Brazilian Rosewood Gibson question ledgers?

[slimt]

Which Gibson Acoustics from the 1920s to the early 1960s had Brazilian Rosewood back and sides.  ?  Excluding fingerboards and bridges . 
 

also. Anyone have a 1932 to 1935 Gibson ledgers and catalog? For production numbers and body specs ? 
 

thank you. 

Edited Thursday at 05:05 AM by slimt

[zombywoof]

As to what Gibsons were built with Amazon rosewood and which were built using EIR or other species seems to be a subject of debate.  Part of the problem is apparently that the "experts" giving opinions may know vintage guitars but do not necessarily have an eye which can distinguish between the woods.  Anyway, it has been discussed by the Gibson gurus at UMGF so you might do a search there.  

As far as I know the Gibson ledgers, spec sheets and such have never been published. Although I do not recall exactly all of the information in it, Spann's Guide remains the best source at least for the pre-WWII Gibsons.  And J.T.'s "Kalamazoo Gals" is, of course, the place to go when it comes to Banners.  Both did have access to the Gibson Archives so contain a warehouse full of knowledge.  

Gibson Catalogs though are available.  Here Ya go.

Catalogs - Acoustic Music

Edited Thursday at 12:05 PM by zombywoof

[slimt]

47 minutes ago, zombywoof said:

As to what Gibsons were built with Amazon rosewood and which were built using EIR or other species seems to be a subject of debate.  Part of the problem is apparently that the "experts" giving opinions may know vintage guitars but do not necessarily have an eye which can distinguish between the woods.  Anyway, it has been discussed by the Gibson gurus at UMGF so you might do a search there.  

As far as I know the Gibson ledgers, spec sheets and such have never been published. Although I do not recall exactly all of the information in it, Spann's Guide remains the best source at least for the pre-WWII Gibsons.  And J.T.'s "Kalamazoo Gals" is, of course, the place to go when it comes to Banners.  Both did have access to the Gibson Archives so contain a warehouse full of knowledge.  

Gibson Catalogs though are available.  Here Ya go.

Catalogs - Acoustic Music

Thank you.
Ya maybe wood thing should be left alone. . 

the caralogs are pretty neat.     Im just to get more understanding of that era. 
 

thank you

[Larsongs]

Other than taking a piece of wood to a Science Laboratory isn’t there some sort of test to determine what type of wood it is? 

[Dave F]

Visibly the EIR will be riddled with spores where the BRW will be significantly less. If you can get some shavings, you can do the fluorescent and buoyancy test. You could lightly sand on the inside of the guitar. The BRW has a very distinct aroma.  They do have a visible color difference but that can be misleading.  I educated myself a few years ago by getting samples of each and a 10x magnifier when I started shopping around for an older Martin BRW.

Distinguishing Brazilian From East Indian Rosewood – The Luthier Bench

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Dave F

[zombywoof]

On 9/19/2024 at 8:40 AM, slimt said:

Thank you.
Ya maybe wood thing should be left alone. . 

the caralogs are pretty neat.     Im just to get more understanding of that era. 
 

thank you

What is really cool is that the catalogs show that Gibson at one time offered pretty much every guitar in both tenor and plectrum versions the difference being the tuning. 

[slimt]

31 minutes ago, zombywoof said:

What is really cool is that the catalogs show that Gibson at one time offered pretty much every guitar in both tenor and plectrum versions the difference being the tuning. 

I do like those.  I agree.     I have a L2 from 1932.    Trying to find more info on it.    They had a few options on these over the couple of years.   Also trying to find exactly how many were made from 32 to 35