Serial number: 97940
Year shipped: 1944
FON:
Headstock: Horizontal ‘Gibson’ script logo with no dot above 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 Varitone tailpiece and Kluson #511G tuners (* see Notes below). Rosewood bridge
Notes: Missing pickguard
This guitar is the only Natural finished Advanced L-5s shipped in 1944
* Joe Spann comments: “Production of Kluson #511G tuners is generally agreed to have ceased in the year 1942. Therefore, it would appear that Gibson had previously stockpiled tuners, which were then used to complete guitars just prior to shipping in the year 1944. It was standard Gibson factory practice to wait until an instrument was sold before the tuners, bridge, tailpiece and string nut were installed, so this situation makes perfect sense to me.”
