Serial number 83791

Year shipped: 1928

FON:

Headstock: Diagonal ‘The Gibson’ logo

Neck/fingerboard: 20 fret fingerboard with pointed end, dot inlays from the third fret

Body: Maple back and sides. Master Model label

Hardware: Gold-plated metal parts including wrap-over tailpiece and Waverly three-on-a-strip tuners with engraved baseplate and pearl buttons, mounted so that the cog is positioned below the worm gear. The bridge is inscribed “Jan 18, 21”. 

Notes: Missing the pickguard and fitted with replacement nut. Has been re-fretted and divots in the fingerboard have been filled

“L-5 Serial number 83791 belonged to my dad who got it from his brother in the late 1940’s or early 1950’s,” says the guitar’s owner, Roger Twitchell. “My dad played it at several hundred family parties and events while I was growing up.  In the mid 1930’s, he and his brother opened for and sang with the Sons of the Pioneers in LA till my mom couldn’t stand his being gone every night so they returned to Utah. 

“My dad was killed in an auto accident in 1968 so the guitar sat mostly unused in one of my mom’s closets, except for occasionally being borrowed. Then, in the mid 1990’s my mom gave it to me.  The binding had popped off in several places and one of the tuner stems was bent so I took it to a luthier in Idaho Fall for repair.  I’m 73 and have known this guitar my whole life but am just now interested in playing it and am finding that I love the sound.”

“The rose on the front of the guitar was painted by my aunt after the guitar was hit by a phone that someone threw during a family fight! The damage must be slight because I can find no evidence on either the outside or underside of the top.” 

Images courtesy of: Roger Twitchell of Ogden, Utah