help me figure out how much my guitar is worth.

[Azucca]

my grandpa gave me a old gibson acoustic. He says its a 60s model. The 6 digit number on the back of the head is 856578. Any ideas? Its not in the best looking shape as the coating is cracked but it plays amazing. 

[JimR56]

In order to determine the value, you have to begin by identifying the guitar.  Yours appears to be an LG-O model.  It happens to be a "low end" model among Gibson's flat-top line, but still a good instrument.  The condition looks very nice based on your photos (the finish crackling is called "checking", and is completely normal on vintage guitars).  Your serial number was used in both 1966 and 1969.  Someone here with more experience with flat-top acoustics may be able to tell you which year is more likely, but I doubt that determining which of those two years it was manufactured will make much if any difference when it comes to its value.

Now, for value, you should do the rest of the research yourself.  Just go to any auction site (ebay, or for more specific guitar searching, Reverb.com and/or Gbase.com) and search for a 1960's LG-O in nice condition.  You can also seek out the websites of vintage guitar dealers (there are dozens of them, just do some searches online) and look for examples of LG-O's like yours, and see how they're priced.

Congratulations on inheriting a cool old guitar!  Good luck.

Edited July 30, 2020 by JimR56

[cunningham26]

Seems like this poster never came back, but Jim you're right on the money- I'd say 1966 or early 69 before the norlin takeover- more than likely '66. eyeballing the second photo it looks like the narrow nut synonymous with the late 60s. I had the epiphone caballero version, nice little guitars.

They've gone up in value in the last few years as they've been identified as a budget way to get a gibson. factory plastic bridge still on there, only thing swapped out appears to be the tuners, i'd put this one between 600-800 pricetag, would sell for 500-700  as it looks like it's been taken care of even for being a low-end model