J-1854Me Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 I joined the 'almost-Banner' club a short while ago, picked up a '46 LG-2. (It doesn't really matter to me whether it's a banner, almost-a-Banner, or a 'block logo' guitar really, but it's cool for what it is.) This is it: And the script logo-only headstock: Not knowing as much about sort of pre-block logo guitars as some on this forum do, I felt a bit uneasy splashing into these unfamiliar waters, so felt like I was taking a bit of a chance: "Is this original?" "Does this look about right?" -- and so on. It was gunked up pretty badly, so a couple of days and a bottle of Virtuoso cleaner and another bottle of polish and lots of elbow grease later, I managed to get it cleaned up a lot. In the end, I took it with me on a recent trip and showed it to Mark Stutman at Folkway Music, being as he is one of the experts in old Gibsons. So I packed it up in a Calton case and dragged it over to Mark's, where he pronounced it all-good, except for a few braces that need attention, the replacement tuners, and bridge pins that were well beyond their lifespan. So I bought some Willi Henkes' replacement bridge pins for it. Bridge and finish and pickguard all original, and look like they've not been messed with. The tuners work quite nice, although they are clearly the wrong ones. It sounds quite good, and --fortunately for me -- has a comfortably if slightly large neck profile. Once things settle down a bit, the braces will be attended to, and I;m not sure about the tuners just yet -- these ones work perfectly fine, nice and smooth and tight, so I may just leave them on there for now. Maybe get some three-on-a-strip replacements and age the buttons. I was struck by how much these two sunbursts look similar, so I took a photo at Folkways of their '56 J-185 next to this '46 LG-2, for fun: So I am still in the 'getting to know you better' stage with this guitar; it is a fun little thing to just pick up and play at the house. Fred
EuroAussie Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Wow, now that is one guitar with serious mojo, great looking Gibson. Im sure she would sound great after all these years. Enjoy !
retrorod Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Sweet little LG2 ! She cleaned up nice! How is the tone and playability? Great, I bet....Luv it! Congrats!
ryanfender Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Awesome!!!!!!!! As an LG owner, welcome to the club. I love my "lower class" LG-1. Let say, a 50s J-185 is my dream guitar. I would actually pay just to play one for a little while. The saddle on your LG looks pretty low. Is a neck reset in your future?
BluesKing777 Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Yes, awesome, congrats. Looks like the burst has faded like the J160e in the Geo Harrison thread. BluesKing777.
BigKahune Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 . Nice lookin' LG. Interesting burst colors in the natural light. Congrats on yer new beauty. . B) .
j45nick Posted October 26, 2011 Posted October 26, 2011 Nice guitar. Very interesting fade on the 'burst. I'm convinced that a certain amount of this fading must come from UV exposure. The amber portion of the 'burst seems unusually large for the year, but it may be the the fade between light and dark has simply....faded.
J-1854Me Posted October 27, 2011 Author Posted October 27, 2011 Awesome!!!!!!!! As an LG owner, welcome to the club. I love my "lower class" LG-1. Let say, a 50s J-185 is my dream guitar. I would actually pay just to play one for a little while. The saddle on your LG looks pretty low. Is a neck reset in your future? The saddle is quite low, but the angle seems fine for now, and playability is good. So I'm leaving it for now. We'll see if in the future the geometry moves sufficiently to warrant a neck set... Fred
J-1854Me Posted October 27, 2011 Author Posted October 27, 2011 Nice guitar. Very interesting fade on the 'burst. I'm convinced that a certain amount of this fading must come from UV exposure. The amber portion of the 'burst seems unusually large for the year, but it may be the the fade between light and dark has simply....faded. Y'know, as I researched these things further, around the time of purchasing it, I found that there were quite a lot of Gibson 'bursts from that era (46-47) that had that reddish colouration to them. Some of them appear to have faded while others have been more "fast". I think I saw a thread somewhere on the possible "alchemies" and applications of the finishes, and I don't think there was any general consensus other than "they seem to be different". IIRC, Folkways actually had a '46 LG-2 in stock within the last half year or so that had a very similar appearance. Nothin' but fun! Fred
JuanCarlosVejar Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 I'm considering stealin' that lovely guitar :D
zombywoof Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 You done good Hoss. But I have a '46-'47 script logo LG-2 so am a bit biased That is a great burst - it has more red in it than mine and actually looks like it was applied with a bit more care. On mine it looks like the took the spray gun and just shot the black on the edges in one straight pass - not the best blending job I have ever seen. Again, play the heck out of it.
jt Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 A beautiful thing, Fred. I think that those 1940s LGs are fantastic and undervalued guitars. Congratulations.
zombywoof Posted October 27, 2011 Posted October 27, 2011 Does yours have an FON? Only asking because it seems a great number of the script logo LG-2s Ihave run across do not have one.
J-1854Me Posted October 27, 2011 Author Posted October 27, 2011 Does yours have an FON? Only asking because it seems a great number of the script logo LG-2s Ihave run across do not have one. Nope, no FON. That seems to be par for the course for that era, as I understand it. But it does have a stamp, on the inside of the back just above the centre back brace, proclaiming that it came from a music store in Youngstown Ohio. Fred
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