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LG 1 LG 2 LG 3 questions


DCBirdMan

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I heard good things about these but don't know much about them. Was the LG 3 top of the line in sound/construction, or just different fancier appearance type of thing.

I kind of like the small bodied Gibson like B 25, which I read was the sucessor to LG, and also read LG got really cheapened later on.

 

What era is best for these?

 

Also I realize a smaller body just won't get you a J-45 thump, but does one model sound fuller than another?

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The least involved answer...the LG1 is a ladderbraced version, which tend to have little bass depth, as true with the ladderbrace design in general. Not known for thumping volume anyway, LG2 & 3 are different cosmetically, but Xbraced, as well as up to 3X more costly in the vintage market. If you played them side by side with LG1 or LG0 you'd know why. They got adjustable bridge downgrades when they morphed into the B25 and faded off into the sunset. Pre-adj bridge LG2's and 3's are prized and if you can get your hands on a rectangular bridge LG2 (early 50's and back), you'll be at the top of the heap for small bod Gibson acoustics. You'll also be lighter in the wallet by at least $2500. The site below is one of the go-to descriptives for us geeks.

 

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/gibson.html

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  • 4 months later...

You want LG-2 or LG-3

 

Small rectangle bridge

 

Small pickguard

 

The LG-3 "should" have more premium wood since it was natural and more expensive. They are also a lot more rare than LG-2. But there's plenty of LG-2's out there, wait for the right one to come along.

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Lg-2s or 3's from the mid to late 1940's can be great guitars. Like you, I started out with a mid-1960's B-25 and enjoyed its tone and playability. I then found a 1949 lg-2 that was in a whole other category, sound-wise. I sold a modern era J-45 that did not have the volume of the lg-2! Since then I have owned some WWII era Banner lg-2s which were great too, but I still prefer my later 40s model. Their prices have been climbing lately, for good reason. Good luck in your quest!

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I heard good things about these but don't know much about them. Was the LG 3 top of the line in sound/construction, or just different fancier appearance type of thing.

I kind of like the small bodied Gibson like B 25, which I read was the sucessor to LG, and also read LG got really cheapened later on.

 

What era is best for these?

 

Also I realize a smaller body just won't get you a J-45 thump, but does one model sound fuller than another?

 

Here is my '46 LG-2 a lovely little guitar. Well-balanced and quality acoustic sound.

 

gibsonlg21.jpggibsonlg246.jpg

 

gibsonlg2head.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, I'll take a slightly different tack here. Love LG-2's, I have a '46, and with it's X bracing, a very versatile guitar. That said, I've played a few early 1950's LG-1's that were nothing to sneeze at. Very fundamental tone, but great projection, lots of fun for fingerstyle blues if you like that (I do). Not great strummers's, but I wouldn't overlook a good LG-1.

 

By the way, the LG-3 is the same as an LG-2 except that it has a natural finish as opposed to a sunburst. They tend to be a bit less expensive than the LG-2.

 

Jmo.

 

Dennis

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While blanket statem,ents can be dangerous, I would generally recommend sticking with LG's built before 1955 mainly because at mid-decade they got thicker braces and a thicker bridge. With those small body guitars the lighter the build the better.

 

The F-25 has a different feel and sound than the LGs. The popped up in the early 1960s. These were an interesting take on the the classical guitar and could be strung with either steel or nylon strings. Towards the end of the decade Gibson totally re-designed the guitar to the point you would not recognize it as an F-25.

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  • 1 month later...

Hey, this looks like the right blog for old LG's. This one's kind of interesting. I just got it off of eBay. It came from the Florida panhandle. Somewhere out in the swamp. It had three rattlesnake rattles tied with yarn stuck down at the end-block. Hmmmm --- Gator got yer Granny?

 

Anyway, it's X braced and has a dark butterscotch natural finish. Spruce top and mahogany sides and back (solid). There are nineteen frets and fourteen to the body. I was thinking it was a LG-3 but it is only single bound on top and back. There is not even one mark left on the inside neck-block. The pick-guard is gone. The wedge shape of the headstock (side view) lets me know it is before 1952 since that is when the LG's went to single thickness headstock. The guitar has been around. The bridge is a replacement and the sound-hole is 4 3/8" instead of 4" so there is some wood removed.

 

I can't ID the thing. If the headstock still had the wartime banner I would be guessing it is a '42 LG-1 X-brace. Any ideas?

 

post-52185-005967000 1357144249_thumb.jpg

 

post-52185-043985400 1357144260_thumb.jpg

 

post-52185-021353900 1357144376_thumb.jpg

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Photo of headstock? Looks like a couple of crude back repairs. The wood inside the rosette ring has all been removed, maybe to even up the look after part of the wood was worn away. Along that line, I'll go out on a limb and suggest that it is a stripped and re-finished (at least the top) LG-2. It almost looks like a little residual dye, remnants of that dark dye of the 'burst, around the top edge of the lower bout.

 

I remember seeing that one listed on ebay some time ago.

 

Edit: Looking more closely at at picture of the back, it looks to me like the back has been re-finished as well, since the grain of the back is not filled. Generally, I believe Gibson used a paste filler/stain on backs and sides to even out color and fill the grain, so that the thin nitro finish will be smooth. Otherwise, it takes a massive number of coats of nitro to completely fill the grain.

 

Amateur re-finishers often sand or chemically strip the finish, and put a clear coat back on with no filler. You can get away with this on spruce, but not on mahogany, unless you are building up coat after coat and sanding between coats.

 

The back of the neck shows evidence to me of over-spray or over-coat, but not stripping. You can see areas where it looks like there were original finish chips that have been finished over. You see this a lot.

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Hey, this looks like the right blog for old LG's. This one's kind of interesting. I just got it off of eBay. It came from the Florida panhandle. Somewhere out in the swamp. It had three rattlesnake rattles tied with yarn stuck down at the end-block. Hmmmm --- Gator got yer Granny?

 

Anyway, it's X braced and has a dark butterscotch natural finish. Spruce top and mahogany sides and back (solid). There are nineteen frets and fourteen to the body. I was thinking it was a LG-3 but it is only single bound on top and back. There is not even one mark left on the inside neck-block. The pick-guard is gone. The wedge shape of the headstock (side view) lets me know it is before 1952 since that is when the LG's went to single thickness headstock. The guitar has been around. The bridge is a replacement and the sound-hole is 4 3/8" instead of 4" so there is some wood removed.

 

I can't ID the thing. If the headstock still had the wartime banner I would be guessing it is a '42 LG-1 X-brace. Any ideas?

 

post-52185-005967000 1357144249_thumb.jpg

 

post-52185-043985400 1357144260_thumb.jpg

 

post-52185-021353900 1357144376_thumb.jpg

 

Damn near put my eye out with those pictures [scared] ....JeeeeshB)

 

My guess is.....It,s the lesser of the "three evils"[sleep]

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My bet is that it's a refinished, circa 1944, mahogany topped LG-2.

 

It's not a Banner LG-1. A wartime LG-1 is a very rare guitar and would have had multiple purflings front and back and a more intricate rosette. Here's mine:

 

1943LG-17706H-25small.jpg

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Photo of headstock? Looks like a couple of crude back repairs. The wood inside the rosette ring has all been removed, maybe to even up the look after part of the wood was worn away. Along that line, I'll go out on a limb and suggest that it is a stripped and re-finished (at least the top) LG-2. It almost looks like a little residual dye, remnants of that dark dye of the 'burst, around the top edge of the lower bout.

 

I remember seeing that one listed on ebay some time ago.

 

Edit: Looking more closely at at picture of the back, it looks to me like the back has been re-finished as well, since the grain of the back is not filled. Generally, I believe Gibson used a paste filler/stain on backs and sides to even out color and fill the grain, so that the thin nitro finish will be smooth. Otherwise, it takes a massive number of coats of nitro to completely fill the grain.

 

Amateur re-finishers often sand or chemically strip the finish, and put a clear coat back on with no filler. You can get away with this on spruce, but not on mahogany, unless you are building up coat after coat and sanding between coats.

 

The back of the neck shows evidence to me of over-spray or over-coat, but not stripping. You can see areas where it looks like there were original finish chips that have been finished over. You see this a lot.

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Yes, correct on the removal of sound hole wood. Typical sound hole is 4 and this is 4 3/8, so yeah someone "cleaned it up" with their pen knife.

Thanks for the thoughtful words on finish. This is an area I have not been into. It has french polish or oil soap residue on it. Smells like old fashioned crude oil furniture polish.

 

I'll add a few more pictures for the trained eye. Yes, this is the LG from the yard sale in Florida.

 

The bracing is real bad. I took it over to a reputable luthier to see what it would take to make it safe to play it again. About eight individual items and a couple hundred bucks. Fortunately the sound block is all there and the neck is rail straight. Both neck and tail blocks are 100% so there are a couple good points to build around.

 

The weird looking back brace is a part of a door shim. Talk about rustic.

 

See if my image host comes through into Gibson.com, here's a couple more:

 

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/4/5/9/6/0/5/webimg/636148902_o.jpg

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/4/5/9/6/0/5/webimg/636148641_o.jpg

 

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Hey, this looks like the right blog for old LG's. This one's kind of interesting. I just got it off of eBay. It came from the Florida panhandle. Somewhere out in the swamp. It had three rattlesnake rattles tied with yarn stuck down at the end-block. Hmmmm --- Gator got yer Granny?

 

Anyway, it's X braced and has a dark butterscotch natural finish. Spruce top and mahogany sides and back (solid). There are nineteen frets and fourteen to the body. I was thinking it was a LG-3 but it is only single bound on top and back. There is not even one mark left on the inside neck-block. The pick-guard is gone. The wedge shape of the headstock (side view) lets me know it is before 1952 since that is when the LG's went to single thickness headstock. The guitar has been around. The bridge is a replacement and the sound-hole is 4 3/8" instead of 4" so there is some wood removed.

 

I can't ID the thing. If the headstock still had the wartime banner I would be guessing it is a '42 LG-1 X-brace. Any ideas?

 

post-52185-005967000 1357144249_thumb.jpg

 

post-52185-043985400 1357144260_thumb.jpg

 

post-52185-021353900 1357144376_thumb.jpg

 

Yo Mikey.....

Make sure there ain't no Brown Recluse in there before you stick yer hand down in there when repairing those braces.......[scared]

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Yes Retroroddie people are twitchy about spiders and snakes. They can cost guitar renovators big $ That spider bit me for five to repair it. :unsure:

 

The LG-1 you put in there JT, is very, very, outstanding. That was the picture I was looking for when doing all the web searching. That is such a rare example and Gruhn missed that batch.

 

Say, does the tail pin look anything like the mushroom tail pin with white mop dot in the middle like this one?

 

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/4/5/9/6/0/5/webimg/636148732_o.jpg

 

That would narrow my Gator country down to the 40's anyway.

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The top is Spruce, you can see the straight vertical grain lines. It is stained like hog so that is why JT might have thought Mahogany. If you click on the picture and see a large version it looks like Spruce. Since I can't see a ghost outline of a previous burst then I would think LG-3 although that is not a good way to judge. Since the dots on the fingerboard look like acrylic and not pearl I am going to guess this was made between '46 and '51. This is just my amateur detective work so feel free to disagree or discuss.

 

As for the rattlesnake rattles, don't remove them! That is an old trick the bluegrass/old time/blues guys would do. Some said it warded off the devil or evil spirits, some say it made the instrument more "masculine." I love picking up an old flat top with a rattle in there. If I could get them I would put a rattle in all my flat-tops. Unfortunately I don't come across too many dead rattlers and I am certainly not going to tangle with a live one!

 

Very cool guitar!

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The top is Spruce, you can see the straight vertical grain lines. It is stained like hog so that is why JT might have thought Mahogany.

 

This is why my kids always advise their friends to bet against whatever my dad says! Thanks for the correction.

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Yes Retroroddie people are twitchy about spiders and snakes. They can cost guitar renovators big $ That spider bit me for five to repair it. :unsure:

 

The LG-1 you put in there JT, is very, very, outstanding. That was the picture I was looking for when doing all the web searching. That is such a rare example and Gruhn missed that batch.

 

Say, does the tail pin look anything like the mushroom tail pin with white mop dot in the middle like this one?

 

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/4/5/9/6/0/5/webimg/636148732_o.jpg

 

That would narrow my Gator country down to the 40's anyway.

 

Thanks! George and I have talked about this and he contributed a back cover testimonial to my book.

 

An original 1940s endpin would not have had a center dot.

 

Here are the best bridge pins and endpins. Absolutely accurate replicas by my friends Willi Henkes and Rudie Blazer.

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This is why my kids always advise their friends to bet against whatever my dad says! Thanks for the correction.

 

I thought it was hog at first too but I enlarged the picture and looked real close. I'm not sure why they stained the top to look like the back? That is a new one for me.

 

 

It may have been a correction but you aren't buying my book on Gibsons...... I'm buying yours!! Hope I can catch you on one of your book tour dates.

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