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Need help dating my possible L-00 Ebony?


Oportunivor

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All,  I have what I’ve been told is a 1965 Ebony Gibson acoustic guitar.  It was given to me by the original owner and has no serial number on it anywhere.  It’s definitely legit and old but wanted to make sure it was a 1965 as I’m seeing some L-00 Ebony’s on Reverb that look exactly like it that say 1930-1945.  I don’t have a picture right now but will post pictures from the Reverb post as my guitar is literally an exact match.

EC6213BA-D16C-4D21-84FB-AD3B1E8A1311.jpeg

A383B6EA-74EA-4E74-8FE2-2217F98B54EC.jpeg

B7C33BC9-BECE-4E3D-B476-1CA87254BD01.jpeg

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Yep. 30's-40's is the ballpark.  One of the great Gibson small bods.  Looks all original, too. You might get lucky and find some identifying numbers up inside where the neck meets the body, but in the meantime soak up the joy in knowing most of those who will read this are green with envy.

What a beauty!  Your friend has given you a great gift, worth a few thousand bucks.

Edited by jedzep
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1 hour ago, jedzep said:

Yep. 30's-40's is the ballpark.  One of the great Gibson small bods.  Looks all original, too. You might get lucky and find some identifying numbers up inside where the neck meets the body, but in the meantime soak up the joy in knowing most of those who will read this are green with envy.

What a beauty!  Your friend has given you a great gift, worth a few thousand bucks.

If you read his post carefully, I don't think this is the guitar. It is a re-post of Reverb photos.

Gibson did not make the L-OO in 1965, so either there is a misunderstanding of the date, or a misidentification of the guitar.

We need pictures of the actual guitar the OP has to figure out what it is.

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Hi Nick.

I think he's saying they are Reverb pics he's using to track down what it is, but I'm figuring the guitar in the photo is the one he has in hand.  Hopefully...for his sake anyway.
 

Guess I have to show mine, which also has the 'downflowing' pick guard pattern.

vcLQahF.jpg

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I appreciate the helpful comments so far.  To clarify this was given to my stepdad by his uncle because “it’s a 1965 and that’s his year of birth” is what we’ve always been told.  My stepdad never played it and told me never to touch it so I played it every time they left the house.  By high school it became “my guitar” and I used it every day.  I had no idea what I had.  I’m 37 now and have never taken the guitar out of my parents house.  Now that I’m 37 I have an Alvarez, Spector bass, Gibson tribute, Gibson Junior and a PRS 24.  I am very excited to inherit this one day and have no intention of selling now that I’m Gibson  obsessed.  I simply want to track down the actual date as there is no serial or any differentiator (aside from as previously mentioned above near the neck joint which I haven’t checked).  I will post pictures of the actual guitar ASAP, when I first saw the Reverb post I swore it was a different headstock but had my mom send me a pic and it’s the same.  The tuners were brown abalone type and crumbled with age so they have been replaced but otherwise, all original.  Looking forward to everyone’s comments once actual pictures are posted and thanks again for the help so far!

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49 minutes ago, jedzep said:

I think this is our life, Z.  A big part anyway. 

 

5 hours ago, zombywoof said:

There is certainly a group of us who live for this kind of stuff.  Lawdy, we need to get a life.

 

 

Frightening, but all true.

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GAS is such a terrible disease, it completely distorts your perception of reality. A guy posts a picture of somebody else's guitar and everybody rushes to congratulate him. And even after  "re-reading 3x",  somebody suffering from GAS doesn't notice the very clear statement in the OP that says "I don’t have a picture right now" because he is so blinded by the pretty pictures!  😂

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  • 5 weeks later...

It looks like it may need a serious clean-up from the photos of the headstock face, but it's hard to judge much else from the photos. Zombywoof may comment on the originality of the tuners, since he is more familiar than most on these.

Any way you look at it, it's a nice guitar. Give us the serial number, and we can probably  pin down the date for you.

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While we wait, over the weekend I was changing  the 6 month old Dunlop 80/20s on my L00, which were oddly still sounding good.  The new set sounded like someone stuffed a towel in the guitar, which freaked me a little.  Was it a dead set thing?  I'll find out when I try them on another guitar this weekend.  The big surprise was when I threw on a set of new/used  D'Addario nickel bronze for temporary use,  which I couldn't take off another guitar (Guild 000) fast enough after I heard the near metallic tone,  they brought me back to the Black Diamond tone I remember from so long ago.  I love them.  It's like an NGD!

The ear wants what the ear wants.

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6 minutes ago, jedzep said:

While we wait, over the weekend I was changing  the 6 month old Dunlop 80/20s on my L00, which were oddly still sounding good.  The new set sounded like someone stuffed a towel in the guitar, which freaked me a little.  Was it a dead set thing?  I'll find out when I try them on another guitar this weekend.  The big surprise was when I threw on a set of new/used  D'Addario nickel bronze for temporary use,  which I couldn't take off another guitar (Guild 000) fast enough after I heard the near metallic tone,  they brought me back to the Black Diamond tone I remember from so long ago.  I love them.  It's like an NGD!

The ear wants what the ear wants.

  Go figure....

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