Serial Number: 88325

Year shipped: 1932

FON:

Headstock: Horizontal ‘The Gibson’ logo

Neck/fingerboard: 19 fret fingerboard with pointed end and narrow block inlays from the third fret (see Notes below)

Body: Maple back and sides

Hardware: Gold-plated metal parts including regular tailpiece. Original long bound pickguard and bridge

Notes: Restoration by Thomas Amberger includes several crack repairs, a refret and refinish of the entire guitar. The tuners have been replaced and a strap button added on treble side of heel. Has original hardshell case

Joe Spann (author of Spann’s Guide To Gibson) confirmed that this guitar was re-worked at the Gibson factory in 1936. This explains the narrow fingerboard inlays which are occasionally found on 16-inch L-5s shipped after the introduction of the 17-inch Advanced L-5 in 1935 (see L-5 serial number 91930)

Images courtesy of Laura Bults-van der Linde at The Fellowship of Acoustics