Gibson L-5 Education

[bluejaybill]

This is a really helpful thread. Much appreciated.

Thoughts on the closest thing to a short-scale L-5? I love the tone and aesthetics but the 25.5" doesn't work well for me. Nor do narrow necks as I play exclusively (and poorly) with natural nails.

I recently purchased a very nice ES-165 from another forum member that sounds cool and is sooo easy to play but have always felt the call of the tone/size/look/carved top and history of the L-5.

I'm years deep in M.Campellone's list so someday a custom will be an option but it doesn't seem like there are many 17"ers with a short scale (and preferably a wider neck). And no Gibsons?

It sounds like you would prefer a 25" scale with a 1 3/4" width at the nut. Most 17" guitars follow the Gibson 25 1/2" scale and slightly slimmer neck.

If you look around you might find that configuration, and yes Mark Campellone makes that size neck, which is the size that I ordered. Also I believe that Johnnie Smith's were that neck size, worth looking into.

[brownheron]

It sounds like you would prefer a 25" scale with a 1 3/4" width at the nut. Most 17" guitars follow the Gibson 25 1/2" scale and slightly slimmer neck.

If you look around you might find that configuration, and yes Mark Campellone makes that size neck, which is the size that I ordered. Also I believe that Johnnie Smith's were that neck size, worth looking into.

Even better would be less than 25"... Mark let me know he's only built one 17"er with his 24.6" scale (many 16"ers). I know next to nothing about guitar construction but my guess is it creates an undesirable trade-off somewhere. Or maybe I'm just an outlier in what I like.

I can deal with a 1 11/16" nut width, but the scale length is tougher and exacerbated by increasing arthritis in my left thumb which is a bummer.

I have an LHT Cadenza which is 25/1.75 but it's a whole 'nother thing compared to vintage Gibsons.

Appreciate your response and will add the Johnny Smith to the search list. Apologies for the thread drift.

[pawlowski6132]

FWIW, this also has ebony fb

Gibson L5 C 1951 - Sunburst | Reverb

[Hammertone]

Even better would be less than 25"... Mark let me know he's only built one 17"er with his 24.6" scale (many 16"ers). I know next to nothing about guitar construction but my guess is it creates an undesirable trade-off somewhere. Or maybe I'm just an outlier in what I like.
I can deal with a 1 11/16" nut width, but the scale length is tougher and exacerbated by increasing arthritis in my left thumb which is a bummer.
I have an LHT Cadenza which is 25/1.75 but it's a whole 'nother thing compared to vintage Gibsons.
Appreciate your response and will add the Johnny Smith to the search list. Apologies for the thread drift.

There are no undesirable tradeoffs when using an @24 3/4" scale with a @17" archtop. There are a few thousand excellent fully carved archtops out there with those scale length and body width specifications. Many of them look like this:

[ksihlanick]

This is what I've got for L-5's. Each one is a different era and a different feel, too.

The 1947 is cool because it has a cutaway and a Dearmond pickup. I like to play it with both a microphone mounted on it, as well as the Dearmond plugged into an amplifier. I'll play rhythm guitar with just the mic, but I have the electric guitar sound there in case I need/want it. There's a thumb wheel volume knob under the pickguard. It also makes it easy to boost my volume if needed. Acoustically it just feels very precise. It does-the-thing and does it very well, though perhaps not as much character as the other two, but sometimes that's more what you need anyway. I play this guitar on the majority of my guitar gigs, mostly swing bands and trad jazz bands.

The 1931 is basically the best guitar I've ever played. You can change your attack, pick, strings, right and left hand technique etc, and get a huge variety of sounds out of it, it has a rich full sound that somehow still cuts and projects well, it has both brightness and bass, it has a natural sort of reverb, and I don't really know how it all happens. It's cool. My pal Jonathan Stout (Campus Five) is playing it in this video .

The 1938 is interesting. Gibson switched to X bracing with the advent of the 17in body size, but still made some parallel braced ones intermittently and seem to have switched back to all parallel by 1939 or so. My 1938 is parallel. The top shape is not quite as steep of an arch as some 1939's I've seen though, so it may have a mix of features somehow. Anyway, of L-5's I've known, if there were a spectrum with an X braced L-5 on one end, and Campus Five's fire breathing rhythm monster at the other end, my 38 is kind of in the middle. Clearly louder than the cutaway 47, a bit brighter, but not as driving as some 39ish L-5s. Still a great big band guitar, and perhaps more versatile than some.

I have other guitars, but I don't know really know why.