My Grandpa's Guitar

[GibbyIV]

So, my grandpa left me a Gibson acoustic guitar when he died, and I really have no clue how to tell exactly how old it is. All I know is that he bought it during the 1970's. Can anybody help me?

[fp]

Yes we can help you but need a little more info, like serial number and pictures !

[BigKahune]

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Post some pictures - pic posting help - http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/11005-sticky-how-to-post-photos/

 

Post an overhead shot of the whole guitar, and shots of the front and back of the headstock area. No angles, straight shots. If you got the time, also an overhead shot of the just the body.

 

Look at back of the headstock for a serial number and anything else stamped or printed on the back of the headstock and tell us the serial number is and what else is written there.

 

If there's a label inside the sound hole describe it and tell us what's written on it.

[GibbyIV]

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Post some pictures - pic posting help - http://forum.gibson.com/index.php?/topic/11005-sticky-how-to-post-photos/

 

Post an overhead shot of the whole guitar, and shots of the front and back of the headstock area. No angles, straight shots. If you got the time, also an overhead shot of the just the body.

 

Look at back of the headstock for a serial number and anything else stamped or printed on the back of the headstock and tell us the serial number is and what else is written there.

 

If there's a label inside the sound hole describe it and tell us what's written on it.

The serial is 159845. Working on uploading pics.

[GibbyIV]

[Jerry K]

Looks like an LG-0 or LG-1 from the early 60's. Mahogany top. See if you can use a mirror and a light to look at the bracing under the top. Does it look like a ladder or an X?

 

[SG Jones]

It is a 1964 LG-0.

[BigKahune]

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I agree with the LG ID.

 

Looks like it's in decent shape. A cleanup to clear the rust and grime, followed with a polish. A very nice bequest/legacy.

[dirkronk]

My old roommate Jere (c. 1970 and years following) had one of these. He'd been in a rock band that was disbanded when the lead singer got killed, sold his Les Paul to finance a return to UT, but held onto his little all-hog Gibson acoustic. Plain as a paper sack (or so I thought, at the time), very little sustain, neck was too skinny at the nut for my paws even back then and the bass had a dead-thud thing going on, but the frets were fat and friendly, the neck was fast and, capoed up a fret or so, it was a great little round-the-house noodling guitar. Solid sounding and stood up to strumming beautifully. Jere claimed it was considered a great studio recording guitar at the time, partly because it had good overall balance in front of mikes, without the over-resonance in the bass that some gits (e.g., jumbos, Guild or Martin dreads) could generate. Clean that puppy up, restring and enjoy. You've got a sweet little piece of history...and a great voice of your grandpa any time you strum it.

 

Cheers,

 

Dirk

[Telechamp]

'64 LG-0. I've got one just like it.

 

[BluesKing777]

Yes, I have the '58 Gibson LG-0.

 

I love it for bottleneck. Sort of a ladder-braced Robert Johnsonish sound with an extra astringent nails-down-the-blackboard surprise when required. Fingerpicks will drive that thick mahogany top.

 

I believe the earlier ones like mine were better made before the '60s thing confused poor ole Gibson management and they built some later ones out of spare parts!

 

Keep it and play the cover off of it.

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

[GibbyIV]

Thanks for the help. In three years it will be an official antique... Wow.

[jdd707]

Have you noticed how many times in this forum that grandparents (or at least older realtives) give old Gibbies to young folks who then ask the help of experts in this space? Amazingly they are often nice examples from the 60s. What do you think, the folk scare when everyone wanted to be Bob Dylan or the Kingston Trio but after a while gave it up and got a job ... then stored the hardly used Gibson under the bed until the next century .... accounting for the good condition. I'm an old man and that was my introduction to music. I wish I still had my old Goya steel string ... alas stolen in my wild and wicked youth.

 

 

Gibby IV do you play? If not, consider learning to honor your Grandfather. If you are unable to do so, please store and care for it correctly so you can pass it to your child or grandchild.

[BigKahune]

.... What do you think, the folk scare when everyone wanted to be Bob Dylan or the Kingston Trio but after a while gave it up and got a job ....

 

Actually there were a lot of bands using acoustic guitars in the 60s, not just the folkies. Here's some names - Beatles, Stones, CSN. . B)

[BluesKing777]

Have you noticed how many times in this forum that grandparents (or at least older realtives) give old Gibbies to young folks who then ask the help of experts in this space? Amazingly they are often nice examples from the 60s. What do you think, the folk scare when everyone wanted to be Bob Dylan or the Kingston Trio but after a while gave it up and got a job ... then stored the hardly used Gibson under the bed until the next century .... accounting for the good condition. I'm an old man and that was my introduction to music. I wish I still had my old Goya steel string ... alas stolen in my wild and wicked youth.

 

 

Gibby IV do you play? If not, consider learning to honor your Grandfather. If you are unable to do so, please store and care for it correctly so you can pass it to your child or grandchild.

 

 

No grandparents left any Gibsons for me unfortunately.

 

The folky scare up until the early Beatles made owning an acoustic guitar de rigueur, along with the turtleneck sweater.

 

Gibson went into a meltdown trying to supply this demand and has only just recovered!

 

Bob and friends made the acoustic guitar look graceful and very easy to play. Unfortunately Bob is an absolutely amazing acoustic guitarist that picked an easy appearing style, but he had worked very, very hard on his guitar playing. After all the posers realised that standing around looking good with a guitar and not actually being able to play 'Blowin' all the Winds Down' or such tunes, didn't cut it, they tried to sell them and perhaps found that a glut made a lot of the cheaper guitars pretty worthless. Under the bed the guitar goes, or the hot closet, or cold basement!

 

Later in the century appears the new and rabid species sometimes known as "OldeGuitaurusColectibillious"

 

BluesKing777.

[DanvillRob]

 

Bob and friends made the acoustic guitar look graceful and very easy to play. Unfortunately Bob is an absolutely amazing acoustic guitarist that picked an easy appearing style, but he had worked very, very hard on his guitar playing. After all the posers realised that standing around looking good with a guitar and not actually being able to play 'Blowin' all the Winds Down' or such tunes, didn't cut it, they tried to sell them and perhaps found that a glut made a lot of the cheaper guitars pretty worthless. Under the bed the guitar goes, or the hot closet, or cold basement!

 

BluesKing777.

 

 

Thank you for your kind words about my playing....wha? .... not 'Me Bob"? Bob Dylan? Oh...nevermind!

 

I was introduced to guitars by my father and uncles. My dad had an old Gibson, but my nephew snagged it. Even though I bought it for him... my nephew ended up with it!

 

I know my uncle had an old F-Hole Gibson, but my cousin,m (his son) has it, and I haven't seen it since I was a kid....don't know what model, or in what condition...but I remember at the time it was like the holy grail among my relatives.

[GibbyIV]

Have you noticed how many times in this forum that grandparents (or at least older realtives) give old Gibbies to young folks who then ask the help of experts in this space? Amazingly they are often nice examples from the 60s. What do you think, the folk scare when everyone wanted to be Bob Dylan or the Kingston Trio but after a while gave it up and got a job ... then stored the hardly used Gibson under the bed until the next century .... accounting for the good condition. I'm an old man and that was my introduction to music. I wish I still had my old Goya steel string ... alas stolen in my wild and wicked youth.

 

 

Gibby IV do you play? If not, consider learning to honor your Grandfather. If you are unable to do so, please store and care for it correctly so you can pass it to your child or grandchild.

Yes. I'm more of a violin player, but I'm getting the hang of guitar. And this instrument will be well taken care of. I come from a very musical family.

[grampa]

Have you noticed how many times in this forum that grandparents (or at least older realtives) give old Gibbies to young folks who then ask the help of experts in this space? Amazingly they are often nice examples from the 60s. What do you think, the folk scare when everyone wanted to be Bob Dylan or the Kingston Trio but after a while gave it up and got a job ... then stored the hardly used Gibson under the bed until the next century .... accounting for the good condition. I'm an old man and that was my introduction to music. I wish I still had my old Goya steel string ... alas stolen in my wild and wicked youth.

 

 

Gibby IV do you play? If not, consider learning to honor your Grandfather. If you are unable to do so, please store and care for it correctly so you can pass it to your child or grandchild.

 

I'm one of those grampas who took up the guitar in the "Great Folk Scare" of the late 50's and 60's but I didn't give it up and store it away. I never stopped playing. I don't have my first Gibson, a C-0 classical and I sold it to get my second one, my current F-25, and I ain't ever going to stop playing it.

[struma6]

My Grandpa left me an old Evinrude outboard motor.

 

 

Somebody shoulda talked to him. <_<

[DanvillRob]

Yes. I'm more of a violin player, but I'm getting the hang of guitar. And this instrument will be well taken care of. I come from a very musical family.

 

 

I've been messin' with the violin lately...... it's so COMPLETELY different from guitar, (left hand isn't too bad.... just a tiny guitar neck without frets), but the right hand is wicked weird!

 

Also, I'm doin' something wrong... I can't put any vibrato on a note 'cause I'm primarily using the left hand to hold the stupid fiddle up!

[dirkronk]

My grandpa left me his violin. I've never tried to play it. Never got to hear him play it, either...he was a research chemist and wound up burning the tips of his fingers on hot beakers and such in midlife, so they were left too sensitive (or damaged) to play the instrument. At least that's what he told me. Apparently, he was all about the fiddle as a youngster, though. Once told me about making his own homemade fiddle out of a wooden cigar box before he finally saved up enough for a real violin. Of course, this would have been in the "aughts" or teens, possibly into the twenties, of the last century.

 

Dirk

[jdd707]

I'm one of those grampas who took up the guitar in the "Great Folk Scare" of the late 50's and 60's but I didn't give it up and store it away. I never stopped playing. I don't have my first Gibson, a C-0 classical and I sold it to get my second one, my current F-25, and I ain't ever going to stop playing it.

 

 

Yeah, me too Grampa. Started in '61. I still play "Don't Think Twice" and many of the other Dylan and P/P/M songs. Started with a Silverstone F hole and with the $110 dollars saved from my first summer job, bought a Goya steel string with a cardboard case. When it was stolen in '76 I bought my first Gibson, a '75 J45 Deluxe second, which most of you know is not a very good (sounding) guitar but, oddly, it's playablity is excellent. Now 7 Gibsons later and some number of roots music songs later, I find myself talking to y'all here. Wished I played better but still lovin' it. Life is indeed good!

[j45nick]

Now 7 Gibsons later and some number of roots music songs later, I find myself talking to y'all here. Wished I played better but still lovin' it. Life is indeed good!

 

It's not about how well you play: it's about keeping on playing, no matter what.

 

My first guitar was a $5 Mexican box, converted to steel strings. Had to borrow $50 from my sister to buy my '48 J-45 in 1966. Still play that baby every day, God willing.

[DanvillRob]

It's not about how well you play: it's about keeping on playing, no matter what.

 

My first guitar was a $5 Mexican box, converted to steel strings. Had to borrow $50 from my sister to buy my '48 J-45 in 1966. Still play that baby every day, God willing.

 

I thought I had the cheapest 1st guitar.... bought one in Alberta, must have been 1962 or 1963.... I paid the store $20 US and he gave me back a buck!

[j45nick]

I thought I had the cheapest 1st guitar.... bought one in Alberta, must have been 1962 or 1963.... I paid the store $20 US and he gave me back a buck!

 

I bet yours was better than mine. I bought my $5 Mexican (no, not a Fender) very, very used. Paid $5 to a friend, and it was probably worth about $1. On the other hand, the $50 J-45 (plus $10 for the Gibson chipboard case) is now priceless, as it contains more memories than a roomful of elephants,