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Help identifying vintage Gibson parlour guitar


OleF

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Hi folks,

I have just bought this great vintage Gibson parlour guitar on the used market here in Europe.

The seller had the guitar advertised as a certain model, but I have my doubts whether he is correct regarding the model.

I would rather not tell you what the two different opinions of me and the seller are, I would rather here what the expertise here at the forum has to say about the topics.

I would like to mention that I am very happy with the guitar and that there is no dispute between me and the seller regarding this. I would just like to be more certain about what this is.

It is a great little guitar with huge volume and very nice voice. Its condition is excellent, no repairs or issues as far as I can see.

There is no indication of model name on it, and there is no serial number or FON anywhere to be seen.

There is no truss rod cover as you can see.

 

I am looking forward to your responses,

 

regards,

OleF

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L0 or L00 12 fretter. Pretty much the same guitar. Very nice. The back binding would indicate post 1937, if it's an oldie. Gibson doesn't make a true parlour size, but close enough.

 

You'll probably find some ID numbers by looking inside up where the neck attaches to the bod, called the neck block. Mirror and flashlight to look up in.

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Is that a non-compensated saddle? Wouldn't that + 12-frets = an HG-00 conversion? Were there 12-fret L-00's made this late?

If the saddle is straight, it's likely an HG-0. The photos are too muddy on my browser to let me see them clearly, so I'm pretty much replying blind.

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Hi and thanks for the responses.

The discussion has already touched the heart of the matter.

The guitar was listed as a 1932 L-00 and the seller has believed this to be the case since he bought it.

The guitar has 12-frets to the body, bound back, sunburst and pickguard.

 

I checked in the book "Gibson's Fabulous Flat-top Guitars" by Whitford , Vinopal et al. There is a table on page 31 where it says "this chart is intended to help in the confusing and often impossible task of identifying the L-0,L-1 and L-00 models". If I understand this correctly , this means that the chart is not always 100 correct.

 

anyway, according to the chart:

Sunburst L-00 would have implied 14 frets to the body.

Sunburst L-1 would have implied no pickguard

Sunburst HG-00 (1937-1945) on the other hand has 12 frets, bound back and pickguard.

HG-00 also has heavier braces and straight saddle, as you have pointed out.

I am not in a position to say whether the braces are heavy or not, I do not have a L-00 to compare with. The saddle is compensated, but that could be non-original.

The neck is very big by my standard and has what I would call V-shape. I have no problem imagining this guitar with hawaiian set-up.

 

As far as I understand , converting a HG-00 to normal guitar playing only meant changing the nut and possibly the saddle.

I have seen the pictures of several HG-00 on sale at the vintage shops and they seem very similar to me.

 

From this I am pretty confident that I am the happy owner of a 1937-1945 HG-00.

 

Anything else I should check to be more certain?

 

OleF

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I have looked inside. There is some indication of some writing in a dark colour in the middle of the block but it is too faded to be read. Then it says 11 in read colour beneath.

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I have a 1936-7 HG-00 conversion and it looks exactly like that except mine has no binding on the back.

 

Look really closely at the bridge. Mine is the original bridge but it has been re-slotted to be compensated. They did such a good job it was very tricky to see.

 

The numbers are going to date it for certain, but my understanding is that the 12-fretted L-00s were only made until 1934is and the sunburst on yours is too big to be that early. Even with the murky photos, I can tell that sunburst is the same as mine.

 

I am not any kind of guitar expert - this is literally the only guitar I know anything about, but I can spot one at 20 paces. That is a late 30s HG-OO IMO.

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