Here’s a fun/big project I’ve been working on lately. This one was hanging out by the humidifier for a few months, and everyone who came through the shop asked about it!
Here is a 1930 Gibson L4 Special, purchased by my customer from @normansrareguitars and believed to be a prototype of sorts from that year.
It’s been resprayed at one point, an old crack that had opened up, and the owner wanted to do some cool other stuff with it- Replace the old cracked fretboard with a new one w/ real pearl inlays, fix the cracks in the top, fit a nice new ebony bridge, do a neck reset, new tuners, and install a new pickguard…
So far I’ve repaired one of the top cracks, started fitting the new bridge, removed the old bindings, removed the fretboard, and today I succeeded in finally getting the neck off. (Gibsons are fighters)
A lot more work to go one this one but I’m excited to update this older archtop with some nice finishings and a modern playability. Been watching a lot of car show lately, so this is my ‘resto-mod’- keeping it true to the original guitar but sprucing it up a bit for the next century.