Intended to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Gibson L-5, this feature by Paul Alcantara appeared in Fretboard Journal issue 53. To subscribe to Fretboard Journal, click here.
By Paul Alcantara A question that we are often asked is: “Does the ‘L’ in L-5 stand for Loar”? That’s an easy one to answer. Gibson was using the ‘L’ prefix for…
by Lynn Wheelwright and Paul Alcantara Just as Leo Fender’s plank-like Telecaster prompted Gibson President Ted McCarty to initiate the development of the Les Paul solidbody in the early 1950s, so another…
Almost all 16-inch Gibson L-5s have a narrow, pointed neck heel as do the earliest 17-inch Advanced models. By late 1935/early 1936 this was replaced by a wide heel with rounded shoulders,…
By Paul Alcantara Some of the Gibson 17-inch archtops and Super 400s shipped between 1935 and 1940 have a fractional number handwritten on their interior label (usually on the lower left-hand corner). Examples…
The Patent diagram for Gibson’s first truss rod often leaves today’s luthiers scratching their heads, as it seems to have been installed incorrectly! Roger Siminoff – historian and author of The life and…
A question often asked by vintage archtop guitar enthusiasts is: “When did Gibson abandon its tastefully understated dot fingerboard inlays in favour of a series of large pearl blocks?” Below, we attempt…
The ukulele was first named as such on the island of Hawaii in the late 19th century, but it had developed from small Portuguese instruments including the Machete de Rajão, the Machete…
By Paul Alcantara If Gibson – and later Epiphone – provided the archtop guitars favoured by most pre-war American jazz musicians, then the Selmer company, initially under the guidance of Italian luthier…
With many thanks to Felix Wiedler for his help with this feature. Introduced in 1931, the De Luxe was the flagship model of Epiphone’s new ‘Masterbilt’ line. With its 16 3/8-inch wide…