the-rack guard from archtop.com: Fine Vintage Instruments Online, and had it installed. Here's the before and after.
So much better, right? Plus, I feel like my hand is actually in the proper playing position, and you can't put a price on that!
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Looks natural to me. Good find.
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Guh, despite my desire to make the guitar work with heavier strings, at this point, I can tell it's counter productive. I went to 13's, and put a 14/18 pair on top, but it just wasn't really making the guitar sound that much louder, but it was making the guitar feel like it was closing up. The sustain definitely diminished, and while it wasn't terrible, it was definitely not the open, resonant feeling I got when the guitar arrived with 12's.
Originally Posted by rpguitar
So, I threw some 12's on (Martin Marquis 80/20, because that was the only set of 12's I had), with a 13/17 on top, and man, what a difference. The low end was so much more open and full, and the sustain is everything a 30's X-braced Gibson should be - definitely more of that lap piano-vibe. This was really bringing out the magic of the guitar, instead of overwhelming it.
On one-hand, I don't exactly need a lap-piano to play rhythm in a swing band, so there's that, but on the other hand, it's a joy to play, and really brings out the richness and fullness of chord-melody playing. So, I guess that means I'm gonna have to keep looking for yet another guitar... Considering I took a gamble on the guitar, I'm pretty satisfied with it, even if the great purpose is still out there. Perhaps I can find a walnut-back Broadway, or some other super-punchy Epi to cover the other end of the spectrum....
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Oh, and the volume loss going down a gauge was marginal at best. Totally worth it.
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Oh that is WONDERFUL! Now... when you cutting into the top for an EMG pickup?
PLEASE know I am kidding.
...about the cutting part. The ole Gibby is without question wonderful!
I am putting my house on the market to move out west. We should do pretty well. MAYBE.... I will see if I can sneak a few grand for a beauty like that! haha. I say that in my never-happen voice. Two guitars and an amp in one year I think is already pressing my luck. haha.
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My experience has been that good pre-war Deluxe (carved maple back plate), Broadway (carved walnut back plate) or Triumph (carved maple back plate) will certainly get you the punch and volume.
Another approach is to find a 17" acoustic Gibson archtop with a 25 1/2" scale and parallel bracing, such as:
- late-1930s/early 1940s/wartime L-7
- post-war L-7 / L-12 - these had script logos up until sometime in 1947.Last edited by Hammertone; 05-22-2015 at 03:16 PM.
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I am in the process of getting a 1935 Gibson L-12. The number on the label inside the body is 92507. I can't find that in any of the sources I checked. Any guesses why that is supposed to be a 1935? I thought they had a letter prefix at that point.
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You're probably thinking of the factory order number
As for your serial number
1934 92300
1935 92800
1936 94100
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Thanks. How were you able to find this out? I am applying for a CITES permit to get this guitar across the border so it would be good if I could cite a source for CITES.
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A '35 L-12 would have both a serial number on the label and a FON (factory order number) stamped or partially written that usually can be viewed looking through the treble side f-hole.
In the Gibson shipping ledgers at that time, instruments that were labeled had the serial number listed in the ledgers.
Those without labels....usually "lower tier" models would be listed by FON.
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