Archtop Guitar
Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. American
Not on view
L-3 model guitar with a light to dark red sunburst finish, serial number 32544. The guitar has a carved, arched top and back, a design patented by Orville Gibson in 1898. Five businessmen bought the name and patent from Orville Gibson in 1902 and started The Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Ltd. The L-3 was a small, parlour type guitar, that Gibson introduced as part of its line of archtop guitars in 1902 and discontinued in 1933. Oval soundhole with three decorative inlaid rings of colored wood. The binding around the top and back of the instrument as well as the fingerboard is ivoroid. Mahogany is used for the neck, and the fingerboard is of ebony and extends over the soundhole. There are twenty nickel-silver frets with mother-of-pearl position dots on the fingerboard and upper edge of the neck. The instrument has a floating bridge and a "trapeze" style tailpiece. Headstock inlaid with mother-of-pearl words "The Gibson." Waverly three-on-a-plate ivoroid machine guitar tuners.
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