Type Three

The L-5 now has a block-inlaid fingerboard with a square end and 19 frets. Nevertheless, there are a few examples with early 1930s serial numbers and an old-style dot inlaid fingerboard (these appear in the Type Two Gallery). Transition to the horizontal script ‘Gibson’ logo (no ‘The’) took place in the early 1930s and by mid decade the old style ‘The Gibson’ logo had ;largely disappeared.

In August 1935, the L-5 was relaunched with a new Advanced 17-inch body size. Despite this, a number of post 1934 L-5s were shipped with a 16-inch body (see ‘Revised L-5 shipping totals’ for shipping totals).

Please bear in mind that the date assigned to each instrument is based on its Serial Number. This was added just before the instrument was shipped and therefore does NOT necessarily correspond to its date of production. Sometimes production and shipment dates  diverge by as much as four years. A combination of construction features and the FON can be used to pinpoint the actual date of production (for a comprehensive list of Pre-War Gibson FONs, see Spann’s Guide To Gibson by Joseph E. Spann, published by Centerstream).