Serial Number: 93079
Year Shipped: 1936
FON: 554B-6
Headstock: Horizontal ‘Gibson’ script logo
Neck/fingerboard: 20 fret fingerboard with pointed end and narrow block inlays from the first fret. Wide neck heel
Body: 17-inch body with maple back and sides and small unbound f-holes
Hardware: Gold-plated metal parts including flat tailpiece engraved with ‘L-5’ legend. Long bound pickguard
Notes: Tuners and bridge are replacements and a strap button has been installed at the heel. Fitted with a nickel-plated DeArmond Rhythm Chief Model 1000 pickup, which is dated July 13th, 1966
Images above courtesy of Glen Johnson
Records indicate that the guitar was sold by Skinner Auctioneers (incorrectly dated as a 1935 L-5) for $6,463 in 2002.
Joe Spann adds: “Gibson L-5 (serial #93079) is listed in the factory shipping ledgers as an ‘L-5 Special’. It was shipped three times.
It was taken out on 10 April 1936 as a ‘salesman’s sample’ by factory rep George Post along with an identical L-5 (serial #93080).
Evidently Post was not able to sell either guitar and on 14th May 1936 both guitars were shipped to the New York Band Instrument Company in ‘shopworn #606’ cases.
Within a few weeks the New York Band Instrument Company returned the guitar (#93079) to the factory.
Finally, on 25 August 1936 it was re-shipped to the New York Band Instrument Company, where it evidently sold.”
Evidence suggests that the guitar was refinished at the factory early in its life and this may have been done during one of its trips back to the factory before its final sale.
This guitar is one of 152 Advanced L-5s shipped in 1936
Images courtesy of George Gruhn of Gruhn Guitars