Serial Number 77400

Year shipped: 1925

Virzi Number: 10319

Signed and dated by Lloyd Loar on December 1st 1924

(details listed here refer to the model after its restoration)

Headstock: Diagonal ‘The Gibson’ logo

Neck/fingerboard: Reproduction fingerboard with pointed end and dot inlays from the fifth fret

Body: Maple back and sides, Virzi Tone Producer fitted

Hardware: Silver-plated metal parts including Waverly three-on-a-strip tuners with engraved base plate and pearl buttons, mounted so that the cog is positioned above the worm gear. Short bound pickguard. Original bridge, short bound pickguard and tuners with a replacement pearl nut and period correct reproduction tailpiece made by Jackson Cunningham

Notes: This guitar has been refinished and the treble side of the body, the neck and the fingerboard have been replaced. There are two three-inch cracks on the bass side of the body.

Pictures (above) courtesy of Antiques Roadshow USA

Background

On June 14th, 1997, this L-5 was appraised on the Antiques Roadshow USA by their expert Kerry Keane. According to Mr Keane, it had been refinished, the neck had been reset and some of the binding had been replaced. In addition we noted that it had a non-original truss rod cover and had been fitted with a Vibrola (possibly a modified Kauffman unit).

New neck and fingerboard

The low position of the truss rod cover and absence of a dot on the ‘i’ of Gibson logo indicates that the entire neck may have been replaced at some point. We would suggest that this took place in the late 1920s, since there is no ‘epsilon’ engraving on the ‘flowerpot’. The ‘upside down’ silver-plated, three-on-a-strip tuners with pearl buttons are correct for a Loar-era L-5 and may have been salvaged from the original neck.

Prior to restoration, the guitar had a 20-fret fingerboard with dot inlays from the third fret. Though most examples that we have seen with this feature were shipped in 1930/31, a few appear to have been shipped in the late 1920s.

Restoration

The guitar’s current owner tells us that the treble side of the body had been replaced, the fingerboard had been removed and re-glued or a new fingerboard had been fitted. In addition, some of the binding had been replaced and the nut was not original.

The pictures below show the guitar in the process of restoration