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L-00 or L-0 What Makes Which Why


jedzep

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It's frustrating to search back into such a noteworthy lineage of great guitars and find nebulous definitions of what makes these two Gibson models deserve different model signatures.

 

This is a crappy pic of my '31 L-0 in amber and the '35 L-00. The only structural difference, beside the fact one is a 12 fretter, seems to be that the top of the L-0's soundhole is positioned 5 inches from where the neck attaches and the burst's is 4 inches away. You can see that it puts the soundhole on the L-0 in line with the 'waistline' of the top versus slightly above. Tone is very different, but then one is mahog and one spruce topped.

 

Hey Tom, is this what Gibson designed to be the difference in the two models?

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Biggest difference here is a 12 fret vs 14, mahogany top vs spruce. The bracing on the 12 fret is probably lighter. Some 12 frets were black, some sunburst, some natural. Some black faced guitars have mahogany tops. Earliest 14 frets had raised fingerboards. L1 had back binding and usually fancier tuners. Some 12 fretters had pickguards glued on and some had raised many had no guards. Then there is the size of the sunburst. Bridges had many subtle changes.

 

Go by features on these guitars not the name. The name seems to cause more confusion.

 

Terry

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Thanks! I guess that soundhole positioning got one more adjustment sometime after '31. Haven't seen another with it dropped down to where mine is once they got into the mid-thirties line. The X had to be replaced after someone wrecked it with home carpentry repairs. My guitar guy used some feather-lite spruce braces and really boosted tone and volume nicely.

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