1935 Gibson L-4

The late 1920s/early 1930s L-4 has always been one of my favorite Gibson models, but to the world at large it has always been overshadowed by its fancier siblings the Style 0 and, later, the L-5. The L-4 was introduced in 1911, when it had an oval soundhole, a 12-fret neck where the end of the fretboard was glued to the top. This iteration of the L-4 had a surprisingly soft, mellow sound for a guitar with a 16-inch body, which was huge in its day.  In 1928, Gibson redesigned the guitar, swapping out the oval soundhole for a round one, extending the neck to 14 frets and cantilevering the end of the fretboard over the top, just as they did on the L-5. These changes greatly improved the sound of new L-4, which now had more volume, a brighter, clearer tone while still maintaining its warmth.

Sadly, the world wanted its archtops with f-holes and in 1935 Gibson redesigned the guitar yet again, this time dropping the round soundhole in favor of f-holes. The example here is one of the last production roundhole L-4s Gibson made and it looks to be very nice condition. (For a couple of more years, the round soundhole version was offered as a special order.) Rather annoyingly, it looks like the back was carved from very nice figured maple but Gibson opted to hide it under a uniform dark stain, as per the model specs. Oh, well, that’s Gibson for you. I haven’t played this particular guitar, but every single one I have played has sounded very good and I expect this one does as well. It was recently refretted so it will play very well, too. It’s priced at $3000 and you can find it on the shelf at Gruhn Guitars.