Serial number: 97297

Year shipped: 1941 

FON: 4714G

Headstock: Horizontal ‘Gibson’ script logo (lacks a dot over the letter ‘i’)

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, Natural finish and large bound f-holes 

Hardware: Gold-plated metal parts including flat tailpiece engraved with L-5 legend and Grover Imperial tuners. Rosewood bridge and bound pearloid pickguard

Notes: At some point the pickguard has been cut for the installation of a DeArmond pickup. The flat tailpiece engraved with L-5 legend is not something we would expect to see at this point, but it has turned up on guitars of a similar vintage (see L-5 serial numbers 94329 and 94989 (both shipped 1937), 95133 (shipped 1938) and 97521 (shipped 1942). The guitar was returned to Gibson for re-fretting in the late 1970s/early 1980s

This guitar is one of just 9 Natural finished L-5PNs shipped in 1941

“This photo of my dad (above) was taken in taken in Baltimore, MD in 1943 or 1944,” says the guitar’s current owner Michael Blanchard.”The amp atop the piano is his 1942 Epiphone Electar Zephyr. Well-cared for and still works perfectly!” (see image below).  

Images courtesy of Michael Blanchard