NGD

[blindboygrunt]

thts a great lookin guitar nick

congrats

and your gardener deserves a pay rise

[Guth]

I had assumed it was a Legend series guitar only because of the pickguard. The "stripes" on the old original firestripe guards are much more muted, whereas on the modern guards the stripes are much more pronounced.

 

Just the same, that is a beautiful L-00.

 

(Yeah, I know, imagine me being the one to make a comment involving pickguards.)

[j45nick]

and your gardener deserves a pay rise

 

 

That would be my wife. She likes to grow things, as you can probably tell. It helps to live in the tropics!

[jdd707]

Well, you can count on zombywoof and now J1854me to have their eyes on straight.

 

 

This is one of the 1937 L-OO Legends, supposedly a direct copy by Ren of Lee Roy Parnell's 1937 L-OO. I suspect that original would have a white logo, however. Other than that, it's an unbelievably good copy: adi top and braces, Honduras back and sides, madagascar (not laminated ) board and bridge, fabric side stays, no finish under the pickguard, all hide glue, repro period tuners (which I could do without). On the inside, at least, it appears to be a perfect repro.

 

Nick.

 

 

What about the neck profile? I understand it is an "exact copy" of the '37. Is it beefy, narrow, thick, thin or .... what?

[j45nick]

 

What about the neck profile? I understand it is an "exact copy" of the '37. Is it beefy, narrow, thick, thin or .... what?

 

 

The neck is a fairly deep, soft V, not unlike the neck on the Martin 000-28 EC (just the EC model, not the regular 000-28). I was a little concerned about buying it for that reason, as I've never really warmed to it on the EC. However, all the 30's L-series that I looked at had a similar neck profile.

 

The board is quite wide --1 3/4" (44.5mm) at the nut, which is the same as the EC. It feels a bit like the deck of an aircraft carrier after my old J-45, which was narrowed at the nut to 1 9/16" (just under 40mm) by Gibson in 1968. This neck has very "soft" sholders, unlike the pronounced C-shape of late 40's and early 50's Gibson necks.

 

After a couple of days of playing, the neck feels quite natural. The apex of the V gives a natural place to brace your thumb. The total circumference of the back of the neck is probably very similar to that of Gibson's rounder necks --I'll measure that at some point--so it doesn't feel radically larger or smaller than 40's-50's necks. Despite the V, it has a "flatter" rather than "fatter" feel. Combined with the wider, flatter frets that I really like (rather than the tall, narrow frets of the EC), this is a very playable neck and board, especially since I play a lot of sliding barre chords up and down the neck.

 

I do feel like I wander around a bit trying to place my fingers, as there is so much room. On my J-45, finger placement must be very precise to keep from deadening strings, particularly in the first position.

 

Another thing that is different from modern Gibsons is the pin spacing. Gibson has used 2 1/8" (54mm) for decades, but this one is 2 3/8" (60mm+) at the bridge. The strings really are far apart up and down the board. This is probably a finger-picker's dream, and that's what I bought it to learn.

 

Even the case is different. This is one of the repro "Redline" cases. The detailing suggests that it is not made by TKL. It even has a loose, removable second neck rest, like you sometimes see on cases built for classical guitars. It's also arch top/arch back, and a very good fit. The case weighs a ton.

[Del Nilppeznaf]

God I love the look of that guitar..... perfectly formed. Small is beautiful