Serial number: 97941

Year shipped: 1944

FON:

Headstock: Horizontal ‘Gibson’ script logo with no dot on the ‘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 and large bound f-holes 

Hardware: Gold-plated metal parts including Varitone tailpiece and Kluson #511G tuners (* see Notes below). Long bound pickguard

Notes: A floating Benedetti pickup has been installed

* 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.”

This guitar is one of 17 Sunburst finished Advanced L-5s shipped in 1944

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Pictures courtesy of Francois Charle Guitars